Diet for a yearling

[KrazyHorses]

Wondering what kind of diet you feed your yearlings?

My mini colt is out w/ my TWH gelding so they eat together. I throw a flake of coastal in the morning, a flake in the afternoon, each gets one ounce of Vita Plus, then, at night they get one flake of coastal and one flake of T&A.

They are both fat as ticks...and it doesn't seem like I'm feeding that much.

Is it OK to lightly lunge a yearling for exercise?

 

[Marty]

I used to ride apps for a breeder in your town a million years ago and do a lot of tack shopping there at Brandon. Nice little town you have there.

You're right, you are not feeding that much at all. You are feeding zero compared to me.

My horses would starve to death on what you are feeding.

My quarter horse gets 2 large pads of hay am and pm plus grass plus is grained twice a day. Soaked Beet pulp for lunch.

I live in Tennessee Walker land and they do tend to need a lot of groceries to stay filled out. Most of the ones up here are very tall and long and hard keepers so I don't know how you are able to feed yours so little.

My younger minis get approximately 4 cups am and pm of Purina Equine Jr. 1 cup of soaked beet pulp and 1 cup of Purina Born to Win ration balancer am and pm

No, I don't exercise them that young. I don't need to.

 

[Jill]

My yearlings get senior complete feed pellets and really soft orchard grass hay -- probably more pellets than hay. They're not fat. Sometimes yearlings can look "fat" (big belly) because they are not getting enough protein or because the hay they are being fed is too coarse.

As for lunging, if you have a round pen, I'd say yes it is okay. I lunge my show yearlings for 15 minutes every other day at a trot to prepare for and during show season. However, I would not lunge line one that young.

If you do not have a round pen but want one, you can make a fairly inexpensive and quick round pen using cattle panels and t-posts.

Whether or not yearlings "need" to be exercise has partly to do with whether or not you will be actually showing them. I do so they are lightly lunged. If they are "just" stay at home pets, then there's not a need for it

 

[wildoak]

I want to be Marty's horse LOL..... My yearlings - most all of my horses - are getting Safe & Sound, yearlings that are out on pasture get 1/2 small coffee can twice a day, alfalfa am and coastal hay pm.

I have one yearling who is stalled at night and exercised about 3-4 times a week, usually on the golf cart,

who gets a little more of everything as he is burning more calories. They all get Platinum Performance, a handfull of beet pulp, and Strongid C2x in the morning as well. All of them are fat right now.

I would be a little concerned about feeding your mini with your TWH, kind of setting up a situation for someone to get hurt if the big guy gets possessive of dinner.

Jan

 

[barefoot]

Because they are not getting much food I am thinking that their metabolism has slowed and needs a jump start.

Hungry horses binge and then get fat. Most of our horses are starving but fat. Sounds backward. If you can give a mineral supplement and then feed more hay so that they always have something in their bellys. Once they believe the food isn't going away they will slow down.

Lots of exercise of course too.

Here is an awesome quote from Jaime Jackson's book 'Founder'

Foremost, and this may come as a suprise, we are starving our horses by feeding them everything they can finish off in a meal. That's right , and the "psychology" behind their starvation predicament is no different than humans laboring under a starvation-type diet. .....

So, when the moment finally arrives that you can no longer stand the deprivation, and you 'give in," what are you going to do? Pig out. And every nutritionist on the face of the earth will tell you that when you crash diet and pig out on a regular basis, you're actually throwing your body into metabolic disorder.......

But the truth is, these fat horses are actually starving. The are overweight because they have been conditioned by us to overeat in order to survive.....

A starving horse will do anything to stave off weight loss. It has to if the body is to survive....