Menu
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Forums
Non-Cattle Specific Topics
Horse Talk!
If you ride young horses you should read this
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Help Support CattleToday:
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Horse Guy" data-source="post: 365824" data-attributes="member: 5753"><p>Here is a small exerpt plus a link at the bottom so you can read the whole thing if you want.</p><p></p><p>When is a Horse Skeletally Mature?</p><p>Just about everybody has heard of the horse's "growth plates", and commonly when I ask them, people tell me that the "growth plates" are somewhere around the horse's knees (actually the ones people mean are located at the bottom of the radius-ulna bone just above the knee). This is what gives rise to the saying that, before riding the horse, it's best to wait "until his knees close" (i.e., until the growth plates convert from cartilage to bone, fusing the epiphysis or bone-end to the diaphysis or bone-shaft). What people often don't realize is that there is a "growth plate" on either end of every bone behind the skull, and in the case of some bones (like the pelvis, which has many "corners") there are multiple growth plates.</p><p>So do you then have to wait until all these growth plates convert to bone? No. But the longer you wait, the safer you'll be. Owners and trainers need to realize there's a definite, easy-to-remember schedule of fusion – and then make their decision as to when to ride the horse based on that rather than on the external appearance of the horse. For there are some breeds of horse – the Quarter Horse is the premier among these – which have been bred in such a manner as to look mature long before they actually are mature. This puts these horses in jeopardy from people who are either ignorant of the closure schedule, or more interested in their own schedule (for futurities or other competition) than they are in the welfare of the animal.</p><p>The Schedule of Growth-Plate Conversion to Bone</p><p>The process of converting the growth plates to bone goes from the bottom of the animal up. In other words, the lower down toward the hoofs you look, the earlier the growth plates will have fused; and the higher up toward the animal's back you look, the later. The growth plate at the top of the coffin bone (the most distal bone of the limb) is fused at birth. What that means is that the coffin bones get no taller after birth (they get much larger around, though, by another mechanism). That's the first one. In order after that:</p><p>Short pastern - top and bottom between birth and 6 months. </p><p>Long pastern - top and bottom between 6 months and one year. </p><p>Cannon bone - top and bottom between 8 months and 1.5 years </p><p>Small bones of the knee - top and bottom of each, between 1.5 and 2.5 years </p><p>Bottom of radius-ulna - between 2 and 2.5 years </p><p>Weight-bearing portion of glenoid notch at top of radius - between 2.5 and 3 years </p><p>Humerus - top and bottom, between 3 and 3.5 years </p><p>Scapula - glenoid or bottom (weight-bearing) portion – between 3.5 and 4 years </p><p>Hindlimb - lower portions same as forelimb </p><p>Hock - this joint is "late" for as low down as it is; growth plates on the tibial and fibular tarsals don't fuse until the animal is four (so the hocks are a known "weak point" - even the 18th-century literature warns against driving young horses in plow or other deep or sticky footing, or jumping them up into a heavy load, for danger of spraining their hocks). </p><p>Tibia - top and bottom, between 3 and 3.5 years </p><p>Femur - bottom, between 3 and 3.5 years; neck, between 2.5 and 3 years; major and 3rd trochanters, between 2.5 and 3 years </p><p>Pelvis - growth plates on the points of hip, peak of croup (tubera sacrale), and points of buttock (tuber ischii), between 3 and 4 years. </p><p>And what do you think is last? The vertebral column, of course. A normal horse has 32 vertebrae between the back of the skull and the root of the dock, and there are several growth plates on each one, the most important of which is the one capping the centrum. These do not fuse until the horse is at least 5 ½ years old (and this figure applies to a small-sized, scrubby, range-raised mare. The taller your horse and the longer its neck, the later the last fusions will occur. And for a male - is this a surprise? - you add six months. So, for example, a 17-hand Thoroughbred or Saddlebred or Warmblood gelding may not be fully mature until his 8th year - something that owners of such individuals have often told me that they "suspected").</p><p>Significance of the Closure Schedule for Injuries to Back and Neck vs. Limbs</p><p>The lateness of vertebral "closure" is most significant for two reasons. One: in no limb are there 32 growth plates! Two: the growth plates in the limbs are (more or less) oriented perpendicular to the stress of the load passing through them, while those of the vertebral chain are oriented parallel to weight placed upon the horse's back. Bottom line: you can sprain a horse's back (i.e. displace the vertebral physes - see Figs. 5 and 8) a lot more easily than you can displace those located in the limbs. </p><p>Here-s another little fact: within the chain of vertebrae, the last to fully close" are those at the base of the animal's neck (that's why the long-necked individual may go past 6 years to achieve full maturity - it's the base of his neck that is still growing). So you have to be careful - very careful - not to yank the neck around on your young horse, or get him in any situation where he strains his neck (i.e., better learn how to get a horse broke to tie before you ever tie him up, so that there will be no likelihood of him ever pulling back hard. For more on this, see separate article in this issue).