How to Condition Score Horses

First, a few of the misunderstandings-used correctly, condition scoring is independent of a horse's breed, muscling or aerobic fitness, conformation, age, hydration or gut fill. Contrary to a few opinions floating about, it has nothing to do with the amount of glycogen a horse has in his muscle stores. Why? Condition scoring is an assessment only of the amount of body fat covering certain skeletal landmarks on the body, such as the point of the hip and buttocks, ribs, spine and so on. While some of the observation points (such as through the hindquarters or around the tailhead) are also areas occupied by muscle, manual palpation and a little practice will easily differentiate between fat and muscle. Horses with a gut full of hay may look very rounded at first glance, but the prominence of the skeleton will not change upon closer inspection. Likewise, a dehydrated horse will appear tucked-up and long through the underline, but prominence of the landmarks will not significantly change.

So to get started, let's go over the areas of assessment. There are nine areas throughout the body:

1) Neck
2) Withers
3) Shoulder
4) The area directly behind the elbow
5) Topline
6) Ribs
7) Tail head
8) Point of hip
9) Point of buttock

A tenth area that I personally find useful as well is the "twist", the areabetween the thighs, as viewed from behind. Each area should be appraised and scored individually and then the scores averaged to produce a final overall score. This doesn't mean you need to laboriously write down and calculate each area. What it does mean is that you need to look at the total horse and take into account individual differences. Some horses can be quite plump and yet still look a little ribby, so the overall score should look at areas other than just those ribs. Other horses can have quite a bit of fat cover, but because of funny conformation through the croup, look thin in just that one area. Be sure to look at all the areas, then form a general overall score based on individual areas of observation.

When appraising each area, use your hands as well as your eyes. Skeletal landmarks can be hidden by a furry winter coat, dirt, lighting or just the way the horse is standing. Hold your hand flat, fingers together, and feel for the reference points. Then walk around the horse and see if your observations are consistent from the other side as well.

The original developer of this system, D.R. Henneke, has written that for a horse to correctly fall into each of the below described categories, every component of the description must apply. For example, if a horse meets all of the qualifications but one for a condition score of 3, then that horse should be categorized as something other than a 3. After having condition scored over a thousand endurance horses, I respectfully disagree with Dr. Henneke's opinion. As described above, many endurance horses that I've seen may be downright chunky in some areas and lean in others, and sometimes assigning a score halfway between two categories is appropriate. Trying to get more exact than that (for example, a condition score of 3.25) is probably not particularly accurate, as these observations are subjective, not quantitative.

The descriptions for the individual categories are as follows:

Condition Score 1: Emaciated: Bony structures of neck, shoulders and withers easily noticeable. Spinous processes, along the ribs, topline, point of hip and point of buttock all project prominently, with an obvious ridge down the back. Individual vertebrae may be identifiable.There is significant space between inner buttocks ("twist"). The animal is extremely emaciated; no fatty tissue can be felt.