How accurate are weight tapes? I have the answer

J

Jesstickle

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 December 2008
Messages
12,299
Visit site
Well, an answer. For one horse.

Nitty weights 449kgs on the weigh bridge. On the tape she was 482kg. So not too far off really :)

Just thought I'd share that with you.

BH was 532 on the tape but I have no idea what he is in real life!
 
I'll pass this info on to my OH - he is obsessed with his weigh tape - I can see the look in poor Merlin's eye when he sees it coming "suck in my tummy quick or i'll be on reduced hay rations" haha. Just think one day OH might try to weigh me with it as well - hopefully not tonight as just devoured fish & chips for tea!!
 
Not bad at all. It always worries me when people dismiss them as useless - they may not give a good idea of actual weight in real terms on some horses (conformation dependent, I think?) but their most helpful use is comparative and keeping an eye on changes, imo.
 
My mare was weighed on the weighbridge at the vets as 438kg, and on the weightape she is 429kg. I was very impressed by the accuracy of the weightape (mare was the the vets for weight loss investigation, hence the very low weight!)
 
JFTD said:
Not bad at all. It always worries me when people dismiss them as useless - they may not give a good idea of actual weight in real terms on some horses (conformation dependent, I think?) but their most helpful use is comparative and keeping an eye on changes, imo.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.
 
I tend to condition score rather than weigh tape but I can totally see the use of them for assessing changing condition. They're definitely a handy tool :) And as it turns out, not too bad at all as an estimator of weight, assuming you have a TB with very normal conformation
 
jesstickle said:
I tend to condition score rather than weigh tape but I can totally see the use of them for assessing changing condition. They're definitely a handy tool :) And as it turns out, not too bad at all as an estimator of weight, assuming you have a TB with very normal conformation
Click to expand...

I condition score and weight tape because I am obsessive about weight :eek:

Lucky :D I suspect mine would be thrown by my highland's deep chest (the tape probably thinks he is taller and heavier than he is?) and the cob's relatively normal chest but thick heavy legs / neck etc. But I'm just guessing as I've not taken them to a weigh bridge :o
 
I don't have to obsess as my horses don't DO getting fat. They're a pair of skinny minnies :D

I think I'd rather have any of your chunky chaps at the moment. Nitty is a walking disaster. Easy to fit a saddle and rugs to but a nightmare in vets bills :eek:
 
I'm going to find out soon as I'm going to take the yellow one down to college to use their weigh bridge and get him done for one of my assignments :D. I will share how accurate they are with you all on a pony if you want?
 
jesstickle said:
I don't have to obsess as my horses don't DO getting fat. They're a pair of skinny minnies :D

I think I'd rather have any of your chunky chaps at the moment. Nitty is a walking disaster. Easy to fit a saddle and rugs to but a nightmare in vets bills :eek:
Click to expand...

My cob doesn't hold his weight any more so I just have the tricky challenge of keeping the highlands on a diet and him on as much as possible, preferably without consigning the cob to a life in solitary confinement or stabling (which makes him stiff) :mad: horses :rolleyes: oh well :D

Please don't curse me with more vet bills - I had enough when the middle highland chipped his radius in spring and my land rover's vet bills have been extraordinary this year :( But I do defer to Nitty's impressive hock fiasco, which is quite excessive!
 
well according to my vet who did a lecture the other evening they are highly inaccurate.

He said they were good for monitoring weight changes in your horse but accuracy on measuring weight between different breeds / build horses is not good.

An example he gave was that while you might get a fairly accurate weight reading on a TB, use the same tape on a cob and it could be way out.

Weigh bridges are the best but obviously not that easy for most people to accesses.

One suggestion he made was to take your trailer to a weigh bridge with your horse in it and get it weighed. then take your horse out and weigh your trailer / vehicle again. Granted not as accurate as a purpose built horse scale but better than nothing.
 
Mine was 405kg on a weightape - Spillers had a weighing scale thingy at a show so had him fat scored & weighed, came in as 379kg, so quite near. Still a bit of a fatty though :D
 
Ofg that's essentially what me and jess were saying - conformation dependent accuracy. However, I don't get why everyone is obessed with knowing how much their horse actually weighs. In condition monitoring it's rather uselss unless you weigh them every week, condition scoring is more useful and monitoring changes by tape.

The only circumstances where an accurate weight is important (that I can see) are:
Worming and medication dosing, which most vets still seem to use tapes for anyway and the accuracy of these are pretty acceptable for the therapeutic window of most drugs anyway
Or
If you have a tight weight allowance in a trailer / lorry
 
My boy is very narrow at the very area the tape measures. also the instructions say lower withers, a bit difficult to identify exactly, and an inch either way makes 30kg difference, I am going back to measure and calculate, and condition score by eye.
 
JFTD said:
which most vets still seem to use tapes for anyway and the accuracy of these are pretty acceptable for the therapeutic window of most drugs anyway
Click to expand...

Unless your idiot animal needs a GA! Stupid creature. I can, however, report that her hock is nearly normal now :) But, she has a fat leg on the other side now to make up for it.
 
My cob weighed 458kgs on my weigh tape. Had Spillers out and he weighed in at 545kgs!! So nearly 100kgs out!

I cant use the tape as an indictor for weight gain/loss as he doesn't put weight on/lose weight around the girth area - he's been the same weight on the tape for the last year. Any weight goes straight on his neck and crest so I have now taken to using a standard tape measure and taking the measurement around a given point on his neck (have put a tiny plait in his mane to make sure I take it at the same point every time!)

At the moment he is about 40kgs overweight but is on companionship box rest and we are working at getting the weight back off of him.
 
margerita11 said:
a friend of mine spoke to a well known feed supplier who reckons weight tapes can be between 50 to 100kg out?
Click to expand...

I agree with this, we had a weigh bridge at our yard, obviously we used to worm all 30 horses at once, as an experiment we weightaped all of them then weighed them.
Each was at least 30kg out, some as much as 100kg.
Unfortuantly since we left we have no weighbridge but fortunately i have an idea of what mine weigh, give or take a bit depending on the season.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top