Feeding Foals

The normal feeding behaviour of a foal is to stand and suckle within 2-3 hours or much sooner. Any longer there will be a problem with absorbing colostrum. They should suckle frequently, in the first 2 weeks, 7- 8 times and hour. As they get older they suckle less as they are more coordinated and efficient at suckling at the times when they do.

Total intake up to day 2 is 10-15% of  body weigh a day, this is a massive drain on the mare. After day 2 this goes up to 25% of body weight a day.  At 3 months they drink 18 litres a day. The weight gain is 1-2 kg/day and they should be weighed accurately, this may seem like a lot but when you think that they may have to reach a weight of 500 kg then they need to put on a lot of weight.

Colostrum is the milk produced in the first 12- 15 hours after birth, you don’t want the foal to miss this. It has antibodies and is a different composition to mature milk. There is increased protein, increased white blood cells, increased Ca content,  and increased Vit A, but it has a lower concentration of lactose than mature milk. If the foal doesn't get this they are at risk from illness, septicaemia and scouring. The immunoglobulin molecules are only absorbed for a short time in foal intestine. They need a protein carrier which is not produced after this time. So they need it before 12 hours.

Milk composition changes rapidly in the first few days then stabilises. The values vary in horses and literature. The foals don’t have the capacity to digest fibre as the microbes that do this haven't populated their gut yet, so they shouldn’t be weaned too early. Coprophagy is eating poo, this gives them microbes to populate the hind gut.

After 3-4 weeks they may require extra nutritional support. They should be kept out on grass but can be also given a creep feed. This will help the foal to mature and stop using as much of the mares resources. It adapts the gut to hard feed so that they are more likely to be ok when they are weaned.

 Weaning is usually around 3- 6 months, thoroughbred are weaned earlier. Nutrition of the mare should be taken into account and if she is looking in poor condition the foal may need to be weaned earlier. 5 months is optimal for weaning, an added probiotic may also be beneficial to the gut.

Tomorrow I will be uploading a post on feeding growing horses. 

Love Laura

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Horse Birthday Cards!

Above is an image of a birthday card I received which I thought you all might like!

The website is www.thelittledoglaughed.co.uk.

They have lots of cards on there that are priced at £1.80 and are great for any horsey friends you have!

They have other products as well such as coasters and calenders with horses, dogs, cats etc.

So go and have a look, they are all really funny and sweet!

(The images in this post do not belong to me!)

Love Laura
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Horse Racing- Whip Ban?- Update

After the new regulations came into play a few days ago there has already been some problems with the new whip regulations. For the link to my original post on the new whip regulations Click here!

Richard Hughes has now given up his licence after already receiving two bans. Below is a link to the news story. He says he is not a rider that uses the whip much. Of the 7 times they are allowed to use the whip, only 5 are allowed to be used in the last furlong or from the final obstacle.

BBC News link!

He argues that the new regulations will make people use the whip more before the furlong pole and then they have 5 whips left.

I think this would only be on very rare occasions and all in all I think it would reduce the use of the whip. He was obviously using it more than the regulations which is why they got the ban. I am sure we are going to see a lot more jockeys getting annoyed with the new regulations when they get bans. They are going to blame the new rules rather than the fact they use the whip too much.

I have only been to the races once and I really enjoyed it, I watched a youngster race though and from what I can remember they did not use the whip much. However, these rules are for the better of the sport, if less people are put off by thinking it is cruel then they will get more spectators and viewers. Therefore, once the rules have become "the norm" I think that it will be an improvement to the sport.

Love Laura
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Donkey Digestion

I am just doing some of my wider reading for my course and I came across a paper comparing the differences between different types of equids and how they digest food. The paper was by Cuddeford et al (1995) and was called Digestibility and gastro-intestinal transit tie of diets containing different proportions of alfalfa and oat straw given to Thorougbreds Shetland ponies, Highland ponies and donkeys.

What interested me the most about this paper was that it included donkeys. While spending two weeks working with donkeys in the summer I saw how different they were to horses regarding their diet. They were in the field during the day but over night they were in their barns with straw to eat. They also put weight on very differently to horses as it was collecting in patches and not evenly spread around the body. I was told tat they have evolved differently than horses as they are from hot countries where there is not much grass so eat more roughage that is not as full of nutrients as grass.

In the paper above, they found that all animals digested the low fibre diets better than the high fibre diets. This is probably because in a high fibre diet there is more cellulose from the plant cell walls and this is difficult to break down. It was also found that donkeys digested the fibre more effectively than other equids.The transit time it took from the food entering the mouth to leaving as faeces was also longer for donkeys. As they are retaining the food for longer it will give them more chance to digest the food. The transit time was also longer for the low fibre diet than the high fibre diet in all equids.

The donkeys were also found to have the lowest water intake followed by Shetlands. Both of these had significantly lower intakes than the Thoroughbreds and Highland ponies.

Where the food intake is limited, the donkey would have the advantage as it can can get more of the nutrients out of what it eats. However, where there are unlimited food supplies, the pony or horse can compensate for this by consuming and processing more food as they do not retain the food as long.

Just a quick little post I thought you might find interesting!

Love Laura
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The Lovely Blog Award

If you follow a lot of horse blogs you will have seen "The Lovely Blog Award" that is currently going around. I wanted to write a post on some of my favourite blogs I follow anyway so I thought this would be a good opportunity. I was given the award from Adventures with Shyloh and I was happy as being a newbie it is the first time I have been involved with one of these!

I have to pass it on to 15 other blogs. I have seen that some of the people I have given the award to have already won it so I am just doing this to share with people my favourite blogs so you can have a look! In no particular order...

The 7MSN Ranch

A Year With Horses

Sweet Horse's Breath

Eventing-A-Gogo!

Seriously Horsing Around

In Omnia Paratus

Ranch Riding

Confessions Of An AA Event Rider And Convicted Over Thinker

Brays Of Our Lives

Just A Girl And Her Horse

Grey Horse Matters

I Will Jump Sweet Jumps

Simply Horse-Crazy

Riding Instructor's Diary

Behind The Bit

And I also have to say 7 things about myself...

1. I have enjoyed writing my blogs more than I ever thought I would!

2. I have a dog called Rio.

3. I get bored very easily.

4. I wake up early and go to bed early.

5. I love pasta!

6. I want to work as an equine nutritionist.

7. I love giving horses haircuts! 

(Additional Information!) Ooo I forgot this blog Haute2Trot which I like too, so that's 16 for you to have a look at!

Love Laura

xxxx