HANDS CONVERSION
By: A. Tadlock
Here is a handy table that will convert your horse's height in hands to show you how many inches, feet, or meters tall your horse is.
Traditionally, a horse's height is calculated in hands, one hand being equal to four inches. The measurment is taken from the ground level to the highest point on the horse's withers.
The red line is where the measurement would be taken, about in the middle of the withers, at their highest point.
Since a hand is equal to four inches, you can calculate your horse's height in inches by this formula:
4 x WH + FH = Inches high
Where WH stands for the horse's whole hands, and FH stands for any fraction of the horse's height left over.
For example, a 15.2HH horse's height could be calculated as follows :
4 X WH + FH = Inches high =
4 X 15 + 2 = 62 Inches high
Below is a table that converts the average height of horses to inches, feet, and meters.
| HANDS |
INCHES |
FEET |
METERS |
| 12.0 |
48 |
4ft |
1.2192 |
| 12.1 |
49 |
4ft 1 |
1.2446 |
| 12.2 |
50 |
4ft 2 |
1.27 |
| 12.3 |
51 |
4ft 3 |
1.2954 |
| 13.0 |
52 |
4ft 4 |
1.3208 |
| 13.1 |
53 |
4ft 5 |
1.3462 |
| 13.2 |
54 |
4ft 6 |
1.397 |
| 13.3 |
55 |
4ft 7 |
1.397 |
| 14.0 |
56 |
4ft 8 |
1.4224 |
| 14.1 |
57 |
4ft 9 |
1.4478 |
| 14.2 |
58 |
4ft 10 |
1.4732 |
| 14.3 |
59 |
4ft 11 |
1.4986 |
| 15.0 |
60 |
5ft |
1.524 |
| 15.1 |
61 |
5ft 1 |
1.5494 |
| 15.2 |
62 |
5ft 2 |
1.5748 |
| 15.3 |
63 |
5ft 3 |
1.6002 |
| 16.0 |
64 |
5ft 4 |
1.6256 |
| 16.1 |
65 |
5ft 5 |
1.651 |
| 16.2 |
66 |
5ft 6 |
1.6764 |
| 16.3 |
67 |
5ft 7 |
1.7018 |
| 17.0 |
68 |
5ft 8 |
1.7272 |
| 17.1 |
69 |
5ft 9 |
1.7526 |
| 17.2 |
70 |
5ft 10 |
1.778 |
| 17.3 |
71 |
5ft 11 |
1.803 |
| 18.0 |
72 |
6ft |
1.8288 |
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Winterize Your Horse
© Carla Huston BES
As the cold months of winter close around us concern for our horse's health and condition becomes more pressing. Aspects of management that are most important are temperature maintenance, nutrition and hoof care. By monitoring these, keeping your horse in top health can be easy and fairly trouble-free.
First let us look at keeping your horse's body temperature maintained at the proper level. Evaluate his living qualities; is he strictly pasture-bound, or does he split his time between a box stall and turnout. For horses that spend much time outdoors a wind block or shelter is necessary, whether it is natural or manmade. If your horse is both an indoor and outdoor kind be sure to watch your barn temperature and your animal's hair growth. During the mild early months of winter allow your horse to develop his thick coat and acclimatize to the dropping temps. Avoid blanketing during this time; you really are not helping your horse by preventing him from experiencing the changing weather conditions. As the season progresses, again watch how you use blankets. If your horse has been properly acclimated, they will be unnecessary; your horse should stay comfortable as the temperature falls provided he has an area in which to escape the wind and wet. The danger with blanketing outdoor-bound horses is they tend to slip causing rubbing and sores, and may become damp themselves, serving to chill the horse, not warm him. When you do blanket be sure someone is available to monitor the horse - adjusting if necessary, and removing if they become damp or the temperature rises.
Next check your feeding system and ration. This will depend a great deal on the amount of work your horse gets and his stage of maturity. Let us assume that the animal is mature and under light work. This type needs about 1 percent of his body weight per day in good quality roughage. A well-cured grass hay will be sufficient. You may add a grain concentrate to this if your horse requires one. If your horse starts losing condition increase the energy content of his ration - not the protein. Energy is calories, and that is where the horse will draw the fuel to maintain body heat. A horse will drink six to ten gallons of water per day; it is crucial that he has a fresh and clean source at all times. Through the colder months this will mean chipping the ice out at each feeding, a tedious but essential task. Salt and trace mineral blocks are necessary year round, so make certain your's is accessible, out of the snow and slop.
