Mature height prediction??

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bunni1900

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I have a filly born in May, 2015 who is now 33" tall. She is chubby and fuzzy so it may not be aN 100% accurate measurement. Her sire is 31.5" and usually a downsize and her dam was 32.5" and only had one foal out of 6 reach 34". This filly was not an abnormally large foal and seems to have grown extremely quickly. I'm curious as to thoughts and tips on how to "predict" i.e. guess her mature height. She is AMHA/AMHR registered and the last foal of her dam whom I lost this spring to a terrible dystocia. She is here to stay no matter what; I'm just curious as to if anyone had had a foal grow this fast and stop?
 
There is a height prediction table here. http://www.lilbeginnings.com/info/misc/

I've had all of our actual registered AMHR ponies go over the height limit of 38" by the time they were 5 or 6 yrs old (though they were under and went permanent at 3 yrs). I've also had several ponies that should have been much larger, qualify for AMHR registration by height but not by breeding (and would have needed to be hardshipped due to parents being MUCH larger shetlands)...

Most of ours seem to "pop up" at various times with a major growth spurt between 9 - 12 months and another between 4-6 yrs.

I don't know if others see this or not in their breeding programs.
 
That is a PRETTY Filly - Love her. I am so very sorry that you lost your mare. On this page CLICK HERE there are several ways to predict mature height. To answer your last question yes I've had some that grew that fast. My last Stallion all his foals matured very fast and rarely grew more than a half inch past one year of age.
 
some do quit growing by 18 months--I have had s few who did. Others grow until they are 4, 5 or 6. I have one mare here that is off two 44" parents--she stopped growing at 41" or a bit under (measured as a pony--as a mini she is 39" at the last mane hair). She has been at that since she was 18 or 20 months old.

I have an 18 month old colt that was supposed to be AMHR (both parents are R) but he passed 39" (last mane hair) by the time he was 12 months old. I am okay with him being ASPC only. He is still growing but I hope he stops soon, I'd prefer he stays under 43"
 
I always find it interesting how history of progeny doesn't necessarily dictate. This filly's dam had a foal sired by a 32" stallion who topped out at 26" tall. And her paternal sister out of a 38" Shetland topped out at 30". I love genetics and am always curious as to the "why". Though we may never know!
 
Your filly is NICE!

I find the heights & genetics quite interesting.

When I started with Shetlands, one of the things I was looking to do was cross our Shetland stallion (45.25" or 11.1 hh) on larger horse mares for Shetland X ponies. When we started buying mares - I tried to find mares that were smaller themselves (ease of breeding) but had some larger horses behind them. Did that with the Hackney pony mare (she was 12.2 sire/dam both over 13 & 4 full sisters matured to 12.1 or 12.2 w/ the 1st one being permanent at 11.1 7/8") and with 2 arab x mares and with 3 purebred Arab mares (also had one we never bred). With the one mare, I predicted her first foal for us (2nd for her) would be right around her height of 14 - 14.1 hh. Everyone said no, wouldn't happen. That particular colt matured taller than her (
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almost didn't make his pony height measurements!). On the others, I predicted that the foal(s) of the one mare would be closer to 13.2 (both fillies were) and on the other wasn't sure... the mare was VERY short, but rather stout. That pony has finally finished and I need to get an official measurement - his dam was 13.3 and I think he's 13.2 or 3 hh.

Our 2nd Shetland stallion (barely 40" at the withers) has been the one with all the surprises. Mostly, even out of larger mares w/ larger breeding behind them, his foals are smaller. If he himself was a mini, I guess he'd be called a size reducer, LOL.

Our 3rd and 4th stallions we don't know yet. 2015 & 2016 are their first foals. I do plan on doing some measurements on them now.

You might find this article interesting. Predict horse height

With our first stallion - we did follow this type of measuring only we used it on yearlings and older only. I DID find that the measurements were accurate when the pony was mature. I kept up with that for years - that first Arab X "defied" the measurements until he was older before he sprung up taller than his dam... I didn't mention it above because I couldn't remember if you measured all the way down to the coronet band or if you stopped at the middle of the fetlock (true cannon measurement) and then was looking for this type of article since I no longer have some of my original ones (or my notes from those years).

Now I'm really curious. I will measure the fillies I still own by our 2nd stallion over this weekend and see what they measure. The youngest will be 4 yrs old on April 2nd. The oldest will be 8yrs old on April 21st. She is "small" by my idea and is 1/2 Shetland our of a 13 hh Arab/Hackney pony mare. Her two full brothers both grew much larger, though I don't have mature heights on them...

We'll also measure the 2016 fillies!
 
We've always measured the canon bone and compared it to the length of canon bone on the foal's dam. It's not an exact science, but it gives us a general idea of whether the foal is going to be taller or shorter or the same height as the dam. Supposedly the canon bone is one part of the leg that does NOT GROW.

When we first started with minis we did not know about the canon bone method.....And we had a filly that shot up in height rapidly, like yours. She was 33" at age 2 and came to a screeching HALT. (Both parents were in the 30 to 31" range.)

BTW, your filly is a beauty! She is "show quality", IMO. I'm sorry you lost her dam....
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I am 5'8" and my hubby is 6'3" son ended up 6'6" two daughters 5'10" and 6' I have always felt it had alot to do with what we are eating now days....preseratives...additives.....wish I could have measured a cannon bone....lol..

I'm watching this thread because I am looking at a little guy that is 20" at 8mos.....and according to one chart he will mature to be about 23" and the other chart he is not even on.... the owner actually thinks he will get to maybe 28. His conformation looks great and not dwarft at all but I wouldn't know something was wrong with him unless he only had three legs.
 
Make sure you're measuring accurately.... The little guy needs to be standing square on a level surface. If you don't have access to a measuring stick for minis, have the little guy stand next to a wall. Lay a straight stick of some kind over the last mane hairs (near his withers/shoulder area), making sure the stick is running straight across to the wall and make the wall with a pencil.....We use a yard stick, which also comes in handy to measure how high the mark is from the floor. We've also used an actual LEVEL for this. It's not perfect, but it gives you a general idea of height. And I bet he measures higher than 20". Oh....and you will need two people to accomplish this task because you can bet the colt will think he's going to be eaten by the stick or level. It's wise to show him the item, let him sniff it, and touch his side with it slowly.....
 
...you can bet the colt will think he's going to be eaten by the stick or level.
Or if he's anything like ours: While I'm hiding the level, somebody would be trying to eat the stick or while I was manipulating the stick, they'd be nibbling on the level.
 

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