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I know that the Dutch simply record horse heights in meters to
two decimal places. I can't imagine any of the UK or US breed societies
adopting the 100 mm metric hand of their own accord, as it would require them to
re-calculate the heights of every registered mare and stallion. For old
breeds such as the Suffolk Punch draft horse, that could mean changing hundreds
of thousands of studbook entries!
There is nothing complicated about the original four-inch hand
still used in Canada, the UK, and the US--the number after the decimal point
simply denotes the number of inches. Hannah is 19.1 hands tall, which is
19 hands 1 inch or 77 inches. It's similar to the descending order English
unit notation used by carpenters and plumbers, where, for example, 3 feet 7
inches is written as 3' 7". -- Jason
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 4:21
AM
Subject: Re: [USMA:34453] Metric US draft
horses
on
2005-09-15 01.44, James J. Wentworth at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
Hello
All,
I just came across an interesting listing on
DraftsForSale.com. It's for a huge Belgian mare named Hannah (at 19.1
hands tall and 2450 pounds, she's an equine giantess!): http://www.draftsforsale.com/ShowAd/index.php?id=43012cf2b71d5
<http://www.draftsforsale.com/ShowAd/index.php?id=43012cf2b71d5>
She is bred to Metric's Rochester out of Lake Ledge Metric, for an April
2006 foal. Now *there's* an outreach opportunity to popularize metric
among the rural US population. If the foal is a filly, perhaps her
owner could be persuaded to name her "Little Miss Metric" ("Missy" for
short). As she grew, she could illustrate how big meters are.
She could also become a living, breathing example of how massive a
metric ton is. --
Jason
Dear Jason,
I
think that, in the fullness of time, hands for horses will be defined as 100
millimetres.
Currently, the British definition of a hand for a horse is
101.6 millimetres. This is simply a direct conversion of 4 inches of 25.4
inches. (Note: Clearly this definition is based on the 'metric inch' of 1959,
as prior to 1959, inches had different values in different parts of the
world-- UK inches, USA inches, Canadian inches, Cape inches, etc.)
So
we can guess that the horse you describe above (at 19.1 hands) is a little
taller than 1.9 metres simply by looking at the first part of the number
(19).
The second part, the '.1', is quite a bit more
complicated.
Firstly the '.' is not a decimal marker; it is a
fractional marker as the 1 refers to 1 finger or 1 quarter (1/4) of a hand; in
this case, it is defined as a quarter of a hand or exactly (according to the
UK definition) 25.4 millimetres.
The height you have given us for the
horse above should be read as:
19.1 hands, which is equal to 4 hands each of
101.6 millimetres plus 1 quarter of a hand (or one finger) of 25.4
millimetres, so the horse is exactly 19 x 101.6 = 1930.4 millimetres plus 1
x 25.4 = 25.4 millimetres and these, added together, means that the horse is
1955.8 millimetres (say 1.95 metres).
As I said it is quite
a bit more complicated -- it's not easy being a horse fancier.
The
alternative of redefining a hand for a horse as 100 millimetres would mean
that this horse would currently be described as 19.5 hands and, in this case,
the '.' would be read as a normal decimal marker.
I doubt that this
sensible approach will be considered by the horse community anytime soon, as,
by their very practice of horse preservation, they label themselves as deep
conservatives.
However, to end as I began, I think that in the fullness
of time hands for horses will be defined as 100 millimetres.
I also
feel strongly that some within the horse community will gradually realise the
stupidity of their current position and will gradually change the definition
of a hand from 101.6 millimetres to 100 millimetres. I believe that some
European countries already define a hand as 100 millimetres although it is
more common to simply measure horse heights in metric units directly, and
avoid the concept of hands (with their competing definitions)
altogether.
Of course, then the entirely arbitrary division between
ponies and horses (currently 14.2 hands = 1473.2 millimetres) might have to be
rounded to something like 1.5 metres, but that's another whole delicious
discussion and argument that the horse community could enjoy for another 100
years or more!
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin LCAMS
Geelong,
Australia
61 3 5241 2008
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.metricationmatters.com
LCAMS means that Pat
Naughtin has been recognised as a 'Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication
Specialist' with the United States Metric Association.
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