My Bellisimo M x Michelangelo colt is here and now 4.5 weeks old
He was tall enough that he couldn’t go under momma (who is 16.2/16.3hh) at 8hrs old
He’s now in a 40" blanket and his withers are higher than the waistband of my breeches (I’m 5’7" and mostly leg)
I’m terrified he will be 18hh! How soon can I string test him?
Anyone else have tales of big foals that grew into average sized horses? (I know puppies are often like that)
How closely related is foal size to mature height?
No. My Feuertanzer filly was enormous, the size of a 3month old at 3 days old. A real little freak of nature LOL but she has matured to barely 16 hh on a bad hair day.
I think string tests you have to wait until they are a year old.
Nope! Some mares grow them large in-utero, but I can usually tell very quickly following birth if their size is true size or not. I look more at the frame to judge the mature size.
I understood the string test to be more accurate from a year old, as Molly Malone says.
I’m hoping one of mine doesn’t get as big as the string test says she might, lol.
Huge babies don’t equal huge mature animals.
String tests are jokes anyway.
No. My huge foal matured at 16.1h. String tests are not accurate till 12 mos old.
I’ve had big foals get not so big and small foals get very big. So, no.
Kathy
No. Some of my smallest foals ended up my largest at maturation, and some of the largest stopped growing earlier and ended up average height. Much more can be predicted by parents and grandparents, full siblings, and what the youngster looks like as a long yearling (gangly, unfinished may be tall, starting to look finished will probably stop growing sooner).
Another no. I’ve had it go both ways. Huge foals that topped out at 15.3, huge foals that ended up big. I haven’t yet had a tiny foal turn into a huge adult, but I suspect it goes all ways. I don’t breed for size - so I consider anything over 16.2 to be pretty big.
I can’t testify to the large foals, but my mare typically makes “small” foals at birth and they mature to normal heights for their breeding. But they are definitately smaller at birth.
I don’t think so either though it does give me pause in considering crosses. Mares who produce large foals make me stick with stallions known for producing easy foaling and smaller babies.
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