Feeding of the Growing Foal
Separate feeding programs are necessary to meet the nutritional requirements of nursing foals, weanlings, yearlings, long yearlings and two year olds until they reach 90% of their mature weight.
Incorrect nutrition is as important as poor conformation in the development of unsoundness. But, unlike conformation faults, incorrect nutrition is the hidden destroyer. Weaknesses developing in bones and joints due to unbalanced nutrition are often unable to be identified until they are so far advanced as to cause lameness and breakdowns, sometimes months or years go by – you won’t see it until the horse is under pressure of training.
Growing foal feeding recommendations:
- Concentrations should provide usable protein and be balanced for calcium, phosphorus, copper and zinc in a formulation specifically designed for growing horses. Higher amounts of protein and minerals (in grams per day) are required if the hay isn’t prime Lucerne (alfalfa) or the pasture isn’t irrigated/improved.
- Weanlings and yearlings need to eat the equivalent of 2.5% - 3% of their bodyweight as feed each day. To prevent wood, bedding and tail chewing, the diet should comprise roughage at a minimum of 1.5% of body weight and concentrate at 1%.
- Since steam-extruded feeds cause lower glucose and insulin responses than sweet feeds, they may be preferable to textured sweet feeds, especially in foals with a genetic history or predisposition to OCD (osteochondritis dissecans).
- If signs of epiphysitis or other DOD appear, diet/exercise is probably not balanced. Amount of concentrate should be temporarily reduced while a full diet analysis is performed. Any deficiencies or excesses should be corrected and a properly balanced ration reintroduced as soon as possible.
- Starving foals by feeding grass hay and oats for a prolonged period resulting in weight loss and poor growth will not correct the problem of growth abnormalities on a long term basis.
- Prolonged feeding of feeds which cause constantly elevated insulin levels may affect cartilage development by leading to faulty mineralization or by influencing other hormones such as thyroid hormone.
- Feeding induced extremes in blood glucose can insulin levels predispose to OCD but other factors such as trauma and/or sudden rapid growth spurts determine the final development of OCD.
Horse Moms Life Stage complete health and nutritional products has been able to take the guess work out of feeding and supplementing your horse by analyzing the different stages of horses and provide products with nutrients specific to each stage and activity.
Plus providing total body support with additional ingredients to support your horses’ :
- skeletal system,
- digestive system,
- immune system,
- skin and coat,
- muscular system,
- nervous system,
- circulatory system and respiratory system
The growth trends of bone and muscle are fundamental to the formulation of Horse Moms Life Stage complete health and nutritional growing foal products which encompass the most current knowledge on equine nutrition and physiology.
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