Know Your horses Body Condition Scoring

Spring Equine Care

by Lindsey Close, PAS

The saga of spring and horse ownership… brisk mornings, fresh horses, and getting covered in shedding hair during grooming sessions. With all the time spent grooming for a lustrous coat, it is also a wonderful opportunity to check in on your horse’s current health and wellness status. Taking a multifaceted approach to your horse’s wellness can lead to a better understanding of areas your horse might be struggling with and bring to light appropriate areas that need adjustment. Some methods of scoring a horse’s body composition that complement Body Condition Scoring (BCS) are Cresty Neck Scoring, Muscling Evaluation, Muscle Atrophy Scoring System (MASS), evaluating their topline, and reassessing their activity level. 

Body Condition Scoring

The Henneke Body Condition Scoring system, developed in 1983 by Don Henneke, PhD, is considered the industry's golden standard for monitoring the development, or lack of, adipose tissue in 6 key areas on the horse’s body. While Body condition scoring can relatively be visually assessed by a well-trained eye, it is best to have a hands-on approach. Ideally, you would palpate the areas to get a feel for the adipose tissue or any present bony structures.

Scan for more helpful information and resources for evaluating the body composition of horses.

The 6 areas that are evaluated are the crest of the neck, withers, behind the shoulder, rib cage area, the loin area of the back, and tailhead. The best way to break this down is to approach each section separately and record the number you feel best represents what adiposity you are feeling (or not). Once you have evaluated all 6 areas, you add them all together and then divide by 6, averaging the overall BCS score.  

 

The reason why we want to monitor a horse’s BSC is to ensure that it stays at a healthy or ideal score. Too much adiposity, or fat accumulation, can begin to have detrimental effects on the horse’s health status. While utilizing a BCS system to monitor your horse’s condition is a key factor in a wellness strategy, it doesn’t define an actual body weight, nor does it define quality muscling or topline. It is important to note that this Henneke system strictly focuses on adipose tissue. Conformation can cause some pitfalls when evaluating a horse’s BCS. Remember to focus specifically on the 6 key areas and ignore things like high withers, hunter bumps, roach back, or ewe neck features. These can mislead your eye and influence a score that won’t be as precise as if you focus strictly on the adiposity in the area. As a note, donkey body condition scoring is done with a different system, and mule owners will want to consider the 2 methods for determining their mule’s condition.



Weight

Many factors contribute to a horse’s weight. Breed, class, environment, feeding program, and management practices are some factors that can affect a horse’s potential to be underweight, a healthy weight, or overweight. The best way to determine the weight of a horse is to put them on a scale. There are other methods, like weight tapes, the Healthy Horse app, or measurements that can help calculate a horse’s weight when a scale isn’t available, but these can be subjective and somewhat inaccurate. While a weight guesstimate is handy information, it does not give a full indication of the horse’s health or wellness status. Pairing this information with the horse’s body condition score and other methods gives some trajectory to creating an appropriate diet plan for the horse. 



Activity Level

Understanding the horse's activity level is important to know when choosing the right feeds for them. We also need to know when this activity level changes, so we can make proper adjustments. If horses are going into training, or going on layup, we have a change in nutrition requirements to adjust for. We also need to consider an electrolyte program if the horse is going to be sweating significantly more than the current program accounts for. 


The National Research Council (NRC) defines activity levels for horses at maintenance, or working/in training at light, moderate, heavy, or intense activity levels. As a horse works through physically demanding levels on intensity, we need to make sure we match their diet with the proper amount of energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals, while maintaining electrolyte and hydration balance.

Stable Mix  

Elk Grove Milling, Inc. is best known for their equine feed line called Stable Mix™. This line features several complete feeds to address many different life stages and activity levels. Elk Grove Milling, Inc. has been manufacturing high-quality horse feeds since 1982.