23/09/2024
Nutrition for a new baby. ❤
Last week I traveled to Maryland to get a weanling and bring her home to Florida. Meet Sunset over Sydney, a 5 month old Westfalen pinto buckskin foal - barn name TBD!
She had a long drive and an eventful few weeks being weaned and making her way to Florida. As one can imagine - the past few weeks have been pretty stressful for her, whether she shows us that or not. Omeprazole (Ulcergard) in the week post weaning and through the trip to a new home are fairly common practice that I did with her. While she seems pretty settled and happy, the best thing one can do for their new horse (foal or adult), is keep the nutrition consistent through the move to help manage GI tract stress. Below are a few tips I have for feeding a new baby specifically.
1. Ask the breeder for multiple days - several weeks worth of hay and feed that they were getting at their previous home. On my trip down, I had 4 different types of hay and 3 different feeds for 3 horses. It was a lot to keep track of but consistency was my priority. It would have been much more convenient to feed them all the same thing, but traveling is incredibly stressful and sudden hay & feed changes are hard on the digestive tract and greatly increase the risk of colic.
I suggest keeping their hay & feed the same for the entire trip and for at minimum 3 days after arrival. Nutrition is often the easiest thing to keep consistent through a move and it can make a huge difference in the health of your horse. If you can, get a weeks worth of hay and feed and slowly transition to your supply of hay and feed. More is best but often you won't get a full load of hay with the horse!
2. After continuing with the diet from the previous home for at least 3 days after arrival - if not longer -start to slowly transition to your new feed and hay by mixing it. The rule of thumb for introducing a new feed to an adult horse is to add by no more than 1 lb. per day. With a foal, I suggest going slowly and introducing .25-.5 lbs. of new feed per day while simultaneously reducing what they were on. Slow and steady will lend itself best to a steady growth curve in a new baby.
3. After you've maximized forage intake, select the right feed or balancer with steady growth in mind. Growing horses present as challenge as they will go through periods where they look gangly, uneven, sometimes ribby, etc. as most growing animals go through! They are genetically designed to grow at their own rate and to a certain potential. Our job as owners is to promote potential but not try to exceed it as an over-conditioned (fat/fleshy) young horse can introduce a heightened risk of developmental orthopedic disease, especially physitis. This is a time in life where brief periods of leanness (NOT under a BCS of 4) through growth spurts are much better than an over-conditioned growing horse.
A good way to begin is with maximized quality hay and a ration balancer fortified for growth (read the tag for proper feeding directions). From there, let your growing horse's body condition be your guide. Deliver nutrition that can keep their condition in the ideal zone and support the nutrient needs of a growing horse. The best way to make sure your feed meets the needs of a growing horse is to check the label for directions for this life stage - if you don't see these select something different.
4. Let your growing horse's body be your guide and make any changes slowly. Do not panic if you come out one morning and your young horse looks slightly ribby. Give it a few weeks and see if it evens out or persists. Growth spurts happen and this is a normal part of the growing process. Although, it should be fairly short lived. If the lean appearance persists, that can be an indication that you need to go to a growth feed or up the feeding rate (instead of using a balancer) to support your horse's energy needs during this period. I've had both types of growing horses - one that needed 7 lbs. of growth feed per day to thrive and others that have needed significantly less or even a ration balancer. Let their body be your guide.
5. Let the tag of a quality growth feed or ration balancer be the guide on your feeding rate. If you aren't feeding to specifications, you could be shortchanging or oversupplying your young horse with critical nutrients that can influence growth. Check the label and check in with a nutritionist or nutrition advisor for guidance on how to feed the product you have in mind.
6. Don't forget the basics - abundant fresh clean water, access to salt, friends, safety and protection from themselves (if you've owned a baby you know what I'm talking about!), and a happy environment. Babies growing with a herd of similar aged pasture-mates is the best case scenario. If you don't have any other babies onsite, if you can allow your young horse to come in contact with your adult horses but have a barrier between them, this is ideal for their safety. If you have a super citizen that does well with babies it can be ok to mix them, but I would proceed with caution and keep a close eye out in the beginning if you do this.
7. Enjoy the process! Watching a young horse grow can be a fun, rewarding experience. If you haven't been through it before, be sure to get help from a trainer on handling them at this life stage. Understand that young horses don't know how to lead automatically, certainly don't know how to stand tied, etc. Go slow, be patient and enjoy!
Dr. Rachel Mottet
