Hi, I'm Dr. Lydia Gray.
I'm the staff veterinarian here at SmartPak, and today we're going to talk about one of
my favorite topics: body condition scoring.
What it is, why you should be doing it, how to do it, and then some additional measurements
that could also help.
The body condition scoring scale is a numerical based, standardized system of assessing fat
cover in a horse.
It was developed in the 80s by Don Henneke and his team at Texas A&M University.
It ranges from 1-9, with one being emaciated and 9 being very fat or obese, and each number
in the scale roughly corresponds to about 50 pounds.
By developing this universal standard of body condition scoring, horses owners and veterinarians,
nutritonists, and other health care professionals are able to talk apples to apples or at least
be on the same page when it comes to discussing a horse's weight.
Because one person's perception of what a thin or skinny horse is is different than
another person's perception.
It's also helpful when tracking a horse that's in a controlled weight loss program.
If you're trying to get the horse to go from an 8 to a seven and a half to a 7, when you
use those numbers, everyone knows what you are talking about.
Everyone knows that too thin isn't good, but too fat isn't good either.
A study out of Virginia showed that just over half, 51% to be exact, of the horses they
studied came in at sevens, eights, and nines, which is overweight or obese.
And there are some serious health risks associated with being overweight and obese, such as laminitis,
Equine Metabolic Syndrome, bone, joint and tendon injuries, difficulty cooling off after
exercise or during hot weather, and just a general reduction in performance levels.
Next, let's talk about how to body condition score.
There are six areas to be assessed when measuring the fat cover on a horse's body.
The first is along the neck...
then behind the shoulders...
along the withers...
across the ribs...
down the back or the loin...
and then the tail head.
When evaluating each of these six areas, it's important to lay your hands on them and feel
them, as well as to visualize or look at them, because looks can be deceiving.
Henneke's body condition scoring chart has criteria for each of the six locations that
correspond to the nine numbers.
So, you use that to come up with a number for each location, and then you just sort
of average them up to come up with a general impression for that particular horse.
Now, not every horse read the book, so it's ok to not have a nice, neat, whole number
like a four, five, or a six.
Four and a half, five and a half, six and a half is just fine.
Understand that in some disciplines, like racing, and some life stages, like pregnancy,
a lower or higher body condition score is preferred.
And some horses have extremes in conformation, like a sway back or high withers, that make
giving a number to that part of the body very difficult.
It's ok to throw those out and just average up the rest of them.
Now that we've covered body condition scoring, which is a subjective way of assessing your
horse's condition, let's talk about an objective way, and then you can record both of these
in your horse's journal to keep track.
The most common objective measurement is horse's weight.
And to do this, you'll need a commercially available weight tape.
I'd recommend picking one and sticking with it, because it's not the absolute numbers
on here that are meaningful, it's more the trend, because you're doing this about every
month or so.
If you don't have a commercially available weight tape, any flexible measuring tape will
do, you just have to take an additional measurement, and then plug it into a formula.
Or, plug it into our online horse weight calculator, and it will do the math for you.
With both of these measurement tools, now you can track your horse's weight and condition
and work with your veterinarian and nutritionist to maintain his ideal score.