two-year-old Warmblood, has longer legs, trips easily and appears somewhat awkward as he tears up the turf. Many Warmblood enthusiasts will agree that their horses mature slower than other breeds of horses. But what do veterinarians and researchers have to say about this theory? Warmbloods Today recently set out to find the facts on Warmblood development.
I
Is There Proof? According to Dr. Kelleyerin Clabaugh, DVM, an equine practitioner and owner of Aramat Farm, a sport horse breeding farm in Oregon that specializes in raising and training three-day eventers, there are many opinions about Warmblood development, however there is “surprising little fact or research about the matter.” “I do not know of any study that states that light boned
horses are done growing by X years and Warmbloods are done by Y years,” she says. “Genetic lines, not just breed, dictate growth potential and duration. Nutrition and exercise also play a role in bone development.” In fact, one researcher, Dr. Deb Bennett, PhD, founder
of the Equine Studies Institute, has compiled a “growth plate conversion schedule” which establishes the typical times at which certain growth plates within the body converts into stable bone. Dr. Bennett’s timeline is general for all horses and is as follows:
How Slow DoWarm
magine the scene: Two young horses that are the same age are playing happily in a lush pasture. One, a two- year-old Arabian, looks well on his way to physical maturity as he cruises around the field. The other, a
• The coffin bone solidifies at birth • The short pastern fuses between birth and six months of age • The long pastern fuses between six months of age and one year • The cannon bone fuses between eight months and one year and a half
• The small bones of the knee fuse between one and a half years and two and a half years
• The bottom of the radius and ulna fuse between two and two and a half years
• The weight-bearing portion of the radius fuses between two and a half and three years
• The humerus fuses between three and three and a half years • The scapula fuses between three and a half and four years • The hock fuses around four years of age • The tibia fuses between three and three and a half years • The femur fuses in three stages between two and a half and three and a half years of age
• The pelvis fuses between three and four years of age • The vertebral column fuses when the horse is five and half years of age, with male horses often taking up to six months longer
According to one leading equine orthopedic researcher,
Dr. Sue Dyson, it’s generally accepted that physes (growth plates) close later in non-Thoroughbred breeds when compared to Thoroughbreds, “but most will be closed radiologically by five to six years of age at the latest. The distal radial physis is often the latest to close (in the lower limb), but whether this is a site of later growth or it is other parts of the skeleton, I don’t think anyone knows.”
Two-year-old Hanoverian gelding Baccarat (Bugatti Hilltop x Cor Noir) bred by Crossen Arabians & Warmbloods. He won numerous breed show awards including the 2011 NEDA Year End Awards-1st place for two-year-olds in the Breeding Division. Photo courtesy Susan Crossen
48 March/April 2012
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