Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1892 — A Horse’s Weight. [ARTICLE]

A Horse’s Weight.

Many people, even among those who frequently make use of horses, have little idea what ap ordinary horse weighs, and would have hard work to guess whether a given animal, standing before their eyes, weighed five hundred or fifteen hundred pounds. Yet they would have no such difficulty with a man, and would probably be able to guess, especially if they were good Yankees, within ten or twenty pounds of his weight. The governments of Europe have long been purchasing and weighing horses for the military service, and transferring them from carriage or draught employment to the various branches of the cavalry and artillery. The animals arc ordinarily assigned according to weight. The French military authorities find that an ordinary light carriage or riding horse, such as in the United States would be called a “good little buggy horse,” weighs from 380 to 400 kilogrammes—say from 850 to 900 pounds, Such horses as these are assigned to the light cavalry corps. The next grade above, which in civil life passes as a “coupe horse,” or carriage horse of medium weight, range# in weight up to 480 kilogrammes, about 1,050 pounds. This horse goes to mount the cavalry of the line. Next comes thp fashionable “coach horse” of persons of luxury, which weighs to 580 kilogrammes, or from 1,100 to nearly 1,300 pounds. These horses go to serve the purposes of drill for the cavalry belonging to the reserve military forces. Above these there are still two grades of heavy horses. The first are those used for ordinary draught purposes and are commonly found drawing the omnibuses of Paris. These weigh from 500 to 700 kilogrammes—l,loo to nearly 1,500 pounds. The heaviest horses are the Clydesdales and Percherons, which are oxen in size and strength, and which weigh from 600 to 800, and sometimes even up to 900 kilogrammes; that is, from 1,300 up to nearly 2,000 pounds. None of these Percherons of the heaviest weight are employed in the military service; but some of the lighter ones are used for draught and artillery purposes.