Horse weighbridge?

sychnant

sychnant

Well-Known Member
Joined
4 February 2009
Messages
1,713
Location
Welsh Borders
Visit site
I would like to get my lot weighed properly as I'm not convinced weightapes are much use other than for tracking change.

Are there any companies that offer this service? I've Googled but just found ones for sale :/

Any ideas would be great, thanks :)
 
Some feed companies will come out with a weighbridge. Spillers come out to our yard for free (and have come to do the Pony Club Camp as well). You don't have to use their feed - but obviously they hope you will switch!
 
They've never charged us. They come for free. But we don't take the mickey or ask them too often or anything. It is a sales opportunity and on a yard with 18 horses (10 or so owners) and with PC Camp there is always someone who either uses their feeds or would consider switching.
 
Can you not take the horse to a public weighbridge? You need to take your trailer and weigh it with the horse in and then take your horse out and weigh it again and then you will know how much your horse weighs.

Otherwise you can just stand your horse on the weigh bridge. I did this years ago - I hacked to the local weighbridge and dismounted and stood the horse on the weigh bridge. This can be a bit dodgy though as they are made of steel and often have oil or tar on and can be a bit slippy for a horse with shoes on so you have to be careful. They sprinkled a little bit of sand on top of the weighbridge for us which was really kind of them.

I was then able to work out my trailer/towing car combo.

You could also ask your vets if they have weighing machine. Our vets have one and when I take my horse for a procedure they weigh him. I assume it is to work out his weight and any sedative he might need or it might just be just to put on his records.
 
If you have a big group of people they generally don't charge. They will want to discuss their products with you though. I know for sure Spillers do this kind of thing
 
I only have 4 horses and they're at home, so I'd expect a charge :)

I did consider travelling to a public weighbridge, but it's a 30 mile round trip and one horse doesn't fit in the lorry anyway :D

I'll give Spillers a ring, thanks :)
 
Not enough horses locally, and not enough space at my house for people to bring them in trailers unfortunately.

however I did just ring Allen and Page, and the local lady is going to give me a call to arrange it :)

Thanks everyone!
 
Can you group together with some other horse owners in the area and host a day for them at your yard? Other feed companies also do it, it might be worth giving them a ring to see if their numbers are lower?
 
Racing yards often have them, we had one at a yard that was previously a racing yard. Was surprised how much less the ponies weighed compared to my estimate when worming (one I was 100kg out). Certainly didn't feel that light when stood on my foot!
 
If they travel, just go a normal weighbridge with horse in box, weigh, go home, take horse out (unless weighbridge area is quiet enough for horse to stand and wait), come back, re-weigh, subtract, done.
 
Think there were some cross-posts, just waiting for Allen and Page to ring me back! Thanks for all the ideas :)

turnbuckle, as I said, nearest weighbridge is a 30 mile round trip. It would be 120 miles to get all the horses weighed, and one doesn't fit in the box anyway!
 
You seem sorted, but just to give you an idea...There is a scrap metal merchant near me with a weighbridge. Not a public weighbridge but I bet if I offered them a couple of quid they'd let me use it for this purpose.
 
I had TopSpec out to mine, they said they need a minimum of 10 horses but as it was only me who wanted them they just said that five horses was unable to be weighed for various reasons on the day.

The lady that came out was lovely and I even got a bag of feed balancer worth £32 for free, and some discount vouchers for other feeds.
 
Thanks everyone :)

Allen and Page are coming out on the 29th April. I'll be so interested to see how their weights compare to what the weightape tells me!
 
Mine were quite a bit heavier than on the weight tapes.

We had Dengie come to my yard. We invited friends and neighbour's to join, and got a group of 10. I did tea, coffee and biscuits for riders, and dotted haynets around for queueing horses. It was a nice sociable morning. I even weighed the dogs! Everyone went home with a goodie bag from Dengie and some advice. We need to do it again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top