Quote:
After about 90 days the nutrition in the mare's milk really goes down. Mostly people keep them on the mare longer because the mare teaches them so much about how to be a horse, appropriate herd behavior, etc. It's almost just as good for them to be weaned and turned out with a mixed herd. (young horses to play with and a few solid old horses to smack them around when they get too rowdy)
Talk to your breeder and do some reading about feeding a young horse. There are very few parts of the US where grass will supply all the nutrients a young growing horse needs. They don't necessarily need more calories, especially in breeds prone to OCD (a growth disorder) but small amounts of a complete feed and/or a ration balancer (a type of feed which is designed to be fed to horses on grass, that provides extra protein and all the nutrients they need but can't get from grass)
We feed almost all our horses, starting at 4mo, Purina's Enrich32 http://horse.purinamills.com/products/Enrich32.asp but if there's any OCD showing up in the line you might want to look for Enrich16, which is lower protein but the same vitamin and mineral content.
Sorry if you already knew this.
We breed a rare breed called Bashkir Curly Horses and have been around the block a time- or ten, or so.
- with feeding young horses.
After about 90 days the nutrition in the mare's milk really goes down. Mostly people keep them on the mare longer because the mare teaches them so much about how to be a horse, appropriate herd behavior, etc. It's almost just as good for them to be weaned and turned out with a mixed herd. (young horses to play with and a few solid old horses to smack them around when they get too rowdy)
Talk to your breeder and do some reading about feeding a young horse. There are very few parts of the US where grass will supply all the nutrients a young growing horse needs. They don't necessarily need more calories, especially in breeds prone to OCD (a growth disorder) but small amounts of a complete feed and/or a ration balancer (a type of feed which is designed to be fed to horses on grass, that provides extra protein and all the nutrients they need but can't get from grass)
We feed almost all our horses, starting at 4mo, Purina's Enrich32 http://horse.purinamills.com/products/Enrich32.asp but if there's any OCD showing up in the line you might want to look for Enrich16, which is lower protein but the same vitamin and mineral content.
Sorry if you already knew this.
