A healthy horse should have a shiny coat, be bright and alert, and have a body condition that is normal for his breed, discipline, or activity level. Determining a horse's body condition is relatively easy with some basic horse knowledge and information.
The Henneke System of Body Condition Scoring uses a 1-9 scale to rate a horse's overall body condition. A horse with a body condition score of 1 is emaciated and in most cases in danger of starving to death while a horse with a body condition score of 9 is extremely obese. Normal healthy horses have a body condition score from 4-7.
In order to determine a horse's overall body condition score 6 key areas need to be examined: Back, Ribs, Withers, Neck, Shoulder, Tail head.
The Henneke System for Body Condition Scoring of horses utilizes a chart to determine the overall score. It would be exceptional for a horse to score a 3 on his back and a 5 on his tail head. Typically each key area will be within 1 point of the other key areas.
The following chart displays "normal" body condition scores for horses in a variety of working conditions:
Body Condition Scores for Different Disciplines
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Endurance
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4-5
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Eventing
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4-5
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Polo
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4-5
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Ranch
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4-5
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Open mare
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4-6
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Stallion (off season)
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5-7
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Standardbred racehorse
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4-6
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Thoroughbred racehorse
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4-6
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Hunter
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5-7
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Show Jumper
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5-7
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Breeding stallion
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4-6
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Dressage
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5-7
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Quarter Horse
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5-7
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Show hack
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5-7
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Pony
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6-8
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Pregnant mare
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6-8
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For more information and the Henneke Body Condition Scoring chart please visit the following links. Please USE CAUTION: Horses with a body condition score of 1 are severely emaciated and photographs are GRAPHIC.
For the Henneke Body Condition Scoring Chart with Picture visit :
http://www.admani.com/allianceequine/images/BodyConditionScoring/Horse%20Body%20Condition%20Score%20Card.pdf
Additional Body Scoring Links with Pictures:
http://www.shady-acres.com/susan/conditionscore.shtml
http://www.habitatforhorses.org/rescues/bodyscoring.html
http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/PDFpubs/1010.pdf
http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/AG_Equine_2005-01.pdf
