Body Condition Scoring

[Jessey]

Following on from fat club, share your Body Condition Score Pictures and scores? show us your pics and what you graded each area as, I appreciate this may take a few days to get going I think it will be interesting to see how we all perceive fat/lean bits differently

Lets use this score system;

Habitat for Horses: The Henneke Body Condition Scoring System

Scoring a Horse’s Body Condition is the First Step Toward Healing Most rescue operations and law enforcement rely on the Henneke Body Condition Scoring System to evaluate the health of a horse. Using a scale of 1 (skin and bones) to 9 (grossly overweight) this scientific system assesses fat and...

www.habitatforhorses.org

The 1-9 Henneke system is generally considered more accurate that the old 1-5 system. On the neck you go down the list under neck until you find a description that matches your horse, then you give the neck that number. Do the same for withers, shoulder, ribs, loin and tail head, then add all those together and divide the total by 6 to give your final BCS.
ETA, I just had to look it up, hook bones are what I think most call hip bones, and pin bones are the point of buttock

 

[Trewsers]

I will get Mr T to join in with this because I am hopeless at the whole thing - specially anything with numbers however simple! Are weigh tapes now not the used thing? I still have one that my vet gave me a long time ago - but he did also mention condition scoring. Will be interesting to see what Zi is. I think when he came to us two years ago he was in his peak physical state - very toned (used to a lot of work ) and just generally very active. Hope I've not over-done him he only gets ridden once or twice a week - but he does free range and it's surprising how much walking he actually does in a day.

 

[Jessey]

Weight tapes are still a better guide than nothing, but it only takes into account 1 part of the body, so BCS just covers a wider area and bits that can't be measured. You should do it for Storm and Chloe too @Trewsers we can always help you with the math bit once you have graded each bit of them

 

[Jessey]

I'm glad i started this thread, I hadn't looked closely enough in a while.......
Jess;
Neck = 5
Withers = 3
Shoulder = 6
Ribs = 5
Loin = 5
Tailhead = 4 (not easy to see in this pic but her hip bones and tail head prominent)
5+3+6+5+5+4=28 / 6 = BCS 4.66

 

[Jessey]

Hank;
Neck = 7
Withers = 7
Shoulder = 7
Ribs = 6
Loin = 5
Tailhead = 7
7+7+7+6+5+7= 39 / 6= BCS 6.5

 

[Jessey]

Dan;
Neck = 9
Withers = 8
Shoulder = 9
Ribs = 7
Loin = 8
Tailhead = 7
9+8+9+7+8+7= 48 / 6= BCS 8


I knew the boys were fat but holy hell, they are on the scrubbiest paddock which is mostly weeds, when I get back from the states fat camp will def be kicking in hard. It was only a couple of months ago I felt bad because I had let their weight drop too much, very ribby and spines sticking out a bit, it's scary how quick they have gained all this.

 

[MrA]

Following on from fat club, share your Body Condition Score Pictures and scores? show us your pics and what you graded each area as, I appreciate this may take a few days to get going I think it will be interesting to see how we all perceive fat/lean bits differently

Lets use this score system;

Habitat for Horses: The Henneke Body Condition Scoring System

Scoring a Horse’s Body Condition is the First Step Toward Healing Most rescue operations and law enforcement rely on the Henneke Body Condition Scoring System to evaluate the health of a horse. Using a scale of 1 (skin and bones) to 9 (grossly overweight) this scientific system assesses fat and...

www.habitatforhorses.org

The 1-9 Henneke system is generally considered more accurate that the old 1-5 system. On the neck you go down the list under neck until you find a description that matches your horse, then you give the neck that number. Do the same for withers, shoulder, ribs, loin and tail head, then add all those together and divide the total by 6 to give your final BCS.
ETA, I just had to look it up, hook bones are what I think most call hip bones, and pin bones are the point of buttock

Can I ask where you do the neck, loin and tail head prodding please? Want to try on Ale later

 

[Huggy]

Oh I'm just not going to do it with Hogan! I'm scared to even use the weigh tape. He's not as fat as when I got him (this time last year), but even though he stays in the eaten down field, while B goes into the lush long grass, of course there's loads still coming through. I'll try to get up the courage for the tape at least, this week

