Body condition scoring is a very important skill to have as a horse owner. But if you’re anything like me, it can be hard to remain unbiased when working with your own horse. Remember not too long ago when I said my gelding was a 6.5? Well, I asked my vet to score him when she came out last week and she put him at a 7. 

He weight taped at 1100 pounds, up 33 pounds since she last came two months ago. It is so hard for me to objectively evaluate my own horse. I know this about myself, so I always ask my vet to check me!

Now, how am I going to address getting weight off my horse? Fortunately, the winter weather will help do this for me. I know he will drop weight over the winter; typically he ends the winter at a 5.5. I will also increase his workload. I admittedly am not the best at keeping him in consistent work in the winter, but I will make a greater effort to get him moving more throughout the week. As a reminder, a healthy body condition score is 5-6.5, so I really want to get these extra pounds off of him!

Bonus tip: When using a weight tape, have the same person use the same tape every time. Not all tapes are the same, and different people have small differences in the way they use them. To eliminate the most sources of error, keep it as consistent as possible. Same person, same tape, same surface.

Keeping a log of can also help track fluctuations in weight. The same vet I just mentioned does this for all the horses at her barn. She tapes them all every month. I wouldn’t say this is 100% necessary for everyone to do, but it’s a system that works really well for her. Too much data is never a bad thing in this case!