Measure Your Horse

Step 1
Start by understanding what a "hand" is. A "hand" is four inches. So when a horse is ten hands high, he is forty inches from the ground to the top of his withers.

Step 2
Purchase or borrow a measuring stick. These will measure exactly how tall your horse is in "hands." This is the easiest method.

 

Step 3
Make sure you are measuring from the spot where the horse's hoof touches the ground to the very top of his withers.

 

Step 4
If you cannot locate a horse measuring stick, you may use a measuring tape. Take the total number of inches and divide by four. This will give you the number of hands.

 

Step 5
Do not round up. Be exact. If a horse is sixty-three inches high, he is 15.3 hands tall. in other words, 15 hands and 3 inches.

Today the hand is primarily used to describe the height of horses, ponies, and other equines in a number of different countries, including the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK. In this context, one hand equals four inches and the horse is measured from the ground to the top of the withers. So a horse that is 15 hands high (abbreviated 15 hh) is 60 inches from the ground to the top of the withers. Instead of decimal or vulgar fractions, a hand comprises four inch-long steps, so a horse 62 inches tall would be 15.2 hh (spoken as “fifteen two hands high”).

A pony is up to 14.2hh (58 inches). An animal 14.2 hh or taller is classified as a horse. However, breed characteristics also play a role in defining animals as horses or ponies, particularly in breeds that may have some purebred representatives on both sides of the 14.2 divide. In the United States, ponies in horse show competition, particularly for hunter/jumper classes, are sometimes further subdivided into sections, depending on height:

    * Small Pony: 12.2 hh or smaller
* Medium Pony: larger than 12.2 hh, up to 13.2 hh
* Large Pony: larger than 13.2 hh, but shorter than 14.2 hh