People have different opinions about when to start a horse and how hard they should work it. There are mis-conceptions about closing up of growth plates (parts of their bones that are joined by cartilage until they have fully grown and been replaced by hard bone) and generally the horse's physical maturity.
Many horses are started too young and on the race track many are injured and have to be destroyed because the are worked too hard too young.
Horses have many growth plates and the last of them don't close until the horse is around 6 years old, regardless of breed.
Different bones join at different ages of the horse and one of the more troublesome ones - a weak point - is the hocks, which join at around 3 - 3 1/2 years.
The last of the plates to fuse are in the vertebrae, each of which have several growth plates and they join as late as 5 1/2 to 8 years old on tall, long necked horses. Out of those, the vertebrae at the base of the neck are the very last, so care needs to be taken when teaching a young horse to tie up or pulling their head around hard, or damage can be done.
The subject of skeletal maturation is significant and large and I recommend that if you have young horses, please go ahead and download this extremely informative document by Deb Bennett Ph.D. HERE
DOWNLOAD FREE DOCUMENT
1 comment:
NICE Tom! way to go!!! this is a very important and often unknown area of concern and knowledge. Thanks for the great info!
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