Abstract

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the efficacy of a semester long assignment to improve knowledge and skills regarding student use of the Henneke equine body condition scoring system (Henneke et al., 1983). Over 4 years, students were exposed to one of two teaching methods, either one guided practice (2013, 2015) or one guided practice and weekly unguided assignments (2014, 2016). Students completed the same laboratory final exam in all years. During years in which students gained weekly practice, laboratory final exam grades reflected that students more accurately (P<0.01) assigned body condition scores, despite the fact that they were equally capable (P>0.3) of identifying the areas of a horse’s body that are used for body condition scoring. Lastly, we determined that the difference between student and instructor scores was correlated to actual score (P=0.007, r2=0.34). This indicates that students tended to over-estimate (overestimate average 0.16±0.82 [mean, standard deviation] units) the scores of horses with a BCS5) the scores of horses with a BCS>5. From these data, we conclude that weekly, unguided practice improves accuracy among students using the body condition scoring system, although this increase in accuracy is not due to a greater ability to locate all of the body areas used for body condition scoring. Further, students require greater exposure to horses at either end of the body condition scoring scale, and further research should be performed in order to determine if this exposure could increase accuracy when scoring under and over-conditioned horses. We believe that teaching students to correctly use the equine body condition scoring system will have positive impacts on equine management once students enter the workforce.