Will a yearling's legs continue to grow? The forearm, not the cannon bone...

[Dr_Doolittle]

My 13 month old filly hasn’t grown (discernibly) for the past several months (she is a little over 14 hands at the “withers”, a bit higher behind), so of course I’m obsessing that she won’t make 15.2…

I did the cannon bone measurement (middle of coronary band to center of knee, following the contours), and the measurement is a hair under 16 inches–her mom’s measurement is 16 inches–and mom is a smidge over 15’3". The string test (ergot to elbow then turn the string around) winds up being about to my eyebrows (I’m 5’3"), but then again it’s not accurate when I do it on my full-grown mare, and I’ve found it to be inaccurate in the past with other horses I’ve tried it on.

My mare’s forearm is longer than her filly’s by 3/4s of an inch

This cannon bone length would indicate that she will wind up around 15’3" (perfect!!), but will she?? Neither parent is tall (she’s by E2), but I didn’t want tall

OTOH, her legs seem much shorter than the TB race bred colts who populate the farm’s other barn; obviously they are older–and will also be much bigger at maturity.

I feel like she is at a “growth plateau”, and so am looking for reassurance that she will make it to 15’2" based on her short-seeming legs…??

Grandparents on the mare’s side (FWIW): sire was 16’2", dam was 15’1"-15’2"–and my mare has two full siblings (mares) who are around 15’2", and a full sibling (gelding) who is well over 16 hands.

TIA for any input!

[JB]

Yes.

Her upper legs are not remotely done yet.

FWIW, once they hit a year, they seem to really slow down, even stagnate in growth over the Summers. My 2yo has been the same height, front and back, for the last 4 months. I fully expect him to grow again in the Fall.

[Dr_Doolittle]

Thanks, JB–that’s reassuring I should have known, since they “finish” from bottom to top!

I’ve just been looking at all these “daddy longlegs” TB colts with legs up to their ears :eek: and thinking–yeek, my filly is going to be a midget!

(The last baby I raised was a TB colt–whom I of course gelded–and he was 15.2 as a longish yearling, wound up 16.2. My filly is NOT going to be that big, and I don’t want one that big! Still, she looks more “finished”, so this gets me all unnecessarily worried that I’ll wind up with a Honey.)

[tucktaway]

My yearling “large ponies” have always been good (16 +) size.

[Dr_Doolittle]

Phew!

[horsetales]

Also, one of those general growth estimates is to add 2 hands to their yearling height, so looks like lots of hope for 15.3