Body Condition Resources
How can you tell quickly if your horse is too thin, too fat, or in just the right body condition? Two body condition scoring systems were developed in the 1980s to address these questions. One is used in the United States and several other countries, and includes a scale of 1 to 9. A second system was created in Australia and features a scale of 0 to 5.
- U.S. Body Condition Score Chart (describes a system of scores from 1 to 9, based on research by Henneke and coworkers)
- Australian Body Condition Score Chart (describes a system of scores from 0 to 5)
Relationship Between Condition Score, Physical Measurements and Body Fat Percentage in Mares, the seminal paper by Henneke and coworkers at Texas A&M University, published in 1983 by the Equine Veterinary Journal.
General
- Body Condition Scoring of Horses: Practice Makes Perfect
- Managing Body Conditions of Horses in Herds
- Condition Scoring Horses: Focus on the Ribs First
- Thin, Fat, or Just Right? Tips for Keeping Your Horse’s Weight on Track
- Beyond Body Condition: Assessing Your Horse’s “Keeper Status”
- In-Depth: Assessing Energy Balance
Easy Keepers
- Overweight Horses Face Multiple Health Risks
- Perils of Pudge: Obesity and Laminitis in Horses
- Balancing Warmth and Weight Gain in Easy Keepers
- Strip-Grazing: Management Tool to Fight Obesity
- Lipomas: Hidden Dangers of Obesity in Horses
Hard Keepers
- Putting Weight on a Skinny Horse
- Why Is This Horse So Skinny?
- Eating Well But Losing Weight: Is This Horse All Right?
- Three High-Calorie Feedstuffs for Horses
- Adding Fat to Horse Diets
- In-Depth: Bag O’ Bones: Managing the Underweight Horse
Malnourished Horses
- Assessing the Malnourished Horse
- Body Condition Score Predicts Survival Rate of Malnourished Horses
- Feeding Horses in Low Body Condition
- Refeeding Malnourished Horses
- Feeding Starved or Malnourished Horses
Reproduction
- Body Condition Affects Mare Reproduction
- Baby Weight: Keep Broodmares in Healthy Body Condition
- Stallion Diets Important for Body Condition, Fertility
- Mare Obesity and Osteochondrosis in Young Horses
- In-Depth: Nutritional Management of Mares: Foundation of a Strong Skeleton
Q&As
- Energy Boost to Cure Chronic Low Body Condition in a Horse
- Body Condition and Young Horses
- Weight-Gain Strategies for Middle-Aged Horses
- How to Best Feed a Mature Easy Keeper
- Slimming Down an Easy Keeper for Competition