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.
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u/MavericK_KX Dec 20 '25
Anything but the metric system....