Breeds play a role in feeding

As there are differences in the growth rates and stages of a foal due to its breed, it can be a good idea to distinguish between cold-blooded and warm-blooded horses. The differences in energy levels and requirements will be particularly noticeable when the horse is nearly fully grown feed wise at nearly four years of age. The most important thing is to look at your horse and its individual needs and training intensity. Cold-blooded horses will typically be more thrifty, while warm-blooded horses will often require more energy.

What Should You Be Aware of?

From Foal to 

Fully Grown: 

Structures within the body are fusing, such as the shoulder joint. The horse can still grow a few centimetres in height and the bones in the body are still growing a little, but it is not as pronounced as earlier. In return, this is when muscle growth really takes off. The extent of the muscles grow and become thicker.

The young horse has the same energy requirement as when it was two, but it will need less protein. It will need less protein, about 650 grams per day. Muscle growth does not require much extra protein in terms of feed, but it is about the quality of the protein. Generally, for foals and young horses, the focus should be on essential amino acids such as lysine and methionine.

Specialised young horse feed with focus on vitamins and minerals, fat and digestible fibres is a good idea. The digestive system is almost fully developed, which means that the feed can become coarser and the demand for digestibility decreases with age.

Training

As stated earlier, play and exercise with other horses is very important from a young age. In terms of riding, it will depend on what you want to use the horse for and whether you are able to break in the horse yourself. It is often easier to send the horse for training, if the horse is used to being handled, but not yet accustomed to saddle, bridle and lunging.

At this age, the horse is very motivated to learn, which means if it learns something inappropriate, it can be difficult to untrain it again. This being said, you can still go for walks with the horse and play with it from the ground, but fundamentally, you should know your own limitations in the training and seek help if you need to.

Mentally, it can be beneficial for the horse to receive a break after the initial breaking in process has begun, and the horse’s muscles will continue to benefit from going out in the paddock with friends.

Development

If the horse has had optimal conditions as a foal then it has learned to play with other foals and horses and learned the rules of a herd. It has obtained an understanding of how other horses react and interact. At this age the young horse becomes more aware of these aspects and may gain more self-confidence. Here it can be beneficial for the young horse to be paddocked with like minded horses, but older horses are also important to establish a natural hierarchy. This can be a good investment in terms of training and handling in the future.

Diseases

It is often the first and second winter that the foal is exposed to getting the flu. This is when it will learn to handle small variations of herpes, and nasal discharge may appear. Be aware that strangles can make, especially young horses, really sick, but it can be prevented with infection control and maintaining hygiene.

The foal is born without an active immune system, which is only activated after birth, meaning that it will develop over time. Colostrum is rich in antibodies, which the foal ingests through the first milk from the mare and will help the foal combat infections. Therefore, some nasal discharge often appears when the horse has to form the antibodies, which is why it is important to focus on the horse receiving the correct vitamins and minerals for the necessary building blocks. There is usually no reason to panic if there is a little nasal discharge, but contact the vet if the horse starts to have a fever and becomes weak.

2.5 years to 3.5: Voluntary exercise in the pasture

Although the horse is well on its way to becoming a fully grown horse in terms of feed, it is still lacking bits and pieces within its body.

Feeding

Digestible fibre and fat, preferably omega 3 rich oils, which can also help with calmness, making it easier to handle the foal and optimising the digestive tract. This way, the foal may learn better - even in the long term. It also applies if you start on foal feed earlier.

16 months to 2.5 years: 

The growing teenager

At this stage, the foal starts to look like an adult horse - but with a slightly scruffy and teenager-like body.

The horse continues to grow, but as we approach the second summer, the legs stop growing. The growth lines in the elbow joint and the knee joint on the hind legs close during that period.

In terms of feeding, the focus should be on ensuring the horse maintains its weight (4-5 body condition), but does not gain too much weight.

The first one and a half to two years is when the bone tissue needs to grow and the foal grows in height and body length. The muscle tissue grows in length to follow the growth of the bone tissue, and after two years the horse’s weight is focused on muscle growth and strength. Both bones, tendons, and muscles are developed and strengthened through exercise and play.

When the foal is around two and a half years old, the focus shifts to muscle growth instead of bone and tendon growth. So bones for the first two years, and then length growth of the muscles.

