This coming 3-year-old has reached nearly her full height, but shes likely to gain body length as she continues to mature. Photo by Betsy Lynch.
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A horse’s growth in height is essentially complete by the age
of 3, but his spine takes a full five years to mature. This means your horse
will continue to grow in length after he stops gaining in height. It’s also a
good reason to heed the cautions to take it easy with work under saddle at an
early age. A postmortem study performed at the University of California, Davis,
found some type of bony spinal disease is 97% of Thoroughbred racehorses. Racing
Thoroughbreds start training at an early age, as do many young western
performance horses who are slated for 2- and 3-year-old futurities.
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