FeedXL Equine Nutrition Team

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Entries by FeedXL Equine Nutrition Team

Feeding the Lactating Mare

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Getting a lactating mare’s feeding right is critical to ensure she can provide milk for her foal and provide the required nutrients for a foetus if she is pregnant again. A balanced diet is also essential to keep the mare healthy so that she can continue to reproduce or go back into work after her foal at foot is weaned.

As for all horses, a mare’s requirement for energy (calories), protein, vitamins and minerals must be met. These nutrients and the role they play in a lactating mare’s diet are looked at below.

Raising an Orphan Foal

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While seeing a healthy foal raised successfully by its dam is every breeder’s goal, unfortunately situations do arise where foals are unable to be suckled by their mothers and alternatives must be found. Whether the foal was orphaned due to complications during delivery, the mare is unable or unwilling to raise the foal or the foal needs to be weaned early to reduce the stress placed on its dam or to allow its dam to travel long distances to be bred, an alternative source of milk and maternal care must be found.

Orphaned foals can be raised by a nurse mare or they can be hand reared using a commercial milk replacer. The method chosen to rear the foal will depend on the availability of a nurse mare, the age and value of the foal, the expense associated with these options, as well as the time available and the skills of the foal’s carers.

Feeding for the Season

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As the seasons change so does the amount of pasture available to your horse. And as the amount of pasture changes, so does your horse’s need for supplementary feed. Failure to adjust your horse’s feeding regime correctly with changing seasons could result in an overweight, hyperactive horse or an underweight, tired mount. But is it as simple as just changing the amount of feed you are giving? We explore this in detail in the following article.

Using Heart Rates to Measure Fitness

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Daily heart rate measurements should be a fundamental part of the day-to-day management of equine athletes. In this newsletter we will discuss the fitness of the horse, with “fitness” referring to the aerobic fitness of a horse and how fitness can be determined using measurements of heart rate at the trot. Aerobic fitness refers to the capacity of a horse to transport oxygen from the air, through the lungs and then be pumped by the heart through the blood to provide the muscle cells with the oxygen to support metabolism of fuels such as glucose and fat. Aerobic fitness is relevant to every equine competition, except perhaps Quarter Horse races, which are all over in less than 20 seconds.

Oil for Horses: Good or Bad?

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Hard working horses have enormous requirements for energy that are traditionally filled using high grain rations fed together with chaff and hay. However, feeding large amounts of grain does come with its own set of issues which can include colic, hindgut acidosis, nervous or fiery behaviour, tying up and loss of appetite. Oil has gained popularity in recent years as a substitute source of energy for working horses, but is it effective, how much can be fed, are all oils equal in the benefits they can provide and do they cause any health issues of their own?

Feeding the Weanling

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Weanling stage is a critical stage in the growth and development of a horse and nutrition plays a pivotal role. Weanling nutrition influences the horse’s final size and perhaps more importantly plays a large role in determining the horse’s long term structural soundness.

As for all horses, a weanling’s energy, protein, mineral and vitamin requirements must be met. This article discusses each of these dietary components in some detail and 3 potential diets for weanlings in different circumstances are given.

Does Your Horse Need Electrolytes?

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As a horse exercises its muscles generate heat. To prevent its body from dangerously overheating, the horse sweats to allow evaporative cooling to dissipate the heat being produced. As a horse sweats, water and electrolytes, including sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium and calcium are lost from the body.

For effective sweating to occur, the horse must be well hydrated and have an ample supply of electrolytes in its body. The electrolytes and water lost through sweating must be replaced during exercise to prevent electrolyte depletion and dehydration. This newsletter will look at what electrolytes are and why they are important, how much ‘electrolyte’ a horse needs, where horses get electrolytes from in the diet and when to use an electrolyte supplement.

Feeding the ‘Pony Club’ Mount

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A good pony club mount is a precious commodity and they often require special care to keep them fit, healthy and active for as many years as possible. Sound nutrition should form the basis of this care. Pony Club mounts are also carrying an even more precious load, your children; and in this respect, temperament is everything. The following article gives you some tips on how to keep your Pony Club mounts healthy and calm without costing yourself a fortune.

The Importance of Fibre for Horses

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Several different forms of carbohydrates form what we call ‘fibre’. These carbohydrates include cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. Fibre cannot be digested in a horse’s small intestine. Instead, they rely on the billions of bacteria that live in their hindgut to digest it via fermentation for them. Fibre, which is also called ‘structural carbohydrate’, is essentially provided by the pasture, hay, chaff, haylage and high fibre feeds like sugarbeet and legume hulls in your horse’s diet. Fibre is the single most important component of a horse’s diet (after water) as without it, their digestive tract can’t function as it should. So why is it so important and what will happen if your horse doesn’t get enough?

Protein: Can You Feed Too Much?

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Protein is a very important component of all horse diets and as discussed in our FeedXL Newsletter #30, ‘Understanding Protein Quality’, the quality of protein used in diets will largely determine how well that diet can support functions that rely on protein including growth, reproduction, athletic performance and muscle building.

But can we get carried away with protein in a horse’s diet? Can too much protein be fed? And are the very high protein pastures that are so common nowadays a problem for horses? The answer to those questions is ‘yes and no’, it all depends on the circumstances your horse find itself in. Let’s look in more detail at when high protein diets may be a problem.

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