Horses grow at different rates. Some days they look balanced and beautiful, they move like Champions. Other times, they look clumsy, have growing pains. They are too stiff or too loose. Their head and ears are too big for their bodies. They step on your feet and on their own. They canít move with anything resembling grace. Their necks sometimes look like it sprouted from their knees. It is long and skinny or short and fat.
They donít want to or canít trot or give you their big swinging walk... But they can always gallop, buck, and kick with ease. Nature allows that a horse be able to get away from an enemy through all growth stages.
A young horse usually grows in the following fashion:
Out in the back-->Up in the haunches-->Up in the withers-->Out in the neck.
Horses that are going to end up large (16.3-17.3 hands) have the most exaggerated growths stages. Those always perfectly beautiful horses tend to finish with less height (15.3-16.1 hands). Those 16.1-16.3 hands, are more in the middle in growth stage changes.
The ears are usually finished growing when they are two years old. The head will widen usually when they are three. The brains of the young horse, are all there, but like the body, are more like an unfinished jig saw puzzle. The parts are not all quite communicating with one another. It is very important to be kind and patient during some of these stages.
Less training of the young horse is better than too much. Allow them to grow up first. Over schooling or over disciplining a young horse will result in a grown up horse that lacks trust in its rider and is unhappy in its work. Listen to your horse! That does not mean let the horse run all over you; good manners should be encouraged at all times. Try not to be over critical of your own horses or those that belong to others.
It takes a full seven years before a warmblood is finished growing. Real training can begin when they are four or five. This is a slow growing but long lived breed. It takes patience and optimism to live through some of these growth stages.
Be kind to horses and horse breeders!
During a competition, testing, sales , or photo sessions, we all wish our horses to show themselves at their very best. It is human nature, but it is not horse nature. Horse rearing is a very humbling pass time...
At home and at showings; see if you canít guess in which growth stage the horses are in that day. How may it be affecting how they are performing?
Always keep an open mind when viewing young horses.
If you can see the parents, it makes it easier to imagine the end product.
Learn to appreciate the growth process, it is nothing short of a miracle.
Rosewood extends wishes to the breeders: that all the horses are in their best stages today!!
