When Does Young Horse Stop Growing? (Pack Frame Fitting)

[AngC]

So, I've been working on getting a pack saddle for Baby. I've been trying to figure out when a young horse finishes growing. I'm not concerned with height; although, I've noticed that one of the mini horse registries "sets" the height when they're 3 years old; the other makes you wait for 5 years. Baby hasn't grown much taller since she was about a year old. Do they "fill out" after they achieve their height?

At the end of this month, Baby will be 2 years, 4 months old. (She's pretty muscle-y; our exercise program was/is to get her out there running. She loves to run.)

Apparently, the critical point in fitting the pack frame for Baby is the angle of the cross-bucks. The place that's making it for me is willing to work with me later on if we need to rebuild the wood frame. But I'd like to get it right from the git-go.

Will she "fill out" much more?

 

[Miniv]

Horses tend to grow according to their genetics, but I've noticed ours do about 95% of their growth by the end of their yearling year.

After that, they eek out a little more height and begin to "fill out" as you put it. By the time they're 3, they are basically done.

HOWEVER (there's always a "however"

), a lot depends on genetics and good nutrition when they were growing.

The reason why one registry uses the 5 year mark is because many years ago some bad breeders would purposely stunt their youngsters'

growth with poor nutrition and when the mini was sold and finally given good feed, they'd have a growth spurt! In other words....

You can't fool Mother Nature!

 

[AngC]

Thank you for replying, Miniv.

Little tidbits of information, such as why the one registry uses the 5 year mark, are invaluable to me. I never would have thought of stunting growth to achieve a certain height. We don't have that problem here. Baby had massively adequate nutrition.

It appeared to me that Baby had attained much of her growth by yearling stage. I'm no horse breeder/expert, but I've pored over the photos of her parents, grand-parents, and on one side great grandparent. I believe she's turning out a bit smaller and more "refined" than her sire and dam. Unless she grows in length, I think we might be ok with fitting this pack to her.