Long Yearling Height vs. Maturity Height? *YEARLING EVALUATION ADDED POST #8*

Is there a general rule of thumb somewhere that i’m not aware of to estimate maturity height?

I’m looking at a long yearling (two in late May) that my fiance’s parents have who I helped foal when the mare was really struggling… I’ve always wanted the mare, but i’m more interested in a show horse than a broodmare so i’m opting to buy the filly instead…

Anyway, long story short - the filly is an honest 16HH at the wither right now… what height would be reasonable to expect when she’s fully grown?

Her dam, Sew Neva Ask (by Yoonevano (x Seattle Slew), out of a Cielo’s Gift mare) is about 17.1 to be conservative… her sire, Brunswick (by Private Account (by Damascas) out of a Mr. Prospector mare) is about 16.2.

The full brother to this filly is roughly 16.3 -/+ as a late two year old.

TIA =}

I have a similar sized gelding who is a month older than your filly and he is a true 16.1h.

Gelding dam is 16.3 1/2 and sire is 16.3 but also known to throw big. Going by the ol’ add a hand at 2 theory he should end up likely 17.2 right. I don’t think he’ll get there, and here’s why.
Dam was born here, so I watched her grow up, we don’t often get to see how the parents of our foals grew, so here is my thinking on why my guy will (hopefully) stop at 17. She grew the same way! Her parents were not big, dam 16h and sire 16.2h, but I found myself with a 130lb filly at birth, who was 15.3h at 1st bday, and was 16.2 on 2nd bday. Then she slowed way down thank god, and now as a 5yr old she is holding at 16.3 1/2. Of course by the old add a hand on 2nd bday he could end up 17.2 I guess, but I just don’t see that he has quite the leg for that, and I don’t want him to prove me wrong!

I guess you never really know until they grow up how big they will end up though! After all horses love to “surprise” us in so many creative ways!

Thank you for your response!

The only other horse I really have to compare to is the oldest son of the mare… he was small (15.1HH) and stocky at 3, then basically exploded over the winter before he turned 4. He’s now 16.2HH and lean and lanky.

This filly and her full brother who’s 1 year older are by a different stallion (our resident stallion, graded stakes winner “Brunswick”) and what we’ve concluded at this point (we have 8 babies by him over the span of 3 years now) is that he doesn’t effect the height much… All of our smaller mares who have had foals by him; the foals are smaller… the taller mares are having large foals.

So… based on her older half-brother, older full-brother, dam and her height now… I’m expecting her to mature to 17.2HH ±. Her bum is almost 3" higher than her withers at roughly 18 months.

I’m a whopping 5’4 on a good day, so she could stop right now and i’d be happy!! lol. I’m already roughly as tall as her withers.

Add roughly an additional 4 inches to the 2 year old height.

Since you add about 2h to the 12m height, and 1h to the 24m height, somewhere in the middle is what you’d add for a long yearling. It might be closer to 1h, might be closer to 2h, just depending on when in the year the horse hits a growth spurt or whether he’s grown pretty evenly. The closer he is to 24m, the closer to the 4" you’d be looking to add.

17.1 to 17.2 unless she is from quick to mature lines…

My personal experience is that fillies (like teenage girls) grow/mature sooner, so less from 2 years old onward. If the filly already looks balanced and “mature,” my guess about additional growth would be more like another 2 inches.

I went and saw her today… Looove her!

I’d guess she’s more like 15.3 as she’s not quite at the top of my head, but oh-so sweet. Clearly, you can imagine based on the previous sentence that i’m short, so i’m not opposed to her being a huge monster!

She’s been very well balanced all her life… she’s not really gone through an “awkward” stage, but her older brother (full brother) got a little awkward as a 2.5 y/o, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she does the same.

Whatch’yall think of her?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/12743_3347330941525_18102324_n.jpg

She’s lovely :slight_smile:

Could this be how the stereotype was coined about “Bucket head” WBs?

She’s lovely :slight_smile:

Could this be how the stereotype was coined about “Bucket head” WBs?

[QUOTE=stripes;6655216]
She’s lovely :slight_smile:

Could this be how the stereotype was coined about “Bucket head” WBs?[/QUOTE]

lol! It’s very possibly. Luckily, she’s a TB with a gorgeous head! hehehe.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/26637_3347333901599_1672194266_n.jpg

She looks lovely, with nice substance and a good topline, but those front legs are a little worrisome? This photo shows her quite light in bone, tied in below the knee and with a long, sloping pastern, all of which would give me pause. Perhaps it’s just the pic?

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[QUOTE=Simkie;6655423]
She looks lovely, with nice substance and a good topline, but those front legs are a little worrisome? This photo shows her quite light in bone, tied in below the knee and with a long, sloping pastern, all of which would give me pause. Perhaps it’s just the pic?[/QUOTE]

Sadly our canadian winter isn’t exactly promoting good footing. It’s very bumpy and slippery with frozen poop, mud and ice. A royal pain in my butt, if I do say so myself!!

My biggest issue is she does lack some bone, but her pasterns don’t really concern me as they aren’t nearly as sloped looking when she’s standing on good, solid ground. Her full brother is a year older and did fabulous on the race track this past year. Longer pasterns is characteristic to the breeding program and bloodlines at hand. Seattle Slew is her great grandsire, and I truly think they (her + full brother) have inherited the longer, sloped pasterns from him… though i’d consider him an improvement on SS.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CUxq1DeHi8Y/TmvP6N-0VvI/AAAAAAAABMo/tM5LbBI8VcE/s1600/seattle+slew.jpg

I’ll try and get better photo’s of her this weekend.

This is her dam,
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/183685_3061656039831_2084454944_n.jpg

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