Measuring horse heights

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Have any of you ever heard of advertising a horse's height at the bum?

I just saw an ad on Craigslist stating the horse is 15 hands at the bum - but the photo shows that the back end of this horse is clearly taller than the withers.

It's a first for me and I was just wondering.

Cheryl

 

[katrinag]

Where we taught to measure at the withers ONLY!!! Not the bum. Somone is confused.

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Quote:
That's how I was taught too.

Here's the ad:
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/grd/1288197661.html

 

[patandchickens]

Nope, that's a first for me and I've seen a looooot of horse ads -- you may have found the first instance in the history of the human race of someone doing that

I'm sure it does sound better to some people (with dumb height prejudices -- although sadly many buyers do have dumb height prejudices) to say "15hh at the bum" rather than "14.1hh but really really butt-high"

Pat

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Quote:
I found it interesting that they say that they measured at the bum in the craigslist ad, but if one goes to their website, they don't qualify the measurement.

Cheryl

 

[AkTomboy]

Craigslist horse adds make me laugh I always love the 14.7 hand high horse and so on. Just dont understand how people dont even know how to measure the horse they are going to sell. Just makes you laugh at times.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I think this is simply a way to make the horse seem taller than it really is. I've never heard measureing the backside, only the withers. I think this is a small horse and they were hoping to beef the ad up by measuring to the highest point on the horse...

-Kim

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Quote:
Pretty much what I figured.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quote:
Pretty much what I figured.

Which is silly, because anyone who reads the ad is going to think the same thing all of us did "is this a joke?". Yeah, you might gain more interest by saying "15 hands," but anyone who sees that horse in person is more than likely going to know the difference. Unfortunately that ad is going to backfire on them, because something like that is going to make you look deceitful, and nobody wants to buy a horse from a tongue-in-cheek seller.

-Kim

 

[Haviris]

Yes I have, for a young horse that is in a growing stage sometimes they will list the butt height to imply the horse will get atleast that tall. How old was the horse in the ad?

I've never measured that way, but I don't think it's that uncommon. Some horses are just butt high.

I've also seen ads for a 14.1 5 year old horse that say the horse should end up at 15 hands. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.