 

[Jessey]

This is where I look Ale
Neck

Shoulder purple
Wither blue
Ribs orange
Loin green (this can be checked from behind so you can see the guttering)
Hips red

Tail head red
Buttock points blue

Remember the ideal on this scale is 5, it is different to the older 1-5 scale where you aimed for 3 ​

 

[Jessey]

Oh I'm just not going to do it with Hogan! I'm scared to even use the weigh tape. He's not as fat as when I got him (this time last year), but even though he stays in the eaten down field, while B goes into the lush long grass, of course there's loads still coming through. I'll try to get up the courage for the tape at least, this week

Be brave, join us, knowledge is power

 

[MrA]

This is where I look Ale
Neck
View attachment 98734
Shoulder purple
Wither blue
Ribs orange
Loin green (this can be checked from behind so you can see the guttering)
Hips red
View attachment 98737
Tail head red
Buttock points blue
View attachment 98738

Remember the ideal on this scale is 5, it is different to the older 1-5 scale where you aimed for 3 ​

This is fantastic, thank-you it's so helpful!

Ale has started pilling on so I've restricted all I can. Will be good to do it now and in a month or so and see if there's a difference.

 

[Kite_Rider]

Well Belle comes out at a 5 on that score Jessey. I'm really pleased with how she looks just now, odd how they accumulate fat in different places too, Belle appears to have an apple bum, however, both her hip bones and her bum bones are easily felt, you can see her hips. I'll stick some photo's up from my phone shortly. Thanks for this, really useful.

 

[Kite_Rider]

 

[Kite_Rider]

I know she’s got her saddle on, I never thought about the photos until after I put it on. See what I mean about the apple bum? I’m sure she could drop a little more weight but even at her skinniest (420kg) she still had that bottom you could easily see her ribs at that weight too, so a very good reason why BCS is better than a weigh tape.

 

[Jessey]

Well Belle comes out at a 5 on that score Jessey. I'm really pleased with how she looks just now, odd how they accumulate fat in different places too, Belle appears to have an apple bum, however, both her hip bones and her bum bones are easily felt, you can see her hips. I'll stick some photo's up from my phone shortly. Thanks for this, really useful.

I def think scoring each part, and working out the average gives you the more accurate result on the overall picture

 

[MrA]

Really not the best photos but I would say
Neck = 5
Withers = 4.5
Shoulder = 5.5
Ribs = 6
Loin = 6.5
Tailhead = 7
All together 5.75, should he be higher perhaps a 6 or 6.5 maybe I've been too kind with my scoring haha

Definitely open to input although I realise hard to tell without feeling!

 

[Jessey]

I'm sure you've been critical @Ale, but it's good to get a feel for, maybe try it on brodie too, that might tell you more

 

[Huggy]

Oh cheese on toast! I've put pics of Hogan on fat club, and have to say you couldn't find a bone on any part of him without a Texas oil drill. I'll do the weigh tape tomorrow, and when I get 5 minutes I'll do the scoring. This is like gok wan's how to look good naked, except if Hogan looked in the mirror, he'd think he was fine. What's the opposite of anorexia, where even if you were huge, you'd think you need to put on a few lbs? Whatever it is, Hogans got that.

 

[Jessey]

Oh cheese on toast! I've put pics of Hogan on fat club, and have to say you couldn't find a bone on any part of him without a Texas oil drill. I'll do the weigh tape tomorrow, and when I get 5 minutes I'll do the scoring. This is like gok wan's how to look good naked, except if Hogan looked in the mirror, he'd think he was fine. What's the opposite of anorexia, where even if you were huge, you'd think you need to put on a few lbs? Whatever it is, Hogans got that.

But you've got him going in the right direction and that's the main thing

 

[MrA]

Much happier with Ale this time round, I've been using body condition scoring and if I notice an area creeping up I ammend his management. He just weigh taped at about 420. Scores this time round done quickly this morning
Neck = 5.5
Withers = 4.5
Shoulder = 5.5
Ribs = 5
Loin = 5
Tailhead = 5
Overall just over 5, which I would say is about right. Really pleased with how he's looking this summer.

Anyone else still using this or want to post an update?