That is exactly what many equine businesses and stables have done. They use
a metric hand of 100 mm (1 decimeter).
Some countries (the Netherlands, in particular) measure horses' heights in
meters to two decimal places. The metric hand is easily related to meters
since 10 metric hands equals 1 meter (for example, a 17.3 metric hand draft
horse is 1.73 meters tall--just move the decimal point one space to the
left). Also, there's not much chance of confusing metric hands and
meters--a "1.73 hand" horse would be tinier than the smallest miniature
horse foal! :-) -- Jason
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Wade VMS Systems" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 6:49 AM
Subject: [USMA:34586] Re: Metric US draft horses
>The drive to preserve the 'hand' is a drive to protect the word 'hand' as
>a
symbol that the user is part of the 'in' crowd of horse person's who
understands the jargon of horses;
Surely there is a very simple solution to the hand. Simply replace it
by the decimeter, that way the numbers don't have to change.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Wade | EMail: tee dot wade at eurokom dot ie
EuroKom | Tel: +353 (1) 296-9696
A2, Nutgrove Office Park | Fax: +353 (1) 296-9697
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