Condition Scoring For Your Horse

CRAIG H. WOOD, DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCES

In a world where millions of people are taking steps to improve their own physical condition in order to live healthier lives, it only stands to reason that this same concept would be applied to other aspects of their lives and businesses. In Kentucky where horses are a multi-billion dollar industry, the health and welfare (condition) of the horses are of utmost importance to their owners. The ability to accurately assess a horse’s body condition, which is vital to its welfare, weighs heavily on the industry.

The old saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder has never been more appropriate than in the body condition of horses. Beauty in one owner’s eye is fat in another’s. Hence the problem: What is the appropriate body condition of a horse, and what would be acceptable to the industry? A body conditioning scoring system developed by Dr. Don Henneke has served to provide a standard scoring system for the industry which can be used across breeds and by all horse people. The system assigns a score to a particular body condition (1 to 9) as opposed to vague words such as good, fair, bad, or poor, which leave differences in interpretation to the eye of the beholder.

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