The best way to determine how much your horse weighs is to get access to a large, commercial scale. You simply lead your horse onto the scale and get an accurate weight.
Some veterinary practices have these available. Some livestock sale barns or horse show facilities also have scales you can use. You can ask your local feed store if they have a scale and if they allow owners to bring horses in to weight them. Sometimes horse nutrition or feed companies will bring portable scales to those stores and have a special day for owners to bring their horses in for a weight check.
However, there are other ways to determine how much your horse weighs. Be aware that the “I looked at my horse, and I think it weighs…” method is not very reliable. Research has shown that owners over- or under-estimate a horse’s weight by as much as 150 pounds.
Horse Weight Tapes
The easiest way to know what your horse weights is to use a weight tape. These can be purchased, or they are often given away free by feed companies. Weight tapes are best used consistently to see if your horse is gaining or losing weight when using the same tape.
First ensure you have a tape created for your size of horse. Some weight tapes might not fit around drafts or larger equids. Conversely, most weight tapes aren’t as accurate for miniatures as they are for full-sized horses.
- Make sure the horse is standing square (all four legs bearing weight) on a flat surface. Take the tape and put it around the horse’s heart girth. (That is around the horse’s barrel just behind the highest point of the withers and behind the elbow. This is similar to where your girth would go. )
- Pull the tape taught, then read it to get the estimate of your horse’s weight.
Horse Weight Calculation
You also can use a research-proven calculation to get a more accurate weight of your horse.
- Take a tape measure and get the inches around the heart girth in the location noted above for weight tapes.
- Measure your horse from the point of its shoulder to the point of the buttocks.
- Use this calculation: Heart Girth x Heart Girth x Length. Then divide by 330.
So, for a horse that has a heart girth of 76″ and a length of 70″, the calculation would look like this:
76 x 76 x 70 (then divide by 330) = 1,225 pounds estimated weight.
Editor’s note: Our sister brand TheHorse.com offers a free, online weight calculation tool based on the same calculation mentioned above. The tool offers inches and centimeters for measuring and kgs for weight.
Final Words
As mentioned above, the “I think it looks…” method is usually the least accurate way to determine a horse’s weight. Using a weight tape is more accurate, but still can be off by as much as 150 pounds over or under the horse’s actual weight. Using the above horse weight calculation is more accurate, but still is not as accurate as stepping the horse on a scale.
Work with your veterinarian or nutritionist to understand how much your horse should weigh. Then they can help you to use proper nutrition and exercise that is suitable for your animal to attain that weight.
