Body Condition Scoring for Horses

The ability to assess your horse’s body condition is critical. Mastering this scoring system is not only important to establish a satisfactory feeding program but also for having a standard to measure your success in maintaining your horse’s body weight. Weight tapes are useful but the body condition scoring system is the true barometer. The nine-point body scoring system provides a useful tool to objectively determine if a horse is too fat, too thin or just right. The nine categories of this system range from 1 (emaciated) to 9 (obese) with 5 (moderate) to 6 (moderately fleshy) representing a satisfactory body condition for most horses.

Most horse owners will focus on the ribs as their guide is determining the degree of fatness or thinness. As you read on you will learn that there are 9 external body parts that are part of the body condition scoring system, the rib area is just one of them.

A couple of suggested approaches in learning this system:

Become very familiar with the scoring descriptions for condition score 5 (CS5) and during your evaluation determine if the horse meets the criterion of a CS5, or is less than CS5 or is higher than CS5. Once you determine the direction then use the guide to narrow which numerical score best applies.
You can also divide the condition scoring guide into thirds, where the bottom third are scores 1, 2 & 3, the middle third are scores 4, 5 & 6 and the top third are scores 7, 8 & 9. Your first impression should be is the horse in the bottom third, middle third or top third. Then determine which of the 3 scores in the section best applies.

Most individuals start with the approach outlined in #1 and as they become more familiar with the system as well as more proficient, they will begin using the approach outlined in #2.

The major external anatomy areas to evaluate body condition by manual palpation and visual inspection include:

Along the top side of the neck
Withers
Back or top-line
Rib area
Base of the tailhead
Point of buttock
Point of the hip
Area behind the shoulder and above the elbow
Area between the thighs (twist)

Although scoring decisions can be based on visual observations, manual inspections are necessary and useful to properly assess the external body fat cover of the horse. Use your hand (palpation) to feel the fat cover of the horse. For consistency and accuracy during the manual inspection, be sure that your fingers are together and your hand is flexible, not stiffed or cupped. As you move your hand along the surface of the horse’s body vary the hand pressure. This will allow you to detect differences in the fat thickness. Practice and experience will provide most horse owners the skill and confidence that will eventually allow them to occasionally omit the palpation procedure for a rough estimate. However, palpation will be especially useful for horses with long, heavy winter hair coats and to be more precise in identifying the degree of fatness for horses that are 7, 8 and 9.

In most circumstances, all external anatomy areas of the evaluation guide should receive equal emphasis. You should observe the horse from all four views: rear, front, and both sides. This scoring system actually involves evaluation of body fat if properly practiced; this evaluation system must be independent of size, conformation and quality and degree of muscling of the horse. External anatomy areas of distinct conformation such as prominent withers, flat couplings, transition of neck into very straight shoulders, weak top lines and injuries that impair conformation must be considered and these areas will usually be eliminated in the evaluation or at least emphasized less. For example, evaluation of horses with high withers and flat backs would require more emphasis on fat cover over the ribs, behind the shoulder and around the tailhead. In addition, young horses appear to have more fat cover over the rib area than mature horses of the same body condition score.

As the horse ages the animal’s body gradually lose tone and tautness. Pregnancy is another factor that influences this change. Most aged horses will not maintain the level of fat cover over their ribs and withers areas when compared to their younger years. It is not unusual to have an “old-timer” that is a condition score of 7.0 when the ribs are easily visible and the withers more pronounced because of less fat cover. As the horse’s body condition score increases, you will notice increased fat along the side of the withers, behind the shoulders, along the side of the neck, over the ribs and around the tailhead. Patchy fat deposits are not uncommon with horses that score an 8 and 9. Excessively fat horses (8 and 9) may also have fat deposits along the inner thighs, the flank area and the area behind the shoulder and above the elbow.

HORSE BODY CONDITION SCORE CHART

(click on the rating for more detailed information)

1 Poor / Emaciated

Extremely emaciated; prominently projected spinous processes, ribs, tailhead, point of hips and point of buttocks; bone structures of withers, shoulder and neck easily noticeable: no fatty tissue can be felt

2 Very Thin

Emaciated; slight fat covering over spinous processes; lumbar transverse processes feel rounded; spinous process, ribs, tailhead, point of hips and point of buttocks are prominent; withers, shoulders and neck structure visible

3 Thin

Fat buildup on spinous processes is visible; transverse cannot be felt; slight fat cover over ribs is visible; tailhead prominent; individual vertebrae can’t be seen visually; point of hips appear rounded and visible; point of buttocks not distinct; withers, shoulders and neck emphasized

4 Moderately Thin

Slight ridge along back; faint visible outline of ribs, tailhead prominence depends on conformation but can feel fat; point of hips not visible; withers, shoulders and neck not obviously thin

5 Moderate

Back is flat (no crease or ridge); ribs not visually seen but easily felt; fat around tailhead beginning to feel spongy; withers appears rounded; shoulders and neck blend smoothly into the body

6 Moderately Fleshy

May have slight back crease; fat over ribs is spongy; fat is soft around tailhead; fat being deposited along the sides of withers, behind shoulders and along the side of the neck

7 Fleshy

May have slight back crease; individual ribs can be felt but noticable filling between ribs; fat soft around tailhead; fat deposited along withers, behind shoulders and along the neck

8 Fat

Back crease; difficult to feel ribs; fat spongy around tailhead; neck noticeable thickening; fat deposited along inner thighs

9 Extremely Fat

Obvious back crease; patchy fat over ribs; bulging fat around tailhead, along withers, behind shoulders and along neck; fat along inner thighs which may rub together; fatty flank

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