Growth spurts

[Hellovation]

Looking for… advice? Guidance? Sympathy 😅

Purchased what I expected to be teenagers forever pony a year ago. We adore him. Bags of talent we’ve not yet fully explored while they establish their bond. They’re going really well together. They have big goals!

Young teen has had a huge growth spurt and Is growing in a way I am beginning to suspect means the pony will be outgrown (they always seemed to take after one parent which I sort of gauged my guess on at the time of purchase but looks like genes from otherside are overtaking!)… maybe as soon as only another years time. (Both height and weight)

I’m absolutely gutted and will be devestated to sell (unfortunately can’t afford to keep alongside another) seller also sold to me on the mutual expectation that pony would live a long and happy life with me.

I just feel so sad at what I think I know will have to happen.

Depends entirely on size of pony, size of teen, and what teen wants to achieve with pony. If teen is extremely competitive in certain sports, it’s much harder to compete successfully on a pony mainly due to expectations that kids will move onto horses at a certain point. However, if they are lightweight, the pony is able to carry them comfortably, and their competitive aspirations are mainly in the ‘for fun’ category, then there is no reason to sell pony on just yet.

A sensible rider to pony weight ratio is 15%. A 14.2hh pony would on average be around 400kg, so you would be looking at a rider weight (dressed to ride, including tack) of around 60kg. If the pony is fit and sturdy, and usually this applies to heavy breeds, and the rider a well balanced and quiet rider you can get away with up to 20%, so rider dressed to ride and tack up to 80kg.

I see many small adult riders competing locally very successfully in dressage (both unaffiliated and BD) and unaffiliated showjumping on ponies. Yet it seems to be the done thing in the local pony club that every child as soon as they turn 13 acquires a horse on account of them outgrowing the perfectly good pony they were on. My DD competed in TREC, and had 2 ponies, (14.3hh and 13.3hh) she rode each one of them at a World Championship. The 14.3hh was a good size for her, the 13.3hh was too small really but was the pony we had at the time. He was a bit on the steady side too, which was the main issue rather than size. The people I bought my horse from had been having their 15 year old son ride her, but he was competing well at international level on ponies as a showjumper so was going to spend his last 2 years in ponies, despite being a tall lad capable of riding horses. Teens can ride ponies, and do well with them, for much longer than most people think.

If your child has definitely grown out of the pony size-wise (my DS suddenly got up one morning and was 6ft tall, out of nowhere! Although he was well within the weight limits for the pony, as he only weighed the same amount as a ball of cotton wool) then really it is for the best all round if you accept the pony is no longer the right one for the teen, and find them a new home and a new horse for the teen. It will get really frustrating otherwise. Our 13.3hh was much relieved when, once he had finished his work for teen DD, he was loaned to a home with 2 much younger children.

Thank you-

pony is 14.3 but very fine. Weighs roughly 440kg. child is 5’3 and 9st 4. So within weight limits currently and looks visually fine- but yes XC and SJ is where they excel and I want to be fair to the pony more than anything in terms of what is expected to be done and what he is expected to carry.

they’ve big ambitions but realistically for the time and money we can commit to it as a family it’ll be fairly low levels in the grand scheme of it all. ODE, competitive PC, sunshine tour type bits.

pony is safe, talented enough and family…. But I also love him enough to not hold onto him if it’s not in his best interest or wellness. I also do not subscribe to moving onto horses just because.

How old is your child?
I'm an adult, the same height and weight, and my ponies are 13.1 and 13.3 :)

How long have you had this pony as it doesn’t sound like it’s been very long and all the time your child is the size they are I can’t quite see what the issue is , for all you know they may get no taller so this is a non issue . WRT the previous owners thinking that the pony was going to a forever home well the only way that is ever guaranteed is by not selling , which plenty of people do .

Sorry, unsure what WRT means.

no child was rather waif like 6 months ago, it really has been a rather sudden growth spurt which hadn’t slowed and she continues to grow (as expected for a child I guess- I don’t really recall myself at her age!)

owned pony for around 18mo.

thank you, perhaps I’m needlessly worrying! I hope so.

WRT - with regards to

We thought my dd was going to be incredibly tall in her early teens - she had a massive growth spurt and was all legs. We were waiting for the rest of her to catch up which would have made her very tall but just as suddenly she stopped growing. She’s 5’9” which is tall but not out of the ordinary - she’s still all legs with a tiny torso and very slim. She now rides anything from 14hh to 17.2hh and looks fine on them all. The height/build she’s drawn to is around 15.3/16 and relatively fine but she’s had a couple of 14.2 project ponies and her current project is a 17.2 ex-racer. At 5’3” I’d have thought your daughter could have several more years before the pony is genuinely outgrown so I wouldn’t panic just yet.

Thank you for talking me down!

A 5’3” rider on a 14.3hh pony will be fine for a while yet! As I said above, my 5’6” DD’s main ride was 14.3hh, he would happily jump XC courses up to 90cm, we never tried any bigger because DD didn’t really do that sort of sport. But he carried her to 2 British championships over 30km distances, and was placed 7th at the junior world championships on him. He was a great size for her. My retired horse (who is well known in his discipline) is 15.1hh on his tiptoes. He covers 40km carrying me without trouble, and though retired from jumping now would have no trouble jumping a 5 bar gate or a 5ft hedge. My previous horse was 18hh, and I look back and think no one needs a horse that size. What was I doing?!! Too many people overhorse themselves. I especially used to see a lot of overhorsed teenagers at Pony Club events. If she is doing well with the pony, and likes him, there is no need to get her something bigger. Pony Club is an absolute hotbed of ‘you need something bigger’ ness though and the pressure to step up before the teen is ready is strong. I see a lot of young riders drop out because they struggle with a horse that is too much for them when they were happy with their pony. If you DD genuinely has talent and wants to event at top level, you will need very deep pockets and accept that a horse will be necessary eventually. But for most kids, a 14.3hh safe reliable clear rounder who will polish up a good dressage test is more than enough to keep them in the places at local level. And a good number of ponies end up at the Badminton Grass Roots every year too.

