Then, have them measure this height using their hands. Students should use a ruler to measure the width of their own hands for comparison. A horse is considered a pony if it is less than 14.2 hands tall. Have students place another piece of tape on the wall at this height. The notation of using a decimal point for inches rather than tenths may be confusing for elementary school children.
Students can also engage in some interesting borrowing from inches to hands when doing conversions.