I agree w/the more, and better quality feed.
My horses live on free choice (albeit poor quality) pasture, with orchard grass hay in front of them pretty much 24/7. My young horses, weanlings and yearlings, even on up to two and three year olds, get a 12% Development formulated feed.
Here is their feeding instructions (from the LMF feeds website:
"Weanlings & Yearlings (to 18 mo.) Feed 1 lb. per 100 lb. of body weight per day until weight equals approximately 60% of expected mature weight. Example: the maximum intake for a young, growing horse with an expected mature weight of 1,000 lb. would be 6 lbs. per day. "
I've noticed that minis need sometimes twice what would be expected by weight, in some cases, but I'm terrible with math, and each horse is a little different. I err on the side of generosity, and have consulted my vet and farrier on these issues, and have never caused a problem w/overfeeding.
My weanlings consume at LEAST 1-2 lb. per day by the time they are a month old (some more, some less). Now, most of my weanlings are less than 25 lb. at birth, and for sure they are less than 50 lb. by a month (I know, I carry them around all the time, and have weighed a couple). So it progresses:
My weanlings, by the time they are weaned, are often eating 2-4 lb. of this same feed per day, in addition to free choice pasture and hay, as well as beet pulp and BOSS. I would guess most of them are about 100 lb. even as long yearlings (A size horses) They are NOT fat, they are NOT pot-bellied, and the ones that are somewhat pot-bellied are the ones that I increase the feed and it goes away.
I feel I cannot sacrifice their emotional as well as physical health to make them "look" a certain way, though I DO show my weanlings and yearlings fairly extensively.
I also do NOT do any forced exercise on a weanling and am very hesitant and light w/it on a yearling, and it's always free work.
I have a yearling filly here that weighs about 200 lb (32" tall) and she eats 5 lb. of feed per day, is active and healthy and has very little to no body fat.
I know it sounds like I feed a lot, but here are some photographs of my weanlings and yearlings for reference (all of these horses were/are fed and conditioned as I describe, and not sweated or worked):
Yearling filly (15 months here, the one I described above, she's hard to keep, and gets a bit of a belly when I know she needs more feed).
Same filly as above, but four months old, about two months before she was weaned. I consider her a bit thin, and I increased her feed and left her on her dam for two more months or so b/c of her hard keeper status.
7 month old weanling. He eats about 4 lb. of feed per day as well.
7 week old weanling.
I'm sorry this is long. I see a similar thread to this several times in a week and particularly this time of year as we try to prep our horses to take them into the ring. I don't always have the time to type a response to it, and for sure there may be something else happening here such as parasites or ulcers, but barring that, this is what works for me.
I'm not an expert, just telling you what works for my horses/situation.
(always make feed changes slowly, even increases, and don't add a new substance until you're sure the horse tolerates it, and only one new thing at a time in case of a reaction).
Liz M.
