What’s the saying? You can’t improve what you don’t measure?
It doesn’t quite apply to horses in the same way as it does to nonprofit programs, but still.
Last week, our barn hosted a sort of fun little measurement clinic. The feed rep and the vet were out. Originally there was supposed to be a big flat scale, but it broke right before I got there, sadly.
We still did a couple of other measuring type things! First up: height. Tristan measured exactly 15hh, which is about right. I’ve had him at 15hh 1/2 and usually rounded up to 15.1hh in the way that horse people do. It was fun to get the proper stick out, rather than just do the tape from the ground, which is how I’d always measured him before.
We also measured him front-to-back just for kicks. (Yeah, I probably could have knocked a little more mud off, #sorrynotsorry.)
He measured at 73″, which was as expected. He tends to be either a snug 72 or a roomy 74. Generally I order him a 72 in the Smartpak blankets, since they seem to fit his body type well.
Finally, though I did not get a photo, we weight-taped him at 996 lbs, which the barn manager thought was spot-on and I thought was a touch light. The idea was originally to compare the weight tape to the flat scale for fun. The good news is that next week the vet & feed rep will be back with the scales, so we can check again then!
So there you have it. He really is a little thing. Large for a mustang, but small compared to the big fancy dressage horses that are more typical at my barn.
beljoeor.com 
I think he’s just a hair longer than Shiny, but she’s a lot shorter… Lol! This is fun, I hope you’ll report back with what the scale says. I always wonder how accurate the weight tapes are.
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I found a Purina brand weight tape in the show office while getting ready for a horse trials this year, and threw it around my chest just for fun. It clocked me in at 112 lb which is pretty much spot on. It’s clearly indicates that I am, in actual fact, a horse.
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I don’t think I’ve ever measured a horse with a tape from the ground, I’ve always used a stick. At some point I have to get Dante’s measurement card (which should be easy considering how large he is) and not really that important, but if he ever gets ridden by a junior it will be. Bummer about the flat scalre, that would have been fun to compare against the tape!
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