When I see ads for horses for sale, sometimes the ad will say ';15 hands';..what does that mean?

also, what is a ';paint'; horse?When I see ads for horses for sale, sometimes the ad will say ';15 hands';..what does that mean?
It refers to the height... Check out wiki...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hands_%28ho鈥?/a>When I see ads for horses for sale, sometimes the ad will say ';15 hands';..what does that mean?
1 )The 'hand' is a measurement of height.


One hand is equal to 0.1meter or 10 centimeter or approximately four inches.





A horse is measured from the ground at the front legs to the shoulder.


';15 hands'; equals to about 60 inches or five feet. That means that particular horse is five feet in height at the shoulder.





2 ) ';paint'; horse means 'American paint horse'. It is a specific breed of horse in which the white hair on the skin are in a specific proportion to the red ones.


More ever , to be classified as a paint horse it has to be registered with the competent authorities and its pedigree to be maintained. Just any colored horse can not be called a paint horse.
a horses height is meausured in hands so this horse was 15hands high no idea wot a paint horse is
The hand is an old measure that is still used for horses. It is the width of a man's hand and it is measured from the top of the shoulder to the ground.





A paint horse is spotted like a calico cat.





Hmmm....now that I think about it, I have hear of an old broken down horse being called ';Old Paint'; in an affectionate way..... I may be wrong about the spotted business.
That is how many people have touched it.





A paint horse is a horse that has actually been painted, usually blue.
15 hands is the measurment of the horse (how high) and a paint is a type of horse do a google on it
15 hands would be the horses height, they used to measure from the bottom of your palm to the finger tip. Painted means a solid color with different colored spots on it....
A hand is a form of measurement used to tell the height of a horse. One hand is equal to 4 inches. The horse is measured from the ground to the top of the withers. So a horse that is 15 hands high (abbreviated 15 hh) is 60 inches from the ground to the top of the withers.
Paints are the ones that are typically white with large brown spots...they tend to be on the shorter side. ';Hands'; is the height of the horse from the ground to, I believe, the shoulders...I could be wrong on the exact location of where the measurement stops. I also believe that 16 hands is about average...14 is short.
In the old days, the size of horses was measured by using the human hand - the width from thumb to pinkie. So a horse that is 15 hands is larger than a horse that is 12 hands. However, I'm not sure what the standard width of a hnad is nowdays.





A paint is a spotted horse with a white background. Kind of like someone threw paint at the horse and it landed in blotches. The blotches are often brown or black.
a hand is equivalent to about 4 inches in the 1800's and before, cowboys would measure their horses with their actual hands which is about 4 inches wide. It measures from the ground to their withers which is their shoulder blade. My horse in fact, is 15.3 hands which is 15 hands and three inches