best way to measure a nervous horse?

mrsjcmking

mrsjcmking

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I want to measure my rescue pony, but he's a bit nervous and doesn't like the tape near him. I want to get his rug size and find out how tall he is.

Does anyone have any clever tips?
 
Its not very accurtae but measure the width of your hands and see how many hands you fit on him.

The best thing to do though is to try and de-sensitise him to the tape, start with it mostly rollled up and rub it along his body and once he accepts this un role it abit and rub this along him, just keep unrolling it a bit more until he is happy for you to throw the tape over him etc, this could take a week or so theres not a quick fix.

Another thing to try is a wooden height stick he may not be scared of one of these.
 
Why not measure yourself?

For example to your shoulder is 15.2 etc. Then you can mark his height on your body and go from there?

For the length of rug you could give him a lop sided "hug" and again work out from your arm span.
 
Don't forget that horses can very nearly see behind them...the stick and tape can be seen on the edge of the vision and easily cause panic for youngsters. I've always got round it by having two very calm assistants at the head, reassuring and cupping their hands around the back of the eyes like blinkers. Once the horse has got used to the feel of the measure after repeated training sessions with a lot of praise, you should be able to remove the pretend blinkers. Some always need to be shielded though!
 
Will he have string near him? my horse wont have a tape measure anywhere near him but baler twine comes from food and is therefore safe(r) in his eyes
 
Our mare is the same - we work on her every day with the measuring tape, let her sniff it and then wipe it over her neck, back etc. At one time she'd spot it a mile off and shoot to the back of her stable, now she lets us get in the stable with it and will let us do a little bit at a time.
I know its not much help immediately but it will help in future and she is making an improvement each day :)
K x
 
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