Finally, don't forget your hoof care. Growth of the hoof wall is determined by nutrition, and during the cold months this goes toward maintaining body condition, not excessive hoof growth. Consequently, many owners believe they can forget the farrier until spring arrives. This is not in the best interests of your horse. The hoof will probably grow at least a small amount and need balancing to keep its proper shape and avoid any unnatural wear. Even more importantly, the farrier will check the sole for bruising that may occur on the hard ground and ice. Many of the abscesses that develop in early spring can be attributed to undiagnosed bruises that started in winter. It is well-worth the cost of his visit to keep those four feet in superior condition. If you do heavy winter riding and like to keep your horse shod consider having your farrier apply a snowball pad. This is a plastic pad with a ball in the center that prevents snow and ice from building around the shoe. Regardless if your horse is shod or not, clean his feet daily. When snow lumps develop, walking on them could cause some tendon and joint strain. If your horse is shod during the riding season and you like to keep the shoes on during winter too, consider pulling them for four to eight weeks. This allows the heels to rest (constant shoe wear contributes to contracted heels) and the hoof wall to thicken slightly.
Winter does not have to be a time of little riding and much work. Instead allow nature to progress and continue a top management program. Then saddle up and have a good ride.
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Horses have particularly big, strong teeth, much more so in proportion to their size than in humans. This is due to their diets, which cause them to need efficient mastication (chewing) to break the foods up so the digestive juices can process the nutrients and they can be absorbed by the horse. Domesticated horses need regular dental care to maintain proper chewing and comfort in their mouth. Their upper jaw is larger than the lower which makes the teeth wear on a slant.
From constant grinding of foods can cause the back teeth to become very sharp and irritate the inner cheeks. Also, hooks can form on the front and back of the rows of molars which, if not removed can result in the horse not being able to close it's mouth.
The vet can file or rasp the sharp edges off. This might need to be done twice a year, and therefor a regular series of checkups should be done bi-yearly to yearly.
As the teeth wear down throughout the horses life, the pattern can be seen on the surface of the incisors gradually changes, giving a fairly accurate idea of the horse's age. The teeth also become more triangular as a horse gets older, giving anothe clue to it's age. 
The teeth continue to erupt from their sockets throughout the horse's life. The length of the crown in the gum shortens and the roots develop with age, and only a small amount of tooth is left by the time a horse becomes elderly.This article was reprinted with the permission from Valerie from Equines of the World and styles of riding. Horsequest.com home page
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Understanding Hooves
Hooves
The horses hooves are extremely complex structures, very sensitive to stress and pressure and with an excellent blood and nerve supply. On the outside and underneath, they are protected by horn (a form of modified, hardened skin) which grows down from the coronet band, a fleshy ridge around the top of the hoof, equivalent to the cuticle on human nails. Inside the hoof, the horny outer structures are tightly bonded to the sensitive ones by means of leaves of horn and flesh (called laminae) which interlock around the wall of the hoof. The sensitive structures themselves surround the bones of the foot. When weight is put on the foot it flattens and expands slightly, squashing the sensitive tissues and their blood vessles between the horn outside and the bones inside. The blood is squeezed up the leg into the veins, which have valves stopping the blood running back again. When the weight is removed, fresh blood rushes back into the tiny vessels (called capillaries) and so the process goes on.
It was thought until very recently that it was almost entirely pressure on the frog which pumped the blood around like this, but recent research has shown that, although the frog plays a part, it is the expansion of the whole foot which is important. The frog, together with the plantar cushion inside the heels, mainly helps reduce concussion on the foot.
The Need For Shoes
The hoof horn grows all the time but is worn away very quickly in a horse working on a hard surface. Horses are shod with metal shoes to prevent them from becomming footsore, but this prevents the horn from being worn down, so the farrier has to trim away excess horn at each shoeing before refitting or replacing the shoes (approximately every 4-8 weeks, depending on the rate of wear or growth). It takes a horse an average of six months to grow a complete new hoof. Existing horn quality cannot be improved. However, a new horn can be improved by diet containing methionine, biotin, and other substances of which your vet can advise you on.
http://www.horsequest.com/
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With spring on it's way, we must remember to worm our horses. With the warm weather comes the eggs of those evil creatures which will rob your horse of its clean, smooth coat not to mention loss of muscle and weight gain. A simple paste given to your horses now, will in affect, prevent any further problems into the summer. Remember, as they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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For all those mares out there that are expecting babies this spring don't forget those shots! Many of the reasons for lost foals are never truly known. With these shots given every three months to the mother, the chances of watching your new foal "frolic" in the fields will be greatly increased! For more information, contact your vet.
