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 Night Watchman
Posts: 5516
 
Location: Central Montana | FlyingJT - 2015-08-04 2:16 PM Most youngsters finish growing by 2-2 1/2, and then will finish filling out for the next year or two. I would consider cutting yours back a little, you don't want to add more strain or stress to bones and joints.
Sorry, but, I think that is totally false. Most horses don't stop growing until 5-6, sometimes older. I'm going to ask my vet for some references on it though.
We've had discussions already on pushing young horses too fast too soon and the wear and tear it is causing. |
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Veteran
Posts: 126
 
| I don't believe they stop growing til later as well. My guardians were small animal vets and I was always taught that a puppy can never be too fat as they are still growing. Just kind of curious with horses. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | Your horse is absolutely not too fat and you are not feeding too much. I have never heard of a horse that was nearly done growing at 2 1/2. No way he is going to get health problems from being overweight. Hate to go against the grain so much in this post, but its the truth. Give it as much hay as it wants. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
| GoinJettin - 2015-08-06 12:04 AM
FlyingJT - 2015-08-04 2:16 PM Most youngsters finish growing by 2-2 1/2, and then will finish filling out for the next year or two. I would consider cutting yours back a little, you don't want to add more strain or stress to bones and joints.
Sorry, but, I think that is totally false. Most horses don't stop growing until 5-6, sometimes older. I'm going to ask my vet for some references on it though.
We've had discussions already on pushing young horses too fast too soon and the wear and tear it is causing.
they have reached at least 90% of their adult height by 2-2 1/2. But you are correct, they will continue to grow until 3-5 but not at a significant rate, growth plates will finish fusing up to 5 years old and some horses longer.
Please share your vets references on this subject, I would love to read! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | Very true, but it is misleading. Looking at it your way, it seems that the horse only has 10% left to grow and has grown 90% already. However, that is not the case. The reason is that they are born at 60-65% of their adult height. So lets take an average 15 hand horse that was born at 38 inches. It is 9.2 hands tall. That means from birth to maturity it will grow 5.2 hands.
If at 2 years of age, it is 90% grown to adult height, it will be 13.2 hands. Although it has grown to 90% of its adult height, it has only grown 4 hands since birth or 73% of its total growth to adult hood.
This means that at 2 years of age it still has 27% growth left (almost 4x the 10% perceived amount), PLUS maturity and filling out, which to me counts as growth as well.
Edited by Tdove 2015-08-06 1:51 PM
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Expert
Posts: 1599
| Get a feed rep to do some ration balancing calculations for ya....the main thing is protein. I do believe that babies feed too much protein can develop OCD's...there is some research to indicate this. She is gorgeous tho! I come from reiners and they all look like that:)
Edited by lopnaround 2015-08-06 4:13 PM
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
Location: Texas | I wouldn't want them at a BCS over 7. They should have fat cover but they shouldn't be fat.
i would pull a little weight off by cutting back feed. OR if you don't want to do that, maybe lunge her or pony her so she can burn some of the calories |
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