The "Hand" Measurement for Horses

When someone asks "How tall is this horse?", the answer usually comes in units known as the "hand." It is a common unit of measurement now used only for quantifying the height of the horse.

Tracing a tradition backward is a dicey proposition. We know that today a "hand" is 4 inches, with one inch increments, and the measurement is from level ground to the highest non-variable skeletal structure on the horse, the withers.

History suggests that at one time, perhaps 5,000 years ago, it was as rudimentary as stacking a man's clenched fist one upon another, which tells us it was rather rough and inaccurate.

At some point, horse owners, and especially traders, agreed that the "hand" will always represent 4 inches, and will always measure the height from level ground to the withers.

But why a "hand"? In the ancient Mediterranean cultures, the hand unit developed – along with other measures – based upon references people of the time could relate to, such as body parts (e.g., foot). The problem was, whose foot, or whose hand? There were some inaccuracies.

Ancient Egypt - 3,000 BC

According to encyclopaedic sources, the "hand" measurement was four fingers wide at one point in time, and at others it was four fingers and a thumb wide. The rules of trade demanded the same measurement everywhere, and the hand was eventually standardized by the Egyptians around 3,000 BC based upon a complex system including the "cubit." Because of the enormous influence of the Egyptian culture, use of this system migrated to other countries and cultures.

The Cubit

In the Egyptian system, measurement was based on the cubit (sometimes mentioned in reference to the construction of the pyramids or Noah's ark). The Egyptian cubit is generally recognized as having been the most widely accepted standard of linear measurement in the very ancient world.

The cubit was based on the length of the arm from the elbow to the extended fingertips, an arbitrary distinction, which was then standardized by a royal master cubit of black granite. It was kept in a royal vault and all the cubit sticks in use in Egypt were measured at regular intervals.

The standardized "hand" has become as good an increment to use in the determination of a horse's height at the withers as any other. But it is by no means the only means.

Regardless of its origin, the hand has become a tradition of British measurement. In the rest of Europe however, height was – and still is – measured in metres and centimetres. In some places, like Europe and South Africa, there exists the dual situation of measurement in hands and centimetres. At some sales, for example, the height (at the withers) of a horse for sale is catalogued as 16.3 hh. 170/181 + 3.

16.3 hh. 170/181 + 3 - Explanation

One can argue which system is better, the hand is accurate to one inch whereas the metric system can be as accurate as the decimal places you include. But in measuring a horse, how much accuracy is required, especially with growing horses?

If measurements within an inch are good enough, and there are 5,000 years of tradition behind the system, just how easy is it going to be to change it?

Withers - The top of the shoulders, between the neck and the back. The highest point of the withers is used in measuring the horse's height.
The highest point of a horse is the top of its head (called a poll). But since a horse can move its head up and down, it is impossible to take an accurate measurement from the ground to the top of its head. The height of a horse is therefore measured in a vertical line from the ground to the withers.

History of Linear Measurement

10th Century (Saxon King Edgar & Henry I)
Distance from nose tip to outstretched thumb
= 1 yard

12th Century (Richard the Lionheart)
Standardization of measures first documented

13th Century (Edward I): Measurements defined
3 grains of barley = 1 inch
12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard (or ulna)
5 ½ yards = 1 rod (or perch) (Also equal to the combined total length of the left feet of the first 16 men leaving church on Sunday)
40 rods x 4 rods = 1 acre (Also the amount of land one man with an ox can work in one day.)

Note: A horse of 15.2 hands measures 15 times 4 inches, plus 2 inches = 62 inches. It is therefore important to keep in mind that you can have 15.3 hands but after the next full inch the height is taken as 16 hands not 15.4.

References:

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=114986&tocid=13608#13608.toc
http://www.bibliomania.com/2/3/255/frameset.html

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