Judie and the 18 handed horse...

[Guest guest]

Oh thank you, Shelly! I finally know what it means now....how embarrasing

LOL

Hugs, Judie

[Guest guest]

>>Ok Liane......excuse my ignorance but what does that mean when you

>>say " 18 hands " ?? I have visions of the horse having 18 hands like

>>we have LOL

Dear Judie,

When a person is talking about a horse that is '18 hands', they're

referring to how tall the horse is. To measure the horse you would

measure from the ground to the top of it's shoulder. A hand is four

inches, so a horse that measures 18 hands is actually 72 " tall at the

shoulder. Don't know where this odd method of measuring came from,

but it is standard for all breeds, at least in the US it is.

Hugs,

Shelly - Who can't wait until she, too, isn't afraid of hurting a

horse by riding it...

[Guest guest]

At 7:55 AM +0000 10/27/01, seastarshelly@... wrote:

>...

> When a person is talking about a horse that is '18 hands', they're

>referring to how tall the horse is. To measure the horse you would

>measure from the ground to the top of it's shoulder. A hand is four

>inches, so a horse that measures 18 hands is actually 72 " tall at the

>shoulder. Don't know where this odd method of measuring came from,

>but it is standard for all breeds, at least in the US it is.

My recollection is that it referred to an old practice of measuring

with the hand held parallel to your belly so that the span from

little finger to thumb joint (~4 " ) is vertical, and then " stacking "

one hand above the other in succession to get to the horse's shoulder.

Now, there is a measure for boobs that involves the hands, but that's

a " new story for a different night. "

--Steve

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