Weightapes....

[Honeypots]

I've read a couple of posts recently whereby someone has weighed their horse using a weightape and then using a weighbridge and had very different results ie..100kg ish heavier on the weighbridge.
Can anyone confirm this and perhaps tell me which is more accurate...I'm assuming the weighbridge...in which case, are we all (those of us that are using weightapes) under worming our horses?

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

The weighbridge is the most accurate. I thought weigh tapes could give a variation of up to 50kg so are really best used as a guide to monitor your horses weight on a weekly/monthly basis - as you will presumably use the same method everytime you should be able to monitor weight loss/gain so get an overall picture - just not a 100% accurate.

Does that make sense? as for worming I have always overestimated my horses weight - ie round up to 500kgs for example to allow for inaccuracies and due to the safety margin of wormers it has never been a problem.

 

[Kenzo]

Weight tapes can only give an indication, you have to then consider the breed and height, along with a condition score, find the ideal weight of that particular breed/type of horse and work it out from there....even the size of your rug can indicate that your weight tape can be way out.

 

[eoe]

Was taught that you must use it at the same time on the same day to be 95% accurate, but of course you can't beat a weighbridge, but horses weight does fluctuate during the day.

 

[Honeypots]

Oh yeah...I use a weightape every few days on my fatties to check for weight gain but wondered, if we are relying on a weightape for gauging how much wormer to give our horses, as most people don't have access to a weigh bridge, are we giving our horses too little wormer when it is well below what a weigh bridge would measure at...

 

[fatpiggy]

I only regard what I read on the weightape as an indication, and for comparison with how she was two weeks ago. I would estimate they are at least 10% inaccurate. I also assess my horse's condition by feel (ribs, crest) and walking around looking carefully.

 

[Honeypots]

Me too Fatpiggy...but I'm not talking about condition...I'm querying how to judge how much wormer to give our horses if weigh tapes are inaccurate and most people don't have access to a weigh bridge.
Does that mean we are under worming our horses?