Do you feed mare and foal or just add amare/foal suppliment

[Carolyn R]

Just wondering what you prefer, feeding mare and foal feed to your young minis, preg. and lactating mares, or do you feed a different type of pellet and add a mare and foal suppliment?

Have any of you had any issues with mare and foal feed being too nutrient/energy dense for a mini?

 

[chandab]

All of my horses, pregnant mares included, are on a ration balancer. It just requires that I feed a little more of the ration balancer to pregnant and lactating mares, I also add a little oats to the broodmare's ration for extra calories. I really like this program and it has worked very well for me.

 

[Boss Mare]

*Mares in foal & nursing mare:

-Mare & Foal feed (14% protein)

-Alfalfa, pellets (soaked) or hay

-Beet Pulp (soaked)

-Mare Plus supplement

-Free choice good quality grass hay

*occasionally, BOSS

 

[Margaret]

I like feeding a ration balancer also, with our hay although I have used mare and foal in the past.

I also suppliment with hay pellets and oats if it seems like I need to bump up the weight.

 

[CJMM6]

We feed 12 % sweet feed with 2 tablespoons of calf mana.

This works very well for us. The mares always look healthy and most all foals are born right up on their feet. No weak pasterns.

 

[Boss Mare]

*Added*

I LOVE Calf Manna or Triple Crown 30% Supplement for Mares in foal and nursing.. Even the young ones who seem as if they are lacking *something*. Very good results.

 

[Minimor]

At one time we used calf manna added to the oats--for lactating mares & their foals and then for the weaned foals later. Then calf manna become impossible to get so we now use Frontrunners Mare/Yearling pellets for the nursing mares (and foals just eat with their moms so that's what they get too) amd then the weanlings get the Frontrunner Foal pellets. I think the mare/yearling pellets are 14% protein and the foal pellets are 16% protein with lower fat than the mare pellets, but I'd have to look at the labels again to be sure I don't have those reversed.

I'd add that our main grain for all the horses is oats--the ones that get the pellets just get a scoop of pellets as an extra. For example, last fall our weanlings were each getting 2 scoops of rolled oats and 1 scoop of foal pellets twice a day. The one colt got so that he didn't like the pellets any more, so they are now getting oats only.

edited to add: When I picked up some rolled oats the other day I noticed the feed store had a stack of....Calf Manna...about 5 bags of it sitting there. So, if we want to go back to Calf Manna, looks like we have that option now!

 

[BlueStar]

Our ladies get Purina complete advantage, calf manna the last couple months and continue through lactation, mare and foal vitamins and soaked beet pulp. After foaling they each get a warm bran mash with a bit of their grain and mineral oil as we have found it helps to pass the first poo after foaling much easier for the mare.

They also get some other supplements that all our horses get such as Vit E and Selenium.

 

[ThreeCFarm]

I second Chanda's reply.