Measured my pony this evening (or should I say horse!)!!

PonyFeet10

PonyFeet10

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Ok so I measured my 2 and a half year old welsh d colt this evening.. I don't know how accurate this is as I used a soft tape measure from withers to ground (made sure there was no slack in the tape measure) and that was 58 inches, which works out to being 14.2hh! Then I tried the string method of knee to coronet band and that measured 15 inches which means he should make approx 15hh. Does this sound right to you? For a 2 and a half year old to only grow 2 more inches? (if the string test is correct and my trusty tape measure has actually given me an accurate height!)

I have tried to borrow a proper height measuring stick just to see how tall he is now but haven't been able to which is why I used a tape measure lol!
 
nativeponies said:
a soft tape can put on as much as 2 inches

best to measure with a stick
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Yeh definitely, I understand that but I haven't been able to get hold of one and just wanted a rough idea! He's bigger than my 13.2hh pony but smaller than my 15.3hh horse so I guessed he was around the 14hh to 15hh mark! Does anyone know how accurate the string tests are though? I'm very curious :D
 
On average horses have done 95% of their growing height wise by the age of 2 years,so would not be unusual for him to only grow couple of inches from now to adulthood.Always exceptions of course,and can vary with breeds/types but 90% of growing by a year,and 95% by two years is the rule of thumb AFAIK.

Would recommend using a stick though,as tapes are tricky to be accurate with.
 
nativeponies said:
string test...from elbow to ergot..then, without moving elbow hand, turn up string...and measure..roughly accurate within 1 inch
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I tried that one too and that would make him about the same height as my tb (15.3hh) when fully grown :eek:!
A 15.3hh chunky welsh stallion is going to end up HUGE!!!!! (unless of course I did the test wrong or my horse is oddly shaped lol!)
 
devonlass said:
On average horses have done 95% of their growing height wise by the age of 2 years,so would not be unusual for him to only grow couple of inches from now to adulthood.Always exceptions of course,and can vary with breeds/types but 90% of growing by a year,and 95% by two years is the rule of thumb AFAIK.

Would recommend using a stick though,as tapes are tricky to be accurate with.
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Thankyou, that's quite interesting! So does that mean when a horse 'stops' growing at 4/5 years old that the last 2 years or so have been filling out growing? Or am I sounding really stupid right about now??
 
It is quite dependent on breed. I don't know about Welsh. My TB did not grow an inch after the age of 3, my friends warmblood grew 5 inches from 3-6. I know warmbloods are slow to mature, but haven't got a clue about welsh, sorry
 
muddy_grey said:
It is quite dependent on breed. I don't know about Welsh. My TB did not grow an inch after the age of 3, my friends warmblood grew 5 inches from 3-6. I know warmbloods are slow to mature, but haven't got a clue about welsh, sorry
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Ok, thankyou! That's interesting that it's different for the breed. I'll have to research more about it I think :D
 
Welshies are notorious for doing extra growing when other breeds have long stopped. I bought my welsh d x as a 5yo and he was a full up 14.2hh, the next time I measured him was when he was 8yo and he was touching 15hh. I was convinced my measuring stick was wrong but nope he had actually grown! They do mature very slowly and can surprise you :p
 
My half Welsh d was 14.2 at 2 1/2. Now he is nearly 3 1/2 and 14.3hh in front and 15hh behind but this is with a measuring stick. I am expecting him to make 15.2 ish as he is really leggy and welshes are notorious for growing similar to wbs.
 
PonyFeet10 said:
Thankyou, that's quite interesting! So does that mean when a horse 'stops' growing at 4/5 years old that the last 2 years or so have been filling out growing? Or am I sounding really stupid right about now??
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Not stupid at all,you're quite right.Many horses 'appear' to grow after the age of 3 or so,but often they are just growing into themselves so to speak,or filling out like you said.

Many do grow upwards and inch or so after that age,but usually most of the height growing is done by around 3 yrs.

There often seem to be exceptions to this though,some people have reported their horses growing up to a hand after this age,which is maybe where the breed/type thing comes into it.

I am a little sceptical though TBH,and do think that sometimes it's not so much the horse has grown so much as it was not measured very accurately in the first place,it's very difficult to measure 100% accurately,and if the original or most recent measurement was out by just an inch or two,then is not much of a comparison if that makes sense??
That's only my opinion and experience of course,not to say it's correct!!
 
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