19/11/2025
📘 Understanding Growth Plates in Horses 🐴🦴
Thanks to everyone who voted in the “What age should you start riding a horse?” poll!
Here’s a little breakdown of how growth plates actually mature — it might surprise you…
🔹 Horses don’t mature all at once.
Different growth plates close at different ages, starting at the legs and finishing at the spine.
🔹 General guide to growth plate closure:
• Lower legs: ~2 years
• Knees: around 2.5 years
• Hocks & stifles: by 3–3.5 years
• Pelvis & shoulders: around 4–5 years
• Vertebrae (the spine): can continue until 6–7+ years
• Some large breeds may take up to 8 years to fully mature.
🔹 What this means for riding:
Light groundwork and basic handling are great early on, but consistent ridden work is usually safest once the spine is mature, generally 5–6+ years depending on the horse.
💬 Every horse is an individual — breed, conformation, workload and temperament all matter.
