Weird Facts Wednesday

Horses height is measured in a term called hands. Although this may be common knowledge for us equestrians, this can be a bit confusing when we first start looking at different heights. So I will explain how it works. One hand is equal to four inches. So if we have a horse that is 14hh that means that it is (14x4) 56 inches or (56x2.54) 142.24cm to the wither. Now this is the part where a lot of people get a little bit confused. If someone says that the horse is fourteen and a  half hands high quite often new equestrians will write 14.5hh. This is because away from this type of measurement we are used to dealing with everything in tens hence then 5 is half. But because we are dealing this measurement going up by fours that means that 2 is half. 14 then 14.1 then 14.2 then 14.3 then it goes to 15 as we have reached the 4 inches which is the start of a new hand measurement. I hope this makes sense to everyone and clears up a bit of the confusion around the hands measurement. This measurement actually dates back to ancient Egyptian units of measurement. It was all related back to the hand, palm, or fist.