</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.equinestudies.org/knowledge_base/ranger.html" target="_blank">http://www.equinestudies.org/knowledge_base/ranger.html</a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Horse Guy, post: 365824, member: 5753"] Here is a small exerpt plus a link at the bottom so you can read the whole thing if you want. When is a Horse Skeletally Mature? Just about everybody has heard of the horse's "growth plates", and commonly when I ask them, people tell me that the "growth plates" are somewhere around the horse's knees (actually the ones people mean are located at the bottom of the radius-ulna bone just above the knee). This is what gives rise to the saying that, before riding the horse, it's best to wait "until his knees close" (i.e., until the growth plates convert from cartilage to bone, fusing the epiphysis or bone-end to the diaphysis or bone-shaft). What people often don't realize is that there is a "growth plate" on either end of every bone behind the skull, and in the case of some bones (like the pelvis, which has many "corners") there are multiple growth plates. So do you then have to wait until all these growth plates convert to bone? No. But the longer you wait, the safer you'll be. Owners and trainers need to realize there's a definite, easy-to-remember schedule of fusion – and then make their decision as to when to ride the horse based on that rather than on the external appearance of the horse. For there are some breeds of horse – the Quarter Horse is the premier among these – which have been bred in such a manner as to look mature long before they actually are mature. This puts these horses in jeopardy from people who are either ignorant of the closure schedule, or more interested in their own schedule (for futurities or other competition) than they are in the welfare of the animal. The Schedule of Growth-Plate Conversion to Bone The process of converting the growth plates to bone goes from the bottom of the animal up. In other words, the lower down toward the hoofs you look, the earlier the growth plates will have fused; and the higher up toward the animal's back you look, the later. The growth plate at the top of the coffin bone (the most distal bone of the limb) is fused at birth. What that means is that the coffin bones get no taller after birth (they get much larger around, though, by another mechanism). That's the first one. In order after that: Short pastern - top and bottom between birth and 6 months. Long pastern - top and bottom between 6 months and one year. Cannon bone - top and bottom between 8 months and 1.5 years Small bones of the knee - top and bottom of each, between 1.5 and 2.5 years Bottom of radius-ulna - between 2 and 2.5 years Weight-bearing portion of glenoid notch at top of radius - between 2.5 and 3 years Humerus - top and bottom, between 3 and 3.5 years Scapula - glenoid or bottom (weight-bearing) portion – between 3.5 and 4 years Hindlimb - lower portions same as forelimb Hock - this joint is "late" for as low down as it is; growth plates on the tibial and fibular tarsals don't fuse until the animal is four (so the hocks are a known "weak point" - even the 18th-century literature warns against driving young horses in plow or other deep or sticky footing, or jumping them up into a heavy load, for danger of spraining their hocks). Tibia - top and bottom, between 3 and 3.5 years Femur - bottom, between 3 and 3.5 years; neck, between 2.5 and 3 years; major and 3rd trochanters, between 2.5 and 3 years Pelvis - growth plates on the points of hip, peak of croup (tubera sacrale), and points of buttock (tuber ischii), between 3 and 4 years. And what do you think is last? The vertebral column, of course. A normal horse has 32 vertebrae between the back of the skull and the root of the dock, and there are several growth plates on each one, the most important of which is the one capping the centrum. These do not fuse until the horse is at least 5 ½ years old (and this figure applies to a small-sized, scrubby, range-raised mare. The taller your horse and the longer its neck, the later the last fusions will occur. And for a male - is this a surprise? - you add six months. So, for example, a 17-hand Thoroughbred or Saddlebred or Warmblood gelding may not be fully mature until his 8th year - something that owners of such individuals have often told me that they "suspected"). Significance of the Closure Schedule for Injuries to Back and Neck vs. Limbs The lateness of vertebral "closure" is most significant for two reasons. One: in no limb are there 32 growth plates! Two: the growth plates in the limbs are (more or less) oriented perpendicular to the stress of the load passing through them, while those of the vertebral chain are oriented parallel to weight placed upon the horse's back. Bottom line: you can sprain a horse's back (i.e. displace the vertebral physes - see Figs. 5 and 8) a lot more easily than you can displace those located in the limbs. Here-s another little fact: within the chain of vertebrae, the last to fully close" are those at the base of the animal's neck (that's why the long-necked individual may go past 6 years to achieve full maturity - it's the base of his neck that is still growing). So you have to be careful - very careful - not to yank the neck around on your young horse, or get him in any situation where he strains his neck (i.e., better learn how to get a horse broke to tie before you ever tie him up, so that there will be no likelihood of him ever pulling back hard. For more on this, see separate article in this issue). [url=http://www.equinestudies.org/knowledge_base/ranger.html]http://www.equinestudies.org/knowledge_base/ranger.html[/url] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Non-Cattle Specific Topics
Horse Talk!
If you ride young horses you should read this
Top