Final height of welsh cob??

[missyme10]

Hey all,

I'm starting to wonder about my welsh cob filly, something tells me she's gonna go bigger than what was predicted.

I bought her at 9 months and she was 12.2hh, predicted to make 14.2hh. Her sire is 14.3hh and her dam is 14.2hh.

At 1 yr 4 months she stood at 13.2hh, a few months on now and she's 13.3hh.

So in theory she's only 3 inches to grow to reach her mature height and she's currently 1 year 7 months old.

This doesn't sound right to me!! My understanding is I can expect her to grow another hand plus from age 2+ ?

Anyone else had welsh cobs young and if so how have you found their growing rates?
Can you remember what heights they were at what age?

Thanks

 

[Dancing Queen]

she may make 15hh at a push, do you only have dam and sire, have you got grandparentage?

 

[missyme10]

I know all of her breeding, she's by Crugnelyn Myriddin who was by Fronarth Victor and out of Crugmelyn Baylady.
Her Dam is Nantyfyda Briallen who is by Penllwynuchelo LLeu LLaw (by Thornyside Flyer), out of Nantyfyda Boneddieges.

I've no idea on heights of any of them to know if there are taller welsh cobs in her blood lines.

 

[trendybraincell]

The Thorneyside on her dam's side may add some extra height, in my experience they are a big blood line

 

[gwenllian]

in my experience they reach there mature height , give or take and inch or two very early. i have bought a mare at two andf a half , she was 14hh, she is now ten and still 14hh. i measure them on there first birthday and ad a hand for there mature height, never been more than an inch out

 

[Toffee44]

My friend bought her mare at 2years (thornyside blood lines) she was 14hh shes now 12 and 14.1hh and 14hh wide

 

[missyme10]

in my experience they reach there mature height , give or take and inch or two very early. i have bought a mare at two andf a half , she was 14hh, she is now ten and still 14hh. i measure them on there first birthday and ad a hand for there mature height, never been more than an inch out

Oh thats interesting
Well she's was 12.2hh on her first birthday, so going by that theory she'd end up about 13.2hh and she's 13.3hh now and only 19 months? So now I'm just totally confused

I always thought Welsh cobs were late developers. I had a section C in the past and bought her at supposedly 6, she was 12.3hh when I bought her, I sold her 4 years on and she was 13.2hh, I only measured her with selling her and was shocked to find she'd grown 3 inches!
Others have also told me they are known to keep growing till quite late, yet yourself and others say they are early developers.

I'm only 5'2" so I suspect whatever height she makes it will be fine, I guess anything from between 14 and 15 hands would be fine x

 

[missyme10]

My friend bought her mare at 2years (thornyside blood lines) she was 14hh shes now 12 and 14.1hh and 14hh wide

haha, yeah some are as wide as they are tall. I think my filly doesn't look the real old fashioned heavy type, although she's got a massive backside on her x

 

[xRobyn]

Phil was about 15hh by the age of two Grew another inch and a bit then went out... and out.. and out

At 2 1/2, woman holding him is about 5ft4?

 

[missyme10]

Oh now I'm a little worried she's gonna barely make it over 14hh, being little it wont matter, but i would have preferred her to make the 14.2hh, an extra inch or two would have just been a massive bonus.
She went through a huge growth spurt the summer gone, maybe thats her big stretch and now she'll just creep up. I thought she'd take another big stretch the summer she turns 2, but from what I am reading, she's not going to !!

 

[xRobyn]

She might surprise you but heck, height shouldn't matter with a welsh cob I'm 5'7" and Phil is a smidge over 15.1hh. trying to find a decent saddled photo is tricky! Scuse the crap position

And I've got a friend who is the same height as me and rides her 14.2hh welshie easily

 

[missyme10]

He's fab xRobyn, just how a welsh cob should be

I think being 5'2" height isn't gonna be an issue whether she ends up 14 or 15hh.
Weight might be a concern with what I plan to do with her. I'm 10 1/2 stone on a good day, 11 stone most of time, add to that tack I'm looking at about 12 stone.

Now of course 12 stone isn't an issue for a Welsh Cob in theory, but for a smaller one of 14hh, and she's not the chunkiest of welsh cobs, she's not got as much bone as my gypsey cob who's 14.3hh for example, and considering I'd like to do cross country and hunting on her, maybe some show jumping, I am a little concerned.
If the plans were for her to be a happy hack, I'd not be concerned at all, but of course what a horse can comfortably carry depends on what activity you plan on doing.

She's the wee bay in my signature, see what I mean about her not being real chunky, although these pics were taken at 1 yr 4 months, she's grown since, especially width wise

May also influence when I back her, I was considering backing her at 3 and turning her away for the winter to mature until she's 4. I may have to wait until 4 and let her mature till 5 if she's the smaller type x

 

[Magicmadge]

My filly is the same age, out of a new forest x mare standing only 12.1 by a stallion we know nothing about. She currently is about 13.1 and 14 hh at the bum. Measure mid knee to coronet in inches the convert to hands. My filly measures 14 1/2 inches so i'm expecting 14.2. i was told by a very experienced breeder whatever they are at 1 add a hand till 2 then anything up to another hand until maturity so again that would make her around 14.2 she is 2 next may.

 

[magicgirl]

I don't know about Welsh Cobs but have bred over 40 + foals. Some mares breed foals which are big at birth and almost adult height by 18 months. I have had others who have been born small and kept gaining height until 7 years old.

 

[gwenllian]

I don't know about Welsh Cobs but have bred over 40 + foals. Some mares breed foals which are big at birth and almost adult height by 18 months. I have had others who have been born small and kept gaining height until 7 years old.

what type were they all?
i have found horses grow at a slower rate than ponies, my first warmblood was only 14.1 when i bought him as a yearling, i was mortified as after 25 years of breeding welsh cobs i assumed he was only going to make 15.1 or 2.
but they are def different, i lost him to colic just turned 2, but he was 15.3 then with loads more growing to do.

