Re: 17.2 mule?

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Lucy Chaplin Trumbull wrote:
> 
> Phyllis C Mayes wrote:
> ...
> > I gotta know...has anyone measured this mule with a stick?
> > ...
> > 17.2 is MIGHTY BIG.
> 
> Check out Richard's picture of Ruby at the finish.
> The guy who rode her, Sandy Brown isn't a shortie.
> 


If we're talking about Ruby as the 17.2 mule, no way.  I didn't measure
height, but did measure most every other part of Ruby and not a chance
is she 17.2---my guess is over 16 hands, maybe 16.1, 16.2 at the
absolute outside but I doubt even that.  Her withers (or where her
withers woulda been) were just about even with my nose, and my nose is
right around 16.1.  In doing various workshops on weight and height
estimation at Cal Poly, and measuring BY THE STICK an awful lot of
animals for research, most people I know tend to over estimate height by
about two inches.  Or...if they're trying to sell it, 3 inches.  If
they're campaigning it as a stallion, 4 inches! <BG>

BTW, Ruby's other measurements, just for fun, were:  cannon bone
circumference 8 3/8", a heart girth of 74" and a body length of
73"---all of which were close to being the largest of any of the horses
measured (I think the cannon bone was the largest).  She had a condition
score of 4.5 and practically clanked when you touched her (but was a
total sweetie while I was messing around with tapes and such).

Susan G