Striking a Balance:
Nutritional management plays a key role in maintaining maximum performance and productivity of horses. One tool, body condition scoring, can be easily adapted and utilized by all owners to manage the proper timing and the amount and type of supplemental feed needed to maximize performance. Body Condition Scoring (BCS) is a classification system used to determine relative fatness or body condition of horses. The BCS system was developed at Texas A & M University (Henneke and co-workers, 1983) to visually quantify the amount of body fat on a horse. Body condition only refers to stored fat, not to protein, vitamin, or mineral status of the horse. The amount of fat on a horse’s body affects many physiological functions, such as reproductive efficiency and work tolerance. The balance between energy intake and energy expenditure is reflected in a horse’s body condition. The scoring system can be used for all breeds and classes of horses. Some variation in normal patterns of fat storage exists among different breeds of horses. For instance:
• Thoroughbreds have higher withers and lighter muscling than stock breeds.
• American Saddlebreds can have large deposits of fat on the neck and tailhead, yet the ribs show.
Best Condition:
Horses are ranked on a scale of 1 to 9, with 1 being poor and 9 being extremely fat. Horses should be maintained at condition scores of 5-7 for optimum health and performance. Optimum BCS for working horses is 5-6, and optimum BCS for broodmares is 6-7. The difference in the optimum scores is that reproductive efficiency is better when broodmares are maintained at scores of 6-7. Broodmares that have foaled need some fat stores due to the high nutritional requirements of lactation and recovery from foaling. It is more difficult to put needed weight on a lactating broodmare versus keeping the broodmare in optimum body condition.
Horses maintained at BCS of 4 or below may suffer from decreased immunity, impaired reproductive efficiency, and lower work tolerance. Maintaining horses at BCS of 8-9 is not economically justified and predisposes them to colic, laminitis, and founder. Overly fat horses also have poorer reproductive performance and decreased work performance.
How to Score:
► Visually observe the horse’s side profile from a distance of 15-20 feet. This will usually give one a good idea of the general condition of the horse — too thin, too fat, about right.
• Horses with noticeable ribs will score 4 or lower.
• If the ribs are not noticeable, the horse will score 5 or greater.
• Horses with long or thick hair coats will need closer examination by feeling the rib area. Be sure to distinguish between fat and muscle bulk/tone.
► Next, move close to the horse. Observe and feel for fat at the back, ribs, neck, shoulders, withers, and tail-head, comparing the horse's condition to the descriptions listed on the Horse Body Condition Scorecard.
Estimating a Horse’s Body Weight:
(Heart girth2 x Length) ÷ 330 = Weight in lb
• Measure in inches the heart girth just behind the withers and elbows
• Measure in inches from point of shoulder to point of buttocks.
• This measurement has a 0.90 correlation with actual weight
