Advice
on feeding and nutrition for foals and young horses
 Correct feeding
and balanced equine nutrition is essential for
the growth and correct development of foals and
young horses.
The most natural feed for a foal is its mother's milk and normally
this will provide the calories and protein needed for foal
growth.
However the level of minerals important to equine skeletal development
rapidly decrease during lactation. By the 5th week some of the
trace minerals in the mare's milk may have lowered
by 50% and may not adequately meet a foal’s nutritional
needs and the general advice is to give a foal additional feed.
Foals should not be allowed access to their
mother's stud ration; instead you should give an equine
creep feed from 10 days old, together with the milk the
foal suckles from his mother.
A foal should be given 0.5g of equine creep
feed per day for every month of its age, e.g. a two month old
foal should receive 1 kilo of feed. However this should be restricted
to a maximum of 0.5 kilos - 0.75 kilos per 100 kg of bodyweight.
Foals have small stomachs - split the daily ration into 2 to
3 feeds.
You should be very careful not to overfeed a foal since this
can cause abnormal growth and be detrimental to its health
and may even cause Developmental Orthopedic Disease
- although in many cases this is hereditary.
It is commonly believed that the most dangerous type of diet
for a foal is one that is low in minerals and
high in energy. This promotes rapid growth - but lacks the mineral
building blocks to support it and may result in abnormalities
when the foal matures into an adult horse or pony.
Feeding cereals such as oats and barley
on their own without supplements are an example of such a bad
diet for a young horse as they provide plenty
of energy but have a low mineral & vitamin content.
Most horse feed manufacturers make balanced
foal creep feeds in the form of pellets or mixes. These should
contain a percentage of milk powder and and will be very low in
fibre and provide the correct levels of nutrition
Make sure that the foal can eat his own feed by using a creep
feeder - this will prevent the mare from eating her
foal's feed.
As with an adult horse a foal should always
have free access to a supply of fresh, clean water. |
