Donated weighbridge plays essential part in rehabilitation process

Our Glenda Spooner Farm Rescue and Rehoming Centre, in Somerset, needed a new weighbridge last year after the old one – a vital part of the rehabilitation and management of our horses and ponies – stopped working. Fortunately, Petplan very generously donated £8,150 to cover the cost of a new weighbridge, which has now been installed, as well as three years’ servicing fees.

Horses and ponies come into our care from all sorts of background and for numerous reasons, but one thing many of them have in common is arriving at an unhealthy weight. Whether the horse needs to gain or lose weight, weigh tapes are very useful for monitoring their progress but don’t always measure a horse’s bodyweight accurately.

With weight management playing a huge part in our horses and ponies’ rehabilitation, our Rescue and Rehoming Centres all have weighbridges to enable the team to gather accurate data. Close monitoring of our horses and ponies is especially important now that the grass has started to grow in earnest, as they can gain weight remarkably quickly – something which can’t accurately be detected by eye.

Centre Manager Claire Dickie explains why the weighbridge is such a key piece of equipment:

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Read more about weight management

• Check out our Right weight page.
• Read our tips on managing a good doer.