Young horse uglies?

[paintedpennypony]

My mare looks like a totally different horse from 3.5yo to 4.5yo. Big changes in her management, but most notably, we brought her home in June and she has blossomed. I know young horses go through stages. Plus these pictures aren’t 1:1 comparisons and she’s standing on a slight hill in the 2024 picture, but still… wow! These pictures are almost exactly a year apart to the day (11/2023 to 11/2024).

Are these normal changes? I feel like she was very ugly last year (lovingly) and looks completely different and very beautiful this year. Is another ugly stage on the horizon as we approach her 5yo year?

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

2-3 years old can be seriously awkward looking.

She seems to have grown into her head and become much more balanced. Nice horse.

Once they are under saddle and in training for their performance career, they begin building muscle. I doubt you will have another really awkward phase, but it is interesting & rewarding to track development through the next few years. Some keep on changing and maturing up until 8 years old.

Enjoy the journey and process.

[JB]

It’s unlikely she has so much growing left that any hind end growth (which typically precedes front end) will make her a fugly duckling, though she may go through another butt-high phase.

Her neck is pretty mature-looking now, and a year ago it looked like a 3yo head on a 2yo neck on a 3yo body (common)

[Walk_N_Gal88]

The running joke around our barns has always been that from about 20 months old until they’re almost four, they get thrown in the back pasture so no one has to look at them because they all ( but ESPECIALLY Walking Horses!) look so damned awkward and ugly as homemade sin.

*No, they don’t actually get thrown back into a pasture, we just wish we could sometimes lol

[RedHorses]

At the spring vaccination appointment when mt QH was 5, I remember my then vet asking me if this was the same horse he’d seen last year. He got bigger, and wider (maturity), but was pretty much the same after 5.

[JB]

Yes, after around age 4, they really start the widening process, and that can take a few years in some cases. Not that they don’t widen before then, because for sure, the foal who’s toed-out from the shoulder down, straightens as the chest widens, and should be pretty straight by 2-3 or so. But the chest does still widen a bit, and the back end, especially the middle section does the most widening for another couple/few years