Horse weight has a quite flexible range varying with the size and breed of a horse. Starting from 200 pounds Shetland pony to 2000 pounds Clydesdale horse, there found a great diversity in horse breeds. Actually, how much does a horse weighs depends upon many factors like size, age, and breed of horse, even horses of the same breed can vary from their average weight.

Over 200 breeds of horses are found in the world, which are developed for different environmental conditions and work purposes. Concerning weight, horses can be divided into two main categories. Draft horse breeds like Percheron, Belgian, and Shire horses are being used to carry heavy loads and wagons. These draft horse breeds have weights from 1600lb to 20,00lb. The second category includes lighter horses having weights ranging from 800lb to 12,00lbs. Light horse breeds include Morgan, Appaloosa, and Arabian that are mostly used for riding, racing, and dressage.

To know more about the importance of healthy weight in horses and how we can help our horse to maintain it, keep reading.

Why weight of your horse matter? 

Despite our generalized interest in the weight of our horse, this parameter can help us to make some crucial decisions for our horse health. Like, horse weight helps us to determine the nutritional requirements of a horse and to formulate his balanced diet.

We should feed a horse approximately 2.5% of his body weight including 15 to 20 pounds of good quality hay.

Weighing your horse at regular intervals can also help you to flag a sudden drop or the effect of extreme weather conditions on horse weight. During medication and deworming, the weight of the horse should be exactly known to administer the required amount of medicines.

It should be kept in mind that when you interact with your horse daily, it may be hard to notice the weight change. So try to adopt reliable sources for weighing your horse.

Working with a horse regularly can also help improve your horse’s weight. We recommend polework exercises, at liberty horse training, groundwork exercises & lateral work. It’s also a great idea to track your progress in a horse training journal.

How to weigh a horse?

Different methods can be used to weigh your horse depending upon the available resources. Most accurate is the weighing scale.

Livestock Scale: An animal weighing scale is the best option to weigh your horse. These scales are calibrated to weigh animals. However, less adoption of scales to weigh horses is due to their unavailability. Such weighing scales could be available at livestock centers. Some veterinarians also have portable weighing scales. If you can’t find a weighing scale nearby, weight tapes are the second-best option.

Weight tape: Due to the ease of availability, weight tape is an easy way of measuring horse weight. You can purchase it from any tack shop. On a weight tape, units are listed in pounds as compared to meters or feet on a measuring tape.

For measuring the weight of your horse, hold the zero end of the tape in one hand and slide the other end around the barrel of the horse just behind the withers. By meeting both ends against the skin, you can determine the weight of the horse.

Weight tape gives an approximate value, due to the difference in the unique conformation of each horse.

Eyeballing: A least accurate method is the general observation of the horse and guessing his weight. But it should be considered that even the experienced equestrians can have the difference up to 200lbs from actual horse weight.

How much does a horse weigh: What factors affect the horse’s weight?

Determining the weight of your horse and comparing it with average values, provides you an idea about your horse. To keep your horse in good shape and up to optimum weight, the following factors play an essential role.

Nutrition: A horse needs balanced diet throughout his whole life. A diet meeting the nutritional requirements of a horse ensures that it is not under-fed or over-fed. While formulating the ration of the horse, his level of activity and workload should be kept in mind. Feeding high caloric forages and grains to an inactive horse leads to obesity and fat deposition at different body parts.

Season & Weather: The weight of a horse is remarkably affected by the weather and environmental temperature. The horse usually lost weight in extreme weather conditions. In cold winters, a lot of energy is used by the horse to keep his body warm, while in the summer, horse flies and other pests disturb the horse feed intake.

Parasitism: Intestinal and blood parasites can cause overwhelming health implications in horses. Stomach bots, strongyles, roundworms, and tapeworms are common intestinal parasites of equines. These parasites use the nutrients of horse and can cause irritation, diarrhea, and weight loss.

Dental problems: Dental problems like overgrown teeth, hooks, dental abscess, etc are directly associated with the feed intake of horses. Some dental problems cause pain while others cause the feed falling out from the mouth or accumulation in cheeks. Lower feed intake leads to gradual weight loss, poor performance and negatively affects the overall well-being of the horse.

Problems of an overweight horse

Let’s look at a major issue concerning how much does a horse weigh. Obesity in horses is becoming a major health concern. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech University studied 300 horses to find the prevalence of obesity in horses. According to this study, 57% of horses were obese and 2% were under-conditioned. Like in humans, obesity comes with several health problems in horses too.

Overweight horses put a greater strain on the joints, tendons, and hooves that make these body parts prone to chronic injuries. Underlying pain and micro-tissue injuries hamper the agility of an obese horse. So, the resistance under saddle and poor performance are the obvious outcomes.

Insulin resistance is a major metabolic problem associated with overweight horses. It worsens the condition by increasing the fat deposition at body parts that further increases the weight. Insulin resistance is also a predisposing cause of chronic laminitis.

Obese horses have a relatively high amount of fat under their skin that prevents heat loss from the body and interrupts body temperature regulation. Higher body fat leads to less efficient cooling, poor performance, and rapid dehydration.

How to maintain a healthy weight in the horse?

Finally here are few tips to keep your horse in good shape.

• Keep the record of your horse weight and ask your equine vet for the ideal weight of your horse breed and size.
  
• Know what you are feeding. Find the nutritional profile of your horse feed and ensure that it is meeting his requirements.
  
• Keeping an eye on the horse’s weight is advisable in very hot summer and cold winter. Provide sufficient energy to cope with the low temperatures in winter. And maintain a calm and shady environment in summer to encourage feed intake.
  
• Make sure the availability of freshwater. A horse needs 5 to 15 gallons of freshwater every day, depending upon the activity and environmental temperature.
  
• Exercise your obese horse regularly. 20 to 30 minutes of regular exercise can help your horse to lose weight.
  

Take the advice of experts. If you are a novice and your horse weight seems abnormal, consult with your veterinarian to find out the reason.