A hand is 4". The measurement was used because most people have not (historically) had easy access to measuring instruments. They therefore used body parts as the measure.
A long, long time ago, people didn't know how to read, and they had few tools. Measuring was done using body parts. Even Noah built the ark using cubits - a measurement that represented the distance between the fingertip and the elbow. Horses are smaller than giant arks, so they used a smaller body part. Some measuring is still done today using body parts. The hand is one, and fingers are another.
Horses are measured in hands because it is a traditional unit of measurement that corresponds to the width of a human hand. Humans are measured in feet because it is a practical unit of measurement that has been commonly used for height due to its ease of conversion and relation to body proportions.
This carries back to early history. Obviously the tape measure is a relatively new invention, in older times measurements were not exact, but more estimated than anything else. You will find that most hands (in adults) have the same distance from one side to the other, measuring across the palm. Therefore this was the way that was adopted in anyone that dealt with horses. When buying and selling, it was and still is important to know the measurements of the horse in question. But this form of measurement was adopted as an easy and convenient way of relating the size of the animal, and it was a tool that was always available. It was simply adopted and was never dropped as it is convenient and for the most part accurate.
It's just an expression. One hand equals four inches, a little smaller then the average person's hand. This is most likely where the expression comes from.
Answer2:
The use of hands to measure horses has been around for a long time. Four inches is supposed to be the width of a hand and in this way people were able to create a standard of measuring horses so that people would not be able to say their horses were bigger than they really were ,or lie to potential buyers and breeders.
Old Billy the barge horse was measured at 19 hands (6 feet 3 inches) tall. He was considered one of the tallest horses in recorded history.
Horses are measured in "hands," which represent the width of the average man's palm, standardized at four inches. A horse is measured from the ground (front hoof) in a straight line up to the highest point of the withers (above the shoulder, where the back and neck meet, roughly where the mane ends). The average Quarter Horse is about 15 hands, times 4 = 60 inches, so about five feet tall from hoof to withers. Hanovarians can be as tall as 17 or 19 hands.
A horse's stride can vary depending on its breed and size, but on average, a horse's stride is around 8-12 feet in length. Trotting horses have shorter strides compared to horses that are galloping or cantering.
It is a special measure that people use to measure horses. It is four inches and you measure the horse or pony from their withers (where the mane starts on the horse's back) down to their feet.
A hand is the typical way of measuring horses. A hand is 4 inches, so a horse that stands 18 hands is 6 feet at the withers. (or top of horses upper back)
the answer is horse, because horses are measured in hands not feet ~Furfur
The height of a horse is measured in hands. The hooves are measured in kinkajous, and the teeth measured in feet.
The height of horses is often measured in hands. A hand is four inches, or 1/3 foot. So fifteen hands = 15 hands * 1/3 foot per hand = 15/3 feet = 5 feet
Old Billy the barge horse was measured at 19 hands (6 feet 3 inches) tall. He was considered one of the tallest horses in recorded history.
Hands is popular, otherwise feet or meters, depending on location.
just like humans feet work its just they have 4 feet and humans have 2 feet.
You need to have a measuring stick. Make sure your horse is on level ground with all four feet on the ground. Place the level on the horses withers to measure it. The horses height is measured in hands
Normally humans are measured in either feet or meters.
my hands and feet are slightly webbed. sry, no pictures
Horses and ponies are measured in hands (like we're measured in feet - hh=hands high). The smallest size a horse can be is 14.3hh. Anything above that is a horse. A medium horse is about 15.2hh. Anything 14.2hh or below is a pony, apart from the Falabella which is actually classed as a horse and is the smallest equine animal there is. There is no limit to how big a horse is. A horse would be considered big at about 16.2hh and over.
Hippopodes resemble humans except they have horses' hooves in lieu of feet.
humans walk on their metatarsals. Metatarsals are the center area of the foot, metacarpals are the palms(on the hands).