Feed recommendations for brood mares & foals?

[RockRiverTiff]

Wow--I feel pretty good about my feeding program now! We also feed senior feed to the whole herd, but ours has a lower percentage of fiber than Jill's, so I balance with beet pulp. They have been on this diet for a couple years now and everyone sheds out nice and shiny in the spring and gets a wonderful soft, glossy coat in the winter. Their hooves look great too, and we've had neither colic nor founder issues on this diet. When we heard Platform was specially formulated for the minis, we tried it for several months, but as others have mentioned it was only effective on the easy keepers--I was happy to go back to senior feed.

 

[Miniv]

For an idle overweight mare who is NOT being bred.........I would cut back a bit on the complete grain and increase the forage (hay). You may even consider NOT graining her, but giving her a straight supplement for her vitamins and minerals. The hay is important, though.

If possible, try weighing her hay. If she's overweight and you want her to get down to about 300 lbs? Feed her about 1.5 percent of that in hay. Do the math.......She is NOT getting enough now, which may be backfiring on you. The actual activity of eating forage can burn calories.........sort of like for US -- If we eat a bunch of salad and veggies the activity uses up more calories than we are consuming..........BUT because we eat enough to feel full, our bodies won't go into "starvation mode" and retain every little calorie we eat.

 

[CrescentMinis]

Thanks for that input and detail, MaryAnn. The vet says she is getting too much hay, even when I described this in detail as above. So I will cut back the grain and up the hay in the hope that will help her! These guys also have salt & mineral blocks, plus get a 1/4 scoop HorseGuard supplement a day.

 

[Miniv]

Faith,

She doesn't need both the complete feed AND the supplement........because the senior has supplement already in it. Is your vet a MINI specialist??? Whatever you do, always remember the rule of thumb that people talk about on here....... Feed between 1 to 2 PERCENT of a horse's body weight, depending on whether you want to just maintain them or diet them. (For weight gain, the percent is increased of course.)

THEN every week, it's good to do the "touch test" on your horse, not just go by sight. That way you adjust the amount accordingly. You will discover this winter that the "touch test" is even MORE important and you'll want to increase her feed.