weigh tapes - how accurate?

think it depends on horses build - but will find out tonight as i have spillers bringing their weighbridge to our yard to weigh the horses - so will weightape them and them weigh them and see what difference is!!!
 
Although they are not very accurate they are very useful if you stick to them, for example my horse is a big girl and trying to keep her weight down is an ongoing problem, but I have found if I measure her weight with the weight tape about every month than at least I can keep tabs on whether she is putting any on or loosing any.
 
They arent!
At the equine vets I used to work at we weigh taped the horses before they had any surgery and went on what the weigh tape said, we then won a weigh bridge in a competition and compared a weigh tape to a weigh bridge and every time the weigh tape was no where near the horses actual weight. This can make a big difference when you are giving an animal drugs.

I put a weigh tape on my tb and when I put him straight on the weighbridge afterwards he was 40kg heavier, I weighed my old arab on a weightape and when I put her on a weighbridge she was a lot lighter as she had a very round ribcage but was very slight and she was 50kg lighter than the tape said she was.

It all depends on the shape of your horses ribcage but I dont trust them at all. However I am lucky that I am very local to a weigh bridge and weigh my horses on that.
 
I use my weight tape regularly and also took the opportunity to weigh Frankie every time I took him to horsepital.

The weight tape is always lighter than his actual weight by about 25kg (he's a tb) so I find it useful to keep a track of weight changes before I can see them but I know to adjust to get an idea of his actual weight.

There is a formula where you take the weight tape and also measure the length and do some maths which is supposed to give to a more accurate estimate but I've not tried it.
 
Accuracy isn't the only problem with weight tapes. They have poor repeatability too. I recently did a Type I Gauge Study (repeatability) and the variation (6 std devs) was 20kg.

So, 1 person repeatedly measuring the same horse could expect to get 20kg variation in what they measure. This is before you get on to the bias of a tape, i.e. how accurate it is Vs. the "real" value.
 
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well.......
My weightape made by 'easy measure' - my horse was 455kg on my weightape this morning - she was 600 kg on my weightape when i bought her 3.5 yrs ago - So its useful to see how her weight is whether is gained or lost BUT it is WAY out when comes to actual weight.

Her real weight on a weighbridge is 601kg!!!!!!!!! I nearly died!! -

She is a perfect condition score so her weight is right for her - she is 15.3hh IDxTB - but more like ID. the spillers nutritionalist said she is perfect weight. But I was shocked at the difference with my tape to actual weight. The spillers lady taped her with the spillers weigh tape and that said 550kg - so that was 50kg out too!!!

So weightapes are good to monitor weight gain and loss but to get a real picture of weight for worming or travelling and making sure you arent overweight they are rubbish!!!
 
kezimac said:
think it depends on horses build - but will find out tonight as i have spillers bringing their weighbridge to our yard to weigh the horses - so will weightape them and them weigh them and see what difference is!!!
Click to expand...

Did you have to pay for them to bring it to your yard ? if so how much please ?
 
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