Until what age do horses grow?

I realize this varies from breed to breed and in certain lines, but I am interested in people's experience of this. My 5 year old Connemara/TB gelding is still croup high, and some predicted when he was three that he would be 16hh, although he is maybe just 15.2hh now. (He could stop anytime now, as far as I am concerned!). Some people say they are generally done growing by 3-4yrs, others tell stories of adding an inch between 7 and 8.

Any stories to share?

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Permalink Reply by Anni on April 5, 2009 at 1:24pm

A lot of it depends on the breed and the horse. Warmbloods are often slower to mature, for example. I think it's entirely possible that he has a little bit of growing left, although it won't be too much. I'm with you on the stop at any age! My three year old grew a little over a hand from the time she was measured by the BLM (probably over the winter sometime) to now. She went from 14 hands to 15 and still growing.

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Permalink Reply by Catherine Chamberlain on April 6, 2009 at 10:14am

I have a young Dutch Warmblood that I got when he was five. He was about 16.1 when I got him and now he's seven and I think he's almost 16.3 so he continued growing for a while! So I think there's definately a possibility that he will keep growing but probably not drastically, maybe just an inch or two.

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Permalink Reply by kizzywizzy on April 6, 2009 at 5:08pm

I have a pure-bred Connemara mare. She measured in at 147 cms at age 5, and 147.5cms at age 8. Her pure bred sons all went to 15 hands by age 6, and didn't look mature until 8. I always think Connemaras and Irish Drafts, and their crosses, are very slow maturing breeds, really not fully grown until 8, wheras, I have known some thoroughbreds to be very well developed by 5. I have no experience of continentals. It really upsets me to see Irish horses of the above two breeds and crosses, doing loose jumping competitions at age 3, and being competed on at age 4. I have never backed any of my connies til they are 4, and would not dream of popping them over a pole until at least 5, or even 6. When I was young, it was normal for Show Jumpers to continue competing at the highest level until late in their teens, even early 20's. Many of these were traditional Irish Draft / TB crosses, and would not have been started until 4, even 5. How many top show jumpers last this long these days??? The same applies to thoroughbred National Hunt horses, they are now raced hard at 4, very few are still racing, and retiring sound at 12 or later into their teens - look back at the records of the 50's and 60's and see how many jumping tb's were still winning into their early teens. I am old fashioned, and don't believe in asking a 'teenager' to do a 'grown man's' work.