BGR is what they’re hoping for, trainer thinks they’ll have no issue, talent wise that is.

this has been really helpful. Thank you. I was having a panic if I’m honest. I’d be devastated to let the pony go.

Going against the grain of the thread slightly here... I think while you don't need to panic and get the pony's for sale ad ready just yet (fingers very much crossed for you that this is just a random growth spurt and she stays small/lightweight for a good few years yet, she might well do so), you're absolutely right to put the pony's welfare first and keep an close eye on whether she gets too heavy for him. If she does end up in the 5"9/5"10 zone or taller and at the higher end of healthy weight she will unfortunately be too heavy for a fine 14.2hh pony to be her regular ride for XC/SJ, and I don't think you should allow the fact that there are heavier people out there riding smaller ponies to convince you otherwise. People always roll out the same old lines on this about how it's fine if you're a good/balanced rider (or conversely, fine for beginners because they're only walking around) - well no, 20% is intended as an upper limit to the guidance not an average and then you can add some more on top; tall men ride and don't get criticised and/or that riding schools put heavy riders onto ponies and/or that pro riders school kids ponies - well everyone should be equally as much open to criticism, the fact that men/pros get away with it sometimes more so than the middle aged women who are the backbone of amateur riding doesn't change the fact that it is undeniably bad for horses to carry too much weight on their backs (regularly, as a very occasional one-off for the purposes of short training sessions is different), two wrongs don't make a right etc etc. I can say this as someone who has previously put on too much weight and had to stop riding my pony as a result, it's not a nice feeling and it's easy to kid yourself because you of course love and want to ride your horse and loads of people will tell you it's absolutely fine, but morally I promise you will feel better for doing the right thing by your horse.

Like I say, I'm absolutely not saying your DD definitely will get too tall or heavy for him and i do agree with PPs you do see teens getting over horsed or moved up to horses too early when they could have done an extra year on ponies, but that's as much to do with the type of horse purchased rather than it simply being bigger, too often the first horse purchase is a proper competition type which alongside the size rise is just too much for the kid where a more steady/been there done it type would have been fine (although the 15.2 schoolmaster type is hardly cheap or easy to find which I guess plays into it). So I think just play it by ear for the next couple of years but I don't think it's wise to absolutely count on him being a 'forever pony', sorry...

@maxelly, I agree with more or less everything you are saying, which is a bit strange because most of the posts earlier on have been made by me, and you say you are going against the grain! I’ve been quite careful to say there are limits to what a pony can be expected to carry. But I’m also reasonably sure a young teen is unlikely to be infringing those limits just yet. Or perhaps for the lifetime of the pony!

However, you are correct to say that with kids there is no such thing as a forever pony. One of my children has completely outgrown every horse and pony we have, except my competition horse and he is not riding that as I like both horse and child too much! He has developed other hobbies and rides our old horse (who he needs to fold his legs up to get on, but is comfortably inside weight limits for) about once or twice a month for a walk. The other child, the one with the sporting success on an international level, hit A levels and said (with back of hand pressed to forehead) “I am retiring as a rider after the Worlds!” And I nearly fell over in shock. Her ‘forever horse’ is a big pet in the garden now, having a health issue which means I would not rehome him.

Between early teens and exam years many things can happen. A child could grow, they could lose interest - you honestly can’t tell and it is worth any parent with a child in any sport realising this can happen (I could not believe it when another parent told me her very successful gymnast child had just suddenly stopped one day. No warning, just said ‘that’s it. I’m finished.) Horses are a very expensive hobby, and I don’t think it is worth pursuing the ‘I must have a horse because all the other girls have got one’ route unless the child is definitely showing signs they are too big or definitely showing signs they have outgrown the ability of the pony.

And, fwiw, the sports I compete in are utterly obsessed with weight of rider and kit. It was the subject of the public talk we had at a recent national championship (we get Saturday entertainment at the champs, and this talk on rider weight was part of the entertainment!) We weigh everything. Well, the top riders do anyway. I can tell you how much everything I put on the horse weighs. Even my bridle, a very minimalist bit of kit, weighs 1.5kg with a bit and decent reins attached. My hat is another kg, and my boots 2kg if I wear the long boots. My sheepskin numnahs are a couple of kg each, my saddle 8kg. If I carry water (long distance sport) each litre is another kg. Before you know it, you are putting well over 20kg, perhaps as much as 25kg on your horse ready to compete as well the rider. I would not advocate riding a smaller horse if you thought it would be close on the weights, but nor would I advocate overhorsing a young teen.

I guess it depends a lot on the age of the child, and also how tall her parents are. This will at least give a guide as to whether or not she will grow too big.

Does any one else remember Mark Todd and Charisma? He is 6’2 and Charisma only 15.2. Didn’t stop them!

I mean... the BS SJ circuit has some very tall kids competing at the highest level on 14.2's. But they are very good riders and don't bounce around on the pony's back