measuring horses

[Todd & Toni Jones <tjones@coinet.com>]

I once had a little arab mare that I
was told was 15 hands when I bought
her. I had another friend or 2 stand
against her and they also agreed she
was 15 hands. I boarded her at one
of these friends house where she was
within an inch or 2 of her so called
15.2 and 16 hand arabs, so had no
reason to think otherwise. For a few
years, she was 15 hands and I
measured everything from her. A
bigger horse was 15.2 and a smaller
horse was 14.2. Seemed to work for
me for a long time. One day she was
at a dressage friend's house and we
were getting her ready for a show
and my friend asked how big she was.
I shrugged and said somewhere's
around 15 hands and my friend said
"Nah! let's measure her!" So I said
fine, I had always wondered about
that. She was 14.1 with shoes! Boy
was that an eye opener!

I went back to the previous friend
with the 15.2 and 16 hand arabs and
told her the size my mare REALLY was
and she just shook her head in
sympathy and said, "I had no idea
she was that small, how sad for
you!" I tried to make her understand
that HER horses were smaller than
she had thought also. Her 15.2 mare
was really only about 14.3 and her
16 hand arab (who I could see over
the top of her withers and I'm 5'7")
was really only about 15. But alas,
to this day she thinks her horses
are still 15.2 and 16 hands. My
horse shrunk (probably in the wash
or dry cycle) but her horses stayed
the "same" size...

Ah well... Now I have the system
down with my chin, nose and forhead
like Truman does. It's not 100%
accurate, but it's pretty close. At
least I know what a 16 hand horse
is! BIG! :) :)

Toni (slightly over 16 hands)
O'Biwon (slightly over 15 hands)




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