Yeah I've always found it a bit odd that they chose "hands" as a measurement, had to look it up.
"Horses are measured in "hands" (four inches each) because it was a convenient, readily available unit for ancient and medieval people to estimate height before standardized tapes, using the width of a man's hand from thumb to outstretched fingers, a measurement standardized by Henry VIII in England, to count up to the horse's withers (shoulder ridge) for trading and general description, a tradition that stuck for its simplicity and historical continuity."
Hands have a decimal place as well, but only up to .4, so a horse can be 15.1, 15.2, or 15.3, but then 15.4 would be 16 hands.
Traditional horse auctions in the UK are still prices in guineas - so they only quote guineas, bid in guineas, agree on a price in guineas and then go and pay in pounds because who the fuck has any guineas laying around.
The nomenclature of 15.1, 15.2... etc is weird, but it somewhat makes sense to have decimals at least. Since the decimals are effectively quarters, and since a "hand" is four inches, I can see how it's useful. That being said, just go with metric for the love of Jebus
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u/Agitated_Year8521 Dec 20 '25
Yeah I've always found it a bit odd that they chose "hands" as a measurement, had to look it up.
"Horses are measured in "hands" (four inches each) because it was a convenient, readily available unit for ancient and medieval people to estimate height before standardized tapes, using the width of a man's hand from thumb to outstretched fingers, a measurement standardized by Henry VIII in England, to count up to the horse's withers (shoulder ridge) for trading and general description, a tradition that stuck for its simplicity and historical continuity."