Help Your Foal Grow with Proper Nutrition
A healthy foal will grow rapidly, gaining in height, weight and strength
almost before your
eyes. From birth to age two, a young horse can achieve 90 percent or more
of its full adult
size, sometimes putting on as many as three pounds per day. Feeding young
horses is a
balancing act, as the nutritional start a foal gets can have a profound
affect on its health and
soundness for the rest of its life.
At eight to ten weeks of age, mare's milk alone may not adequately meet
the foal's nutritional
needs, depending on the desired growth rate and owner wants for a foal.
As the foal's dietary
requirements shift from milk to feed and forage, your role in providing
the proper nutrition
gains in importance. Following are guidelines from the American Association
of Equine
Practitioners (AAEP) to help you meet the young horse's nutritional needs:
Provide high quality
roughage (hay and pasture) free choice.
Supplement with a
high quality, properly balanced grain concentrate at weaning, or earlier
if more rapid rates of gain are desired.
Start by feeding one
percent on a foal's body weight per day (i.e., one pound of feed for
each 100 pounds of body weight), or one pound of feed per month of age.
Weigh and adjust the
feed ration based on growth and fitness. A weight tape can help you
approximate a foal's size.
Foals have small stomachs
so divide the daily ration into two to three feedings.
Make sure feeds contain
the proper balance of vitamins, minerals, energy and protein.
Use a creep feeder
or feed the foal separate from the mare so it can eat its own ration.
Try to avoid group creep feeding situations.
Remove uneaten portions
between feedings.
Do not overfeed. Overweight
foals are more prone to developmental orthopedic
disease (DOD).
Provide unlimited
fresh, clean water.
Provide opportunity
for abundant exercise.
The reward for providing excellent nutrition and conscientious care will
be a healthy foal
that grows into a sound and useful horse.
For more information about caring for the older horse, email
us to request a copy of the
“Foal Health” brochure, provided by the American Association
of Equine Practitioners in
partnership with Educational Partner Bayer Animal Health. Additional information
is
available by visiting the AAEP’s horse health web site, www.myHorseMatters.com.
Reprinted with permission from the American Association of Equine Practitioners.