Hand (unit)

"Hands" may be abbreviated to "h", or "hh". The "hh" form is sometimes interpreted as standing for "hands high". When spoken aloud, hands are stated by numbers, 15.0 is "fifteen hands", 15.2 is alternately "fifteen-two" or "fifteen hands, two inches", and so on. ==History==

Ancient Egypt of Turin, showing digit, palm, hand and fist lengths The hand, sometimes also called a handbreadth or handsbreadth, is an anthropic unit, originally based on the breadth of a male human hand, either with or without the thumb, but some confusion between the various types of hand measurement, and particularly between the hand and the handsbreadth, appears to have persisted. Phillips's dictionary of 1706 gives four inches for the length of the handful or hand, and three inches for the handsbreadth; Mortimer gives the same, three inches for the Hand's-breadth, and four for the "Handful, or simply, Hand", but adds "The hand among horse-dealers, &c. is four-fingers' breadth, being the fist clenched, whereby the height of a horse is measured", thus equating "hand" with both the palm and the fist. Similarly, Wright's 1831 translation of Buffon mentions "A hand breadth (palmus), the breadth of the four fingers of the hand, or three inches", but the Encyclopædia Perthensis of 1816 gives under Palm (4): "A hand, or measure of lengths comprising three inches". ==Use in measuring horses==

s, from 14 hh (142 cm) in 1700 to 15. hh (159 cm) in 1900. Today the hand is used to measure the height of horses, In those countries where hands are the usual unit for measuring horse height, inches rather than hands are commonly used in the measurement of smaller equines including miniature horses/ponies, miniature mules, donkeys, and Shetland ponies. A horse is measured from the ground to the top of the highest non-variable point of the skeleton, the withers. For official measurement, the spinous process of the fifth thoracic vertebra may be identified by palpation, and marked if necessary. Some varieties of Miniature horses are measured at the base of the last true hairs of the mane rather than at the withers. For international competition regulated by the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) and for USEF competition in the US, a horse can be measured with shoes on or off. In the United Kingdom, official measurement of horses is overseen by the Joint Measurement Board (JMB). For JMB purposes, the shoes must be removed and the hooves correctly prepared for shoeing prior to measurement. ==See also==