It is important to note that even though the horse may look scruffy, it should not be too fat. If the horse is in a weight category over 5-6 for an extended period, you should take action. Ideally, it should be just under five and after that, fat tissue will accumulate, causing the horse to be overweight and placing a burden on the bone tissue, either inhibiting bone growth or making it crooked. The horse needs nutrients, proteins, minerals, and vitamins appropriate to its age, while the energy level should be adjusted to its weight.

Feed requirements

In terms of energy, the young horse should intake almost the same amount of energy as the foal. The protein content should be reduced to 770 grams per day. This means that the horse in this age group should not be overfed with protein, as it places a burden on the system. Excess protein is actively excreted from the body through the kidneys, so overfeeding means that the young horse has to use energy excreting protein, instead of using energy on other important aspects in this phase.

If the horse has received extra protein, concentrates, lucerne or the similar, it should be removed from the horse’s diet during this period. A roughage analysis is a very useful tool and remember, the horse should have what it needs, and no more.

During this period, the young horse buffers between a specialised foal feed and adult feed. It still needs fat and digestible fibres and good hay or silage with a customised protein level. Young horses can have sugar, which comes naturally with hay, silage and grass. On the other hand, supplementary feed should be focused on quality protein, fat and fibres. Many feed companies are basing the feed on grain and sugar raw materials, which results in too high sugar content. Therefore, supplementary feed for foals and young horses should be low in sugar and starch, but provide digestible fibres, quality protein, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.

Once you have good quality hay or silage, the young horse only needs to receive a supplement of minerals and vitamins. You take care of the young horse as if it was a one year old, only with the quantities adjusted accordingly to its age.

It will be able to eat more and can take some coarser feed, so the digestibility does not need to be as high as previously. Differences can be seen in the variations of  horse breeds here and they may have dissimilar requirements.

By Cæcilie Kallehave Jensen // Photos: Vielbauch - Thorsten Schneider & Kamila Tworkowska

When looking at a newborn foal, it is difficult to imagine that one day it will be a strong and healthy horse you can ride. There are many considerations to be taken, but do you actually know what happens in the horse’s body in the first four years?

Throughout spring and summer, the green pastures begin to swarm with foals. Foals that will grow up and hopefully be able to handle a life with riding, groundwork, driving or something completely different. Regardless of what you will use your horse for, it is your responsibility as an owner to ensure that the horse is nourished correctly - right from the start - so it can have a long and healthy life.

0-8 months:
 Movement and leg position

This is the first summer of the foal’s life and it will be spent with its mother.. The foal grows immensely here, but obviously you should not take a lot of feed considerations, as the foal gets nourishment from the mare.

Therefore, you should look more at the foal’s overall health such as:

  • Is the foal thriving?
  • Is its coat shiny?
  • Is the foal fresh and has good mobility?


Meet Martha Voss

Martha Voss is a horse agronomist who graduated from the Agricultural College of Copenhagen. She has been involved with horses since she was four years old. She runs the independent advisory and training business NENUC with courses, advisory visits and development of learning games, etc. Martha has over 30 years of experience in teaching and research in horse keeping and correct nutrition.

In addition, the farrier should already be involved with the foal. A worry can be that the foal develops a club foot. That is, if the foal grows too fast, the bone grows, but the tendon will not follow. Therefore, you should be aware of growth disorders and especially the foal’s leg position. The farrier knows what to look for in terms of both hocks, stride and general hoof and leg position. The veterinarian can also be an advantage as the foal’s immune system is not as strong in the beginning, so vaccination and worm treatment can be a good idea

It is necessary to ensure that the foal not only spends time with the mare without any playmates. As a starting point, the mare will primarily be able to feed the foal, but she will not necessarily be able to exercise and activate the foal - especially if it is an older mare. Therefore, the foal should preferably spend time with other foals - also from a young age. Determining an exact age when the foal should be introduced to other foals can be difficult, but a rule of thumb is that when the mare and foal have established a connection during the first few weeks, the foal can start spending time with other foals as well.

In addition to the foal’s well-being and feeding, this age also requires attention to the mare’s feeding regime and ensuring that she is covered with vitamins and minerals. This way, she can produce the nutrition that the foal needs to grow correctly. Offering the foal specific foal-feed, as preparation for accustoming to solid feed, can be a good idea.

Always have a farrier, veterinarian, and possibly a feed consultant involved with the foal from the start - the most important collaborator is the farrier, because a lot happens with the foal’s tendons and growth in the first months of its life.