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| I am frequently asked about Coggins testing, "Coggins disease", and about the changes in the rules and regulations concerning testing horses. Coggins is the name of the test that is used to check blood for the virus that causes the disease. The disease is called Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA for short). This disease is caused by a virus that infects red blood cells of horses, mules, donkeys, and zebras. The infected animal's body responds to the virus by mounting an immune response to the infected red blood cells, destroying them and causing the horse to become anemic (low red blood cell count). An anemic horse is depressed, lethargic, loses weight, and easily gets sick from other diseases. About one-third to one-half of infected animals develop clinical symptoms and suffer from fever, dramatic weight loss, or swelling around the chest and legs. Some die. Others will demonstrate no symptoms and are referred to as "inapparent carriers". In some cases, chronically infected horses display a variety of symptoms when subjected to work, stress or travel, but they may recover when allowed to rest. These symptoms are very similar to HIV, therefore some people call EIA "horse AIDS". Equine Infectious Anemia is spread by blood transfer from an infected horse to a healthy horse. Blood-sucking insects (i.e. horseflies, mosquitoes) are the main carriers. Blood contaminated needles, syringes, etc. can also act as carriers. Testing a horse for EIA involves drawing blood, filling out the proper paper work, and submitting the sample to a laboratory for testing. There are local laboratories than can provide test results in 24 - 48 hours. A negative result indicates that the horse is not infected. A positive Coggins test means that the horse is infected with the EIA virus. If a horse tests positive, the Texas Animal Health Commission requires that it be 1) quarantined for life, 2) euthanized, 3) sold for slaughter, or 4) donated to an approved research facility. The State of Texas has required horse owners to test their horses yearly when they are traveling to all assemblies of horses (shows, rodeos, grand entries, trail rides, ropings, etc). Most shows require a Coggins test to be no more than one year old. Also, a Coggins test is required when you travel from state to state for any reason. It is also required that a horse have a negative Coggins test prior to sale |
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With all the technology available today, sometimes the average horse owner is overwhelmed with choices. From what kind of bit to use to the color of the saddle blanket, there are endless possibilities. In this article we hope to clear up some of the misconceptions on horse nutrition. Hopefully, you will be able to get better performance from your horse simply by taking the time to understand how their diet affects their health. There is much discussion and many choices these days on how to feed your horse. The right choice for you will depend on many factors which are age, breed, body type and athletic use. A rule of thumb for most horses is to eat 2.0/2.5% of their body weight daily. For example, a 1000-pound horse will eat approximately 20-25 pounds of dry matter in one day. Most horses should be fed forage such as good quality hay with nutrition such as timothy, brome, and legume. The ideal rations of forage and grain should be 60/40. In other words, if a horse is receiving hay and grain, the hay should consist of 60% of the diet; grain should not exceed 40% of the total daily intake. This is important because feeding more grain may lead to digestive problems or founder. If you own a 1000-pound horse, it will eat approximately 25 pounds of feed daily, which can be supplied as 15punds of good quality hay and 10 pounds of grain. Endurance Horse The protein requirements of the horse are not greatly increased by work. The nutrience loss in sweat is easily compensated for by the increased intake of the water intake. High levels of protein (24%) were neither harmful nor helpful to horsed ridden 50 miles per day, at a rate of 9 miles per hour. However, the excess protein may increase the water requirements. This may be determined if water availability is limited. Electrolyte losses may be of particular concern in horse that sweats profusely. Such as endurance houses, therefore, it is prudent to administrate electrolyte solution substitutes 24 hours before, during and after an endurance race. Pregnant Mares The pregnant mare early in the gestation does not have nutrience requirements greatly different from the open mare. During the last few months of gestation the fetus is developing rapidly and the mare's needs are increased. During the last 90 days of gestation, the 1000 pregnant mare's daily nutrient needs are 12 pounds of hay and 3.5 pounds of grain are needed. The hay 11-15% protein and gain, preferably oats, should be 12% protein. This will help with the need of the pregnant mare in the last stages of the pregnancy. Hopefully, we have helped in the daily diet of your horse. Just remember, a hungry horse is an unhappy horse. An unhappy horse is an unhappy owner!!
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Question: Doc, why do I have to blood test my horse for that coggins?
Answer:
The coggins test is for a disease called "SWAMP FEVER" or Equine infectious anemia (E.I.A.). E.I.A. is a viral disease that destroys a horses red blood cells, causing anemia. Once infected, horses remain infected for life, often without showing any signs of the disease.
Horses with acute E.I.A. have a high fever and a low number of blood platelets and/or red blood cells (anemia). In the more chronic form therein be intermediate fever, weight loss, swelling of the under belly, and anemia. Equine infectious anemia is diagnosed by a blood test called the coggins test, so named for by it's developer, Dr. Leroy Coggins, the veterinarian who developed the test.
Important points to remember about the E.I.A.:
There is no effective treatment or vaccine for E.I.A.
It is a law in Wisconsin that all horses that are co-mingled with non-related horses must be tested once each calendar year.
Be sure the seller provides documentation of the negative coggins test before you purchase a new horse, donkey, or mule.
Any needle or instrument exposed to equine blood should be disinfected between use.
Horses should be protected from biting insects and populations of insects should be controlled in the horses environment.
Remember, if your horse is tested and found negative and he is only exposed to other horses that are tested negative, this disease will be controlled.
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