Filly stopping growing at 2? And feeding advice

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Marigold4

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My Conn x WB has not grown at all over the summer. She was full up 14.2 in the spring and that's what she is now. I was hoping she would make at least 15 hh. Do youngsters ever stop growing at 2 or can I expect her to grow a couple of inches?

She doesn't get much feed as we have plenty of grass at the mo and she's prone to putting on weight, just a lo cal balancer and hi fibre haylage when she comes in (daily). She has more feed in the winter. Should I feed her more protein? I'm a bit wary of the high protein youngstock cubes as I don't want to cause OCD. What do you think? Am I feeding her enough for her to grow? PS she has been wormed from birth as per my vet's instruction and recent worm count was 0.
 
Thanks for everyone's replies. I'm not really worrying about her, just musing as to what shape and size her adult form will take. Just picking more experienced minds to see if there's any possibility that she has stopped growing at 2! And making sure I'm giving her the correct feed for her age. Not much I can do about her final look, just curious. She will be what she will be.
 
Yes it's possible she has stopped growing height-wise at 2. Of the three mares we have currently, one grew 2 hands between 2&5 yo, another 2 inches between 2&4yo (she's only 4 now), and the third hasn't grown a jot since I bought her as a 2yo (she's 9 now).

However, the one who grew 2 hands didn't start that growth until she was almost 3
 
My youngsters who have looked that mature/round at 2 (from your photos) have tended to grow on a little and come up at the wither. Maybe got another 2-3 inches out of them between 2&5yo. In all honesty, I think in general that slow steady even growth is good.

The one that looked like a whopper (huge yak) at 2, hasn’t actually put on that much more in height since, now 6 and an inch more at a push.
 
ihatework said:
My youngsters who have looked that mature/round at 2 (from your photos) have tended to grow on a little and come up at the wither. Maybe got another 2-3 inches out of them between 2&5yo. In all honesty, I think in general that slow steady even growth is good.

The one that looked like a whopper (huge yak) at 2, hasn’t actually put on that much more in height since, now 6 and an inch more at a push.
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Thanks, 2 more inches would be fine. Fingers crossed.
 
DabDab said:
Yes it's possible she has stopped growing height-wise at 2. Of the three mares we have currently, one grew 2 hands between 2&5 yo, another 2 inches between 2&4yo (she's only 4 now), and the third hasn't grown a jot since I bought her as a 2yo (she's 9 now).

However, the one who grew 2 hands didn't start that growth until she was almost 3
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Yes, I think the next year's growth/or lack of growth as a 3 year old will give us a good indication of what she will be. Fingers crossed for a little more.
 
Rabbit is my 2 years and 4 month old gelding (so roughly at the same time line as your youngster) and I'm currently having to shut my eyes as he's going through the gangly growth spurt stage again.

It seems random with him - he tends to stay the same height for what seems like forever, and then when I've accepted that he possibly might have finished growing, I blink and he goes up by an inch or two behind and then a week or two later his front end catches up and he is even in height . His massive spurts have stopped and now when he grows a tiny bit, it's more like an inch or two rather than the dramatic ones he was doing aha. In terms of his width, that's not changed for ages, so I'm expecting him to get a bit wider as he gets through his 3 and 4 year old years, but it does depend on the individual horse.

Rabbit has siblings who range from 15.3hh all the way up to 17.1hh, who all had different growth spurts and growth rates. I'm hoping for something around the 16hh mark and given that he is measuring at 15.3hh on the bum, I'd say we're on target for a nice 16.0hh/16.1hh horse - which makes backing fun as I'm only 5'1 aha!

Feed wise, I tend to stay on the side of low sugar/ low starch/ high in fibre/ as little ingredients as possible x Currently Rabbit is on Dengie Alfa A Oil and a small amount of unmolassed sugar beet and he looks fantastic. I also feed a broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement to make sure that everything is as balanced as I can get it. He is not too fat but not too thin either - if I were being picky, I would potentially want him to maybe loose a teeny tiny smidge - you can easily feel his ribs but not see them, however I'm also aware that he'll probably drop some weight on his next growth spurt, so I just keep an eye on him.

Regarding growth, I was told that as a rough guide you can take their height as a yearling and add 2 hands, if they're 2 years old you add 1 hand - Rabbit was just 14.0hh as a yearling so I would say that the rough guideline could be helpful in terms of finished height. There is a string test that you can do but Rabbit won't stand still long enough for me to do it aha!
 
I was worrying that my filly wouldn’t be big enough when she was 2, I was hoping for 15 hands and she was 16 hands when she finally finished growing at age 6, so you’ve got a while to get there
 
Blanche said:
I had a mare grow three inches between six and seven. She was a slow maturing breed which can make a difference in when they have a growth spurt. You say she is a wb cross, is that a mainly tb wb or a more old fashioned wb? That can make a difference to when she stops growing.
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THe WB side is Royaldik/Rubenstein/Primitive Proposal TB/Oldenburg/Westphalian. Think it amounts to about 60& TB in her dam.
 
Lois Lame said:
I just had a look at the photos of the filly in the other thread and she looks like she doesn't need anything additional in her feed.
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No, I agree. She looks overweight doesn't she. In her/my defence she has a very wide ribcage. I am hoping to get some weight off her this winter. She needs a lot less to eat than my other two - which makes life difficult!
 
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