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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 473
 
| Okay, I know this is going to be very opinionated but I’m just curious.
What do you feed your foals?
What supplements do you give? WHY?
If you switch from a growth feed, at what age? |
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 It Goes On
Posts: 2262
Location: Muskogee, OK | Blue Bonnet Growth and Development fed to the mare during pregnancy and throughout lactation... and then also to the foal once they start eating solid feed. Feed through til about 2 year old stage. |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12841
 
| I was feeding a 16% mare and foal feed and decided the protein was too high. I switched the mares to the 14% feed I had been feeding. Foals eat with their mommas. Everybody looks great. |
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  Living on the edge of common sense
Posts: 24138
Location: Carpenter, WY | I really believe in seeing what genetics give us and they get what mama gets...clean grass/alfalfa hay and are out on pasture most of the time. No growth supplements. |
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 Champ
Posts: 19623
Location: Peg-Leg Julia Grimm | Good quality grass hay free choice and/or pasture 24/7/365. The only time my horses are locked in are when they are about to foal. Then I lock them in at night so the camera can help me monitor them and I can help them when needed. But they foal a lot during the daylight hours and on weekends. That helps me be there too.
3-5# of alfalfa per head per day.
REAL grain products as needed for body condition. Usually less than 2# per day. No processed feeds at all.
Recommended amounts of Equerry's Choice Economy supplement added to their grain daily. It fills in the gaps in ration mineral content and has organic selenium for our deficient soils.
Trace mineral salt block free choice.
Clean water free choice.
I haven't had any developmental problems for at well over a decade. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I'm old fastion, I always added calf manna to my mares feed and to the babys feed once they started eating on thier own. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1520
Location: Illinois | I've taken a little different approach than I would like since I board and don't have grazing access. Where I board keeps 12 horses on pasture board with only 2 acres, so grass is nonexistent. And I'm only allowed to have a max of 4 flakes of hay per day. So I had no choice but to use grain for mine, which I did Ultium Growth and liked it a lot. I fed around 1/2 scoop per day and then just a vitamin supplement to cover what they weren't getting with the limited forage. Luckily I did an equine nutrition program in college, so I'm able to roughly calculate rations based on the hay test results and the labels on other products I use. I didn't want to pump the grain since I like natural development. Mine won't run until they're 5/6 so they have plenty of time to grow on their own terms. Looking into my own place next spring and then things will change and more hay/forage will be in everyone's future and less grains, but until then I just do the best with the circumstances. |
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 That's White "Man" to You
Posts: 5515
| JLazyT_perf_horses - 2018-09-27 1:46 PM I've taken a little different approach than I would like since I board and don't have grazing access. Where I board keeps 12 horses on pasture board with only 2 acres, so grass is nonexistent. And I'm only allowed to have a max of 4 flakes of hay per day. So I had no choice but to use grain for mine, which I did Ultium Growth and liked it a lot. I fed around 1/2 scoop per day and then just a vitamin supplement to cover what they weren't getting with the limited forage. Luckily I did an equine nutrition program in college, so I'm able to roughly calculate rations based on the hay test results and the labels on other products I use. I didn't want to pump the grain since I like natural development. Mine won't run until they're 5/6 so they have plenty of time to grow on their own terms. Looking into my own place next spring and then things will change and more hay/forage will be in everyone's future and less grains, but until then I just do the best with the circumstances.
I have used Ultium and it scared me how fast they grew on it. No more for my little herd. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 599
| I’m feeding my 1.5 year old Ultium Growth and she’s doing really well on it (with good quality hays and pasture). |
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Expert
Posts: 1520
Location: Illinois | Whiteboy - 2018-09-27 1:51 PM
JLazyT_perf_horses - 2018-09-27 1:46 PM I've taken a little different approach than I would like since I board and don't have grazing access. Where I board keeps 12 horses on pasture board with only 2 acres, so grass is nonexistent. And I'm only allowed to have a max of 4 flakes of hay per day. So I had no choice but to use grain for mine, which I did Ultium Growth and liked it a lot. I fed around 1/2 scoop per day and then just a vitamin supplement to cover what they weren't getting with the limited forage. Luckily I did an equine nutrition program in college, so I'm able to roughly calculate rations based on the hay test results and the labels on other products I use. I didn't want to pump the grain since I like natural development. Mine won't run until they're 5/6 so they have plenty of time to grow on their own terms. Looking into my own place next spring and then things will change and more hay/forage will be in everyone's future and less grains, but until then I just do the best with the circumstances.
I have used Ultium and it scared me how fast they grew on it. No more for my little herd.
That's why I used a far smaller amount than recommended and added the vitamin/mineral supplement. I have seen them grow like crazy when fed the recommended amount or large amounts of any grain, that's what the Growth formula is designed to do. They want you to feed 7-8lbs of it a day, what I was feeding measured to 1 lb with the scoop I was using for it. I only fed it to help with the lack of forage for them, I don't think I'd use it in a situation where I had unlimited hay access or pasture access. My last colt I had grew about 1-2" inches per year and when I gave him away at 2 years old he had just cracked the 14h mark. His siblings were all 15.3-16.3 and steadily grew until they were 6, so I was letting him do what his genetics wanted. But he always grew super proportionate and never was butt high or awkward looking, he looked like a small perfectly put together horse and grew up front and back evenly. His siblings all went through the ugly awkward, hip 5" taller than the front, phases. Idk if it was him or just how he was fed that made him grow differently. He was on 1 full scoop a day of sweet feed when I bought him, lady told me to come pick him up and he wasn't even 3 months old yet. She most likely fed his siblings that way because they were all sold as yearlings and 2 year olds. He almost died from a mass infestation of round worms in his lungs, leading in almost a year of ridding him of them and 3 months of antibiotics. I'm sure that affected his growth as well. I was just glad to get him out of that situation |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1100
Location: Southeastern Idaho | We grow our own hay so my weanlings get a manger of grassy alfalfa hay that doesn't see the bottom. Our hay is tested, we know the protein values. They get a local milled for our area free choice loose mineral. No supplements. If the weanling looks to be behind growth-wise we will add Safe Conditioner (IFA brand). I don't like pushing my babies too hard too fast and risk feet and bone issues. |
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