Hello, i think my yearling quarter horse is quit small, he s 17 months. Do you know if passed two years old they keep growing quite a lot?
Try the string test.
With a string, find the point of the elbow on the back of the elbow, hold the string there, let it drop and pick the string up where it drops to the middle of the ankle.
Then turn the string over from the botton, holding the point of the elbow steady and see where that reaches above the withers.
Generally that proportion, from the middle of the ankle to the point of the elbow all along as a youngster is growing tends to be, within 1/2", where their mature growth will end.
An old race horse trainer called Tesio tried that on over 200 TB race colts and followed most of them to mature size and it worked on practically all of them to determine how tall they would become.
At puberty, around 20 to 26 months, the knee growth plates close.
Those gelded before two may grow that 1/2" extra inch, because they don’t hit puberty like entire colts do and so their legs do grow for a bit longer.
We bought a 4 year old long ago in February and he measured 14.3 hands by measuring stick at the veterinarian.
Last of June we measured him again and he was 15.2 hands.
He had grown 3" more.
Horses mature until about 5-6 years old, some of that is becoming taller.
Most horses raised right and growing evenly all along still have growth spurts here and there, so you can’t tell when they will quit growing.
As a yearling, there is no telling what height genes he inherited, how tall he may become.
Try the string test, see what it tells you.
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Thank you, i ll do it, hiswither is really low compared to hos butt. Do you think that if as a yearling he s small he could have a chance of becoming a normal sized horse?
Well, it is normal for horses to be many sizes, especially quarter horses.
We had some that were only 13.3 hands, he was a son of Docs Hotrodder and a very good cutting horse and some ranch and race bred others that were much bigger.
What size a horse may end up when grown depends on the breeding.
If your horse is registered, you can see what size the parents and grandparents were and make a better guess what size it may be when it finishes growing.
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yes, father is 14,3 and mother 14,2
It would be a good guess your yearling may end up somewhere around those heights, but you never know.
Try the string test, just for fun and see where he is once grown.
ok i ll do it and keep posted
thank you
Agreed - I’ve found this method to be fairly reliable on numerous yearlings.
My current gelding was just barely 14 hands withers/14.1 hips on his 2nd birthday and maxed out/evened out at 15.1 by age 5 - exactly what his string test predicted. He continued filling out in body mass during year 6 and he’s probably done with any significant changes now at 7.
well, i did the string test and he s not going to be a big one…he s anyway very high behind, he s 17 months, i also have the feeling that he s got a little of posted hind legs, can that change a little bit or at 17 months you already see how he s going to be?
He looks plenty big in those pictures. How tall is he? My yearling filly is 16 months and 14hh, but we expect her to top out at about 15.2hh
My 8yo mare grew two inches late in her 4yo year btw.
he looks big but actually he isn t he s a quarter horse, i don t know how big he is i would say 13 hh
13hh for reining bred is appropriate. Probably will finish out around low 14hh.
My yearlinf is qh but hunter bred and is 15.1 at either and 15.3 at hip. But she should end up in the 16hh plus range
Horses usually gain in height to 4, some even longer. In the meantime his conformation will change end to end. Be aware that bone growth is continuing all that time so joints are vulnerable
He looks like a nice colt and I wouldn’t say he’s post legged. I also wouldn’t say he’s soggy but his legs look like they match the rest of him. He’s only 17 months and hip high, he’ll get a couple more growth spurts then start filling out. Don’t worry about height as much as balance.
Bluey you’re a peach. :yes:
Thank you i ll try to measure him but you are right, it s better a good balanced yearling, do you know if being quite balanceddit at 17 months indicate a good balan
ced adult horse?
My 8 month old gelding is 13.1 HH, I feel like he’s huge but his parents were only 15.2/15.3, he’s got a lot of tall half siblings over the 15.3 mark, so I guess it’s a toss up on genetics! Lol
