Are shire's slow to mature?

[hudsonw]

Hi, just a really quick question...Are shires slow to grow?

I have a 16 month old shire x TB and he's only 14.3hh. He's leveled out (bum no longer higher than his withers) and i was wondeing if shires are slow at growing?

His dad was a 17.2hh shire and his mum was a 16.1hh TB.

He's got a shire bum but his front half is very TB...not much feather but a fantastic nature...he sounds a bit of an odd bod but he's very hansome...honest!!!

My vet said that in his experiance shires just grow upwards and don't do the growing in stages thing?

Sorry if this sounds stupid but do you think he'll have a growth spurt in the spring?

Thanks

 

[Zebedee]

Very slow to mature. My Shire/TB looked like a 3/4 TB as a yearling, but is now very obviously 1/2 Shire. He didn't have a great amount of feather as a yearling, & hasn't got full feathering now, (he's now 9) but has more than he did. He stands at about 18h.
A friend brought a shire x that stood 15.2 at three rising four. By the time it was six he was about 17.2.

 

[CBFan]

NO Horse finishes growing til they are 6 or 7 when the final growth plate closes in the highest point of the vertibrae. FACT. every animal grows at different rates according to feed etc . My boy whos just turned two is very bum high at the moment despite his withers having come up all of a sudden. hegoes through phases of not growing much at all and then puts on a mega spurt...

I'd say your boy will easily reach his dams height if not his sires.

 

[kizzyjerry]

hi, lovely horsey - been looking for a shirex and saw him on a couple of sites

I already have one - brought him as turning 2, he was around 15.3/16hh then. he grew like a weed upwards but seemed to be in spurts (just enough time to save for the next set of rugs!)

when he turned 5/6 he started filling out

he reached 18.3 ish (depends on what stick i use!) mum was a shire (18hh) and dad was a huge TB from memory 17.2 (with a bit of something else on the dams side)

 

[holiday]

Shires are definately slow to mature, and the same goes for the shire crosses. I spend a lot of time at a shire stud and the youngstock take years to develop into the "horse" they will end up as.

The same applied to my Shire x TB who until a couple of years ago looked like a frame on stilts!!!!! He stands about 17.2hh. He is coming 12 this year and didnt look anything until he was 9 or 10. This was him late last year!!!!1