 

[xRobyn]

Thank you

Well put it this way, Phil has approx 8 3/4" inches of bone, not a lot for a welsh cob! He carried myself and my mum easily at 13 1/2-14st (without tack). Because of his bone I would have said if I hit 14st then I wouldn't do lots of jumping with him but there is no doubt in my mind she will be fine for you!

As a comparison I once rode my friends mare who is TINY perhaps just touching 14hh? She's a cob but doesn't have masses of bone (i'd guess under 10"). At 13st she carted me around and dragged me over a 2'3"-2'6" cross country jump without batting an eye

Perhaps if you're that worried then take things a little slower and try to get her a synthetic saddle, but in my mind, I have no doubt she will be fine with you

I know how you feel though, at times I feel too heavy for Phil

 

[miss_c]

I bought Genie aged 4, and she was standing at 14.2hh. Now she's 6 she's 15hh and a lot chunkier than she was when I bought her.

Aged 4

Recent photo aged 6

 

[xRobyn]

I wish Phil was chunkier, like Genie. He's a bit horsey in the body.

Phil at 3 1/2 (scuse the saddle )

And at 10

Unfortunately the only decent ones I have of him standing facing to the left are where he's either very fat or in full winter fluff

 

[rowy]

They say they usually grow a hand between 1 and 2 and then a hand to maturity. therefore if she was about 13hh at 1 year she would grow to about 15hh.
I have always been told that welshes are slow at growing and mature really late like warmbloods?

My boy is half welsh and he was 14.1hh ish when i bought him when he was 2 years 6 months. Now a year later he is 14.3hh in front and full up 15hh behind. I was expecting him to make 15.1hh to 15.2hh.
I did the two tests on him.
One is the string test where you take some string and measure from point of elbow to fetlock joint. the double this and add 2 inches and you get full maturity height. Though I did this for mine and it said he would make about 16hh??? which i dont think he could make another hand from now surely?
Another test is as was said above the measure from mid knee (you can feel like a little dip in it at young age where it hasn't fused) to coronet band and convert the inches into hands. With mine I got 15 3/4 = 15.3hh but I dont really know the possiblity of this actually happening either lol. I think when he is older he is just going to be a very leggy horse he looks like a 2 year old atm!

 

[EstherYoung]

My 2009 welsh D x is currently about the same size as yours. I expect him to make about 14.3. Mum (the welsh) is 14.2 although has a few Cs in her heritage so I don't think there is any hugeness lurking. Dad is a 15 hand american national show horse and doesn't seem to throw that big either. Anywhere between 14 hands and 15.2 will do me fine.

Welshies do mature late but as someone else mentioned, they've got as much growing outward to do as upward - it takes time to develop into a fully fledged brick outhouse. Wolf's legs aren't that long and the length of the legs won't change much from here on in. His chest is starting to look like he's been working out though.

 

[Dexter]

My youngster was supposed to make 14.2hh, he was about 12.3hh at 11 months old, now at 16 months old hes 14.2hh at least! He no longer looks like a pony youngster, but very definitely looks like a young horse. His mum was only 14.2hh so I suspect he popped out small and will continue to grow and grow. I'm praying he stops at 15.3hh/16hands but I suspect he may go past that. He goes through phases where he grows outwards and looks really chunky, then he'll shoot up and look all leggy.

With 'normal' youngsters I'd expect 2 hands on the yearling height, and a hand on the 2 year old height.

 

[missyme10]

I bought Genie aged 4, and she was standing at 14.2hh. Now she's 6 she's 15hh and a lot chunkier than she was when I bought her.

Aged 4

Recent photo aged 6

Oh I just love Genie, I saw her pics on another thread running about cobs recently and said I hope my filly turns out just like her when she's grown up, Lily is a mini Genie at the moment
My understanding of Welshies is they do creep up that couple of extra inches from 3/4, and Genie has, so hopefully Lily will also. But then others have said theirs have pretty much stopped growing at 2 - 2 1/2, and thats a bit of a worry x

 

[miss_c]

Aww thank you! I love her too...

 

[trendybraincell]

My understanding of Welshies is they do creep up that couple of extra inches from 3/4, and Genie has, so hopefully Lily will also. But then others have said theirs have pretty much stopped growing at 2 - 2 1/2, and thats a bit of a worry x

In my experience they are late maturers who will often give you a final spurt to mature height around 4/5 and then its just a case of filling out.

Like Genie, Shadow was about 14.1 when I got him (he was rising 3). Had a stick on him when he was 5/6 and he was a good 15hh then. Haven't had a stick on him since, he is now 8 and is bigger than FiHunts Genie who is 15hh.

Oh yes and a darn sight chunkier, despite not being a traditional stamp of a D he has a neck and a bum to rival most stallions

 

[miss_c]

Yup Shadow's definately bigger than Genie.

tbc we MUST get a photo of the two of them together in Jan!

 

[rowy]

I did this thread earlier its really interesting and kinda scary at the same time :O
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=403065

 

[trendybraincell]

Yup Shadow's definately bigger than Genie.

tbc we MUST get a photo of the two of them together in Jan!

Ooo thats an idea be a bit late for this thread but never mind

 

[missyme10]

I did this thread earlier its really interesting and kinda scary at the same time :O
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=403065

Thanks, reading all of that really gives me hope

 

[lilly1]

I wouldn’t worry just yet, it’s far too early to be making predications. This welsh x mare was 14hh at 5

At 5 just got her

and at six had grown another two inches and filled out loads.