Thanks, Truman--that sounds right. I haven't
played with that aspect of math for awhile, so that had a lot of dust on it back
in the cerebral archives.... <g> Glad you knew what I was trying to
get at when I said it wasn't linear..... :-)
Support for a column - such as the bones - is proportional
to the cross sectional area. The circumference is proportional to the radius
but the cross sectional area is proportional to the square of the radius, the
old pi*r^2 we all learned in high school. So if a horse of 1000 pounds
requires an 8 inch circumference; a horse of 2000 pounds requires an 11.3 inch
circumference, a 800 pound horse requires a 7.15 and a 1200 pound horse 8.8
inch curcumfence.
BTW where does Deb Bennett measure the
curcumfence, right below the knee or in the middle.
Truman
Heidi Smith wrote:
Well, I got the "formula" from listening to Deb
Bennett--she says 8" for a 1000# horse, adjusting up or down for those
heavier or lighter. It is not exactly a linear formula, but close
enough for horses not too far off of that. Bottom line, though--a
great many Arabs are considerably lighter than 1000#, so the idea that "I
won't have any horse with less than 8" bone because that is inadequate" is
not very sensible. Also, many make the mistake of trying to correlate
to height, and height isn't the issue. I rode a horse for a long time
that was under 14.3 and weighed 975# in running shape--so he certainly
needed the 8" (he had 9"), whereas I've dealt with many horses a good hand
taller that weighed considerably less in running shape simply because they
had lighter frames and were lighter-muscled. Regardless of height, a
horse that weighs 800# in running shape and has 7" cannons has enough
bone. I also get a chuckle out of ads for larger horses that DO weigh
more that brag about a 15.3 horse that weighs 1150# and has 8"
cannons--nope, he's flimsy, and I wouldn't be bragging on his bone, at any
rate.....
There was a thread awhile back about bone density and
there was a formula presented for how much cannon bone was needed to
support horses of different weights. i.e. I think Heidi Smith was speaking
about it, and would like to see that info again please or be directed to
it.
