horse height

Question
QUESTION: hi i have a three year 5 month old filly weighing 850 pounds and is 14.1 hands tall. her mother is a 15 hand tall horse and very bulcky her father is 14.1 hands tall not really what i call slim but not bulky just average. but i was curious i no you cant see her but just by my facts do you think she has reached her maximum height at this point in her life or do you think she could get any taller i know this is in the sky kinda question but please answer the best to your personal experiences with horse.. thanks for any answer i appretiate your time.. quarter horse mix is her breed

ANSWER: Hello and thank you for your question. From my experience most horses stop growing between the ages 4-6 years old. Even horse is different but I think your filly has some room to grow still. I don't always think that a mares and sires height always the same as the offspring. I have a 15hh mare and bred her to a 15hh stud and my gelding (their foal) grew to 16.1hh. I feed very well, grain twice a day, good alfalfa twice a day, molasses mineral block for horses and pasture 24/7, and I believe that nutrition plays a big part of a horse's height and thickness. I have always had fat big healthy horses and they mature great. I do think that your mare may be able to grow to 15hh but then again she may stay at 14.1hh too. You just never know until they do mature and stop growing. A good indication shes going throw a growth spurt is when her rump is higher then her withers, she will likely grow for her front end to be level with her rump. Time will only tell, just have to wait and see. I hope this has helped!! Best of luck!

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QUESTION: im sorry i know this sound reiculous but ive known her since she was born and her rump has never been taller than her body so do all horses go through that stage? ive herd a horse that dont go through the rump higher than the body stage that they will be small. and she is on full pasture 5 acres total and i let her run the whole farm once in a while witch is an additional 145 acres. and i feed her good quality hay and salt and mineral is availible at all times hardly ever does she go with out. i only feed grain once a day and i only give her about 32 ounces. i didnt want to rote her teeth, my brother told me to much grain would. any other opinions after this and thank you just for reading and taking the time to answer.

Answer

Ideal body weight   Hello again! Lets start with the grain. I have had horses all my life and my mother had horses all her life. I have never heard of a horse getting rotten teeth from grain. Horses teeth are forever growing, I am no dentist but I know of the 100 of horses we have had none had bad teeth from grain, often as they age or get something lodged in their teeth it will cause problems but this is just my opinion. Our young horses that are in training get up to 5-7 pounds of grain a day (they are in heavy training). My 2 year old that is just turned out right now (no work) gets about 2 pounds in the morning and 2 pounds at night. I adjust if he gets too heavy or too thin. Anyway, it seems fine what you are doing as long as she doesn't look like she has a big pot belly, that her ribs are not showing but can be felt easily and that she has good amount of flesh all over and that she looks healthy. As for the rump higher then her withers, its not always that noticeable, and if she is naturally a horse that is more down hill built you may not see her rump higher then her withers. I would recommend measuring her at the rump and at the withers, keep that measurement and re-measure in a couple months to see if shes grown at all. It may only be very small amount but its a good way to keep track and see if and when she is growing, then keep measuring every 3-4 months and see. I really think she may grow a little more even if its just a smidgen. Hope this has helped!! Best of luck!

I am sending you a picture of my show horse, he in the picture is ideal body wieght (in my opinion) he could even use more weight, just to give you an idea. You can see his withers and rump are almost the same height.