Welcome to Horse Weighbridge North East 👋

Horse Weighbridge North East is an independent, data-led equine weight and welfare service founded by Kelly Hartley. We specialise in accurate weight measurement, Body Condition Scoring and proactive weight management.

Established from a desire to make reliable weight data more accessible to horse owners, Horse Weighbridge North East has developed into a specialist service supporting horses and ponies across the North East of England and beyond.

At the heart of the business is a simple principle: better data leads to better-informed decisions, and better-informed decisions support better welfare.

Kelly combines practical experience as a lifelong horse owner with extensive further education. Kelly has a strong interest in the science underpinning equine weight management, nutrition, laminitis prevention and metabolic health. Her approach is deliberately independent and evidence-informed, with the individual horse at the centre of every assessment.

Since establishing the business, Kelly has weighed thousands of horses, from native ponies and leisure horses to high-level competition horses. This breadth of experience has given her a unique appreciation of the considerable variation between individuals — and of why weight management cannot be approached with a one-size-fits-all mindset.

The Founder

Kelly is the Founder and Managing Director of Horse Weighbridge North East.

Her passion for equine weight management began with her first pony, Holly, whose recurring summer weight gain and episodes of apparent discomfort ultimately led Kelly to investigate the relationship between body condition, grazing and laminitis.

That experience fundamentally changed the way she viewed weight management. It also highlighted a problem faced by many horse owners: without an accurate measurement of bodyweight, it can be difficult to know whether management decisions are achieving the desired outcome.

Rather than accepting guesswork as the norm, Kelly set out to make objective weight data more accessible to owners. What began as a solution to a problem with her own pony has developed into a specialist service supporting owners, yards and equestrian organisations with reliable information on which to base their management decisions.

Kelly has continued to build her knowledge through specialist education, including Dr Eleanor Kellon's NRC Plus courses and further study relating to PPID, insulin resistance and The Five Domains Framework. She has also established professional relationships within the leading veterinary practices in her area and regularly provides consultations at the local equine colleges.

Her expertise spans the full spectrum of horse ownership, from companion ponies and leisure horses to elite competition horses. This allows Horse Weighbridge North East to approach every horse as an individual, recognising that a healthy is not defined by a single number.

Horse Weighbridge North East exists to help owners replace guesswork with meaningful information.

The service is designed to be approachable and non-judgemental, recognising that horse owners come from different backgrounds, disciplines and levels of experience. Whether an owner is managing a native pony prone to weight gain, supporting a horse through weight loss, monitoring a competition horse or simply wanting an accurate baseline, the focus remains the same: objective information, informed management and positive welfare outcomes.

Kelly's long-term vision is for Horse Weighbridge North East to be recognised not simply as a mobile weighbridge, but as a trusted source of equine weight, condition and welfare information — supporting owners and professionals to make decisions based on evidence rather than estimation.

Horse Weighbridge North East — taking the guesswork out of horse care.