Page 65 - August 2015

picture, the growth of that animal, and what your objectives are over the first 2 years - and how you can try to moderate some of those short-term changes,” he says.
“You don’t want to hinder growth rate; you just want to maintain genetic potential and long-term growth curve with as few deviations as possible. You try to smooth out slows and spurts, and plan ahead for proper feed and management,” he explains.
“If you bred a mare and stallion that both grew very rapidly and both showed signs in
the past of some kind of DOD (developmental orthopedic disease), you’d have to be even more careful. This match-up could be a disaster waiting to happen, but maybe you went ahead with this breeding because those individuals were extremely successful. So, you gamble. If you are aware of the problems, however, when that foal hits the ground you’ll be doing everything you can to reduce the risk of DOD,” he says.
“You would not feed that foal a lot of high- energy feed. You would closely monitor how rapidly it’s growing, how much nutrition it’s getting from the dam, and feed accordingly. There is some evidence that moderate exercise might also be beneficial for these foals, to help regulate growth and aid proper development,” says Staniar.
If you pay attention to that animal and know it is at risk, you might be able to catch any problems early on and avoid short-term deviations in growth patterns. “As milk production in the mare decreases, or if you are getting ready to wean, this may be the time
to creep feed with something that’s not a high energy feed - something more like you’d feed an adult horse that’s not growing. This kind of feed would not provide as much protein and energy as the typical creep feed,” he explains.
Then, as you wean and the foal is adjusting to a non-milk diet, this supplemental feed can help ensure that he doesn’t have nutritional stress at weaning time. “Choose a low-stress weaning strategy. Follow up with this kind of feed through winter so the weanling maintains growth (rather than dropping off) and when spring arrives pay close attention to what he’s eating. How much time will this yearling be spending out on pasture with access to high energy lush grass?”
If the yearling doesn’t have access to pasture, you can feed good quality hay but not hay
with high energy density. “This way, you could maintain a smoother growth curve. You can have some influence on growth even though you have no control over temperature changes in winter/summer. You can pay attention to type and quantity of feed, and the environment you are keeping him in. You have control over the nutrition and other management aspects, such as exercise,” says Staniar.
There is evidence that moderate exercise and proper feed management, such as not feeding a lot of high-energy feed at certain times, can help smooth out growth spurts and can help regulate growth and aid proper development of the foal.
You may think that the foal, weanling, or yearling out in the pasture, is getting exercise,
but if it’s living by itself, it may not get as much exercise as it would if it were running around with a buddy. “In a field of 10 mares and foals, the foals play together. If there’s just one mare and foal, they don’t run around as much. This kind
of exercise is important, developmentally. Maybe you could take the mare and foal for a walk, or pony the foal while riding the mare,” he says.
“There are also ways to exercise weanlings/ yearlings. You don’t want to overdo it, but make
sure they get a proper amount of exercise. The young horse’s muscles and skeleton are all making decisions for growth based on how much and what kind of stress they are under. This stimulates how much they grow and how much extra-cellular matrix the bones should lay down,” he explains.
Exercise is crucial for building strong bones. You walk a fine line, which requires moderation instead of extremes, to strengthen the growing tissues rather than damaging them or not giving them enough stress to optimize growth and strength.
Exercise is crucial for building strong bones, and a foal running in a pasture with other foals will get more exercise than one with just its dam.
SPEEDHORSE, August 2015 63
equine health