Be aware of:

  • Hock/tendon strain

  • Common well-being and worms

8-16 months: High protein and energy feed

In the foal’s first winter, feeding - besides the mare’s milk - will be essential for the foal’s health. The foal continues to grow. If we take, for example, a horse (for example, a warmblood), which will weigh about 500 kg when fully grown, then the foal in this period should have 845 grams of raw protein per day - compared to an adult horse that should have 630 grams of raw protein per day. And this is despite the fact that the foal may weigh about half at this time - depending a bit on the breed. Furthermore, the efficiency and the cells of the foal’s digestive system is being developed. The cells in the intestinal wall need to be trained to absorb nutrients, and the bacterial flora needs to be developed for the horse’s feed. Everything on the foal is growing during this period. Therefore, the foal should also have easily digestible feed.






Examples of easily
 digestible feed:

  • Best quality hay and silage - that is, hay or silage with a high protein content and high nutritional value, it may contain sugar but most importantly a high level of digestible fibre.

  • They need to have vitamins and minerals adjusted to the roughage content based on the foal’s needs.

  • Hard feed should focus on the digestibility rate and high nutritional quality with plenty of protein and energy.

  • The feed should suit the foal’s needs and help with a stable development that does not make the growth too fast or too slow. Body condition scoring is wise, and your foal should not become too fat (body condition score 6 or higher on a 9-point scale).

At this stage the main growth component in the foal is the skeleton. There is no need to focus on building muscles. The foal builds muscles from playing with other foals in the pasture and it strengthens the bones. It is primarily the legs that are growing here, the pastern bone, the hoof, and the hocks. It is bones and joints that need to grow, but it requires a lot of energy.

Be aware of:

  • Correct growth and limb conformation.

  • Worm counting in a manure sample.The foal may develop worm-induced colic, so be proactive and make a worm strategy with the veterinarian - preferably with a veterinarian who knows the place and its experiences with worms.

  • Coat and mobility.

At this age, it is okay if you can see or feel the ribs, but they must not stand out clearly. The foal should be fine and rounded over the hindquarters, and it may be 4-5 on Don Henneke’s body condition scale (1-9). This is not about being ahead, it is about keeping up. They should have what they need, but the feed intake should be adjusted if needed.

In this age group, focus should be on natural exercise, fresh air, and playing with friends in the pasture - preferably in hilly terrain - and also with an older mare or gelding. Make the weaning transition as natural as possible so that it becomes a pleasant and gradual process.

Breeds play a role in feeding

As there are differences in the growth rates and stages of a foal due to its breed, it can be a good idea to distinguish between cold-blooded and warm-blooded horses. The differences in energy levels and requirements will be particularly noticeable when the horse is nearly fully grown feed wise at nearly four years of age. The most important thing is to look at your horse and its individual needs and training intensity. Cold-blooded horses will typically be more thrifty, while warm-blooded horses will often require more energy.

Development

If the horse has had optimal conditions as a foal then it has learned to play with other foals and horses and learned the rules of a herd. It has obtained an understanding of how other horses react and interact. At this age the young horse becomes more aware of these aspects and may gain more self-confidence. Here it can be beneficial for the young horse to be paddocked with like minded horses, but older horses are also important to establish a natural hierarchy. This can be a good investment in terms of training and handling in the future.

Diseases

It is often the first and second winter that the foal is exposed to getting the flu. This is when it will learn to handle small variations of herpes, and nasal discharge may appear. Be aware that strangles can make, especially young horses, really sick, but it can be prevented with infection control and maintaining hygiene.

The foal is born without an active immune system, which is only activated after birth, meaning that it will develop over time. Colostrum is rich in antibodies, which the foal ingests through the first milk from the mare and will help the foal combat infections. Therefore, some nasal discharge often appears when the horse has to form the antibodies, which is why it is important to focus on the horse receiving the correct vitamins and minerals for the necessary building blocks. There is usually no reason to panic if there is a little nasal discharge, but contact the vet if the horse starts to have a fever and becomes weak.

2.5 years to 3.5: Voluntary exercise in the pasture

Although the horse is well on its way to becoming a fully grown horse in terms of feed, it is still lacking bits and pieces within its body.

Feeding

Digestible fibre and fat, preferably omega 3 rich oils, which can also help with calmness, making it easier to handle the foal and optimising the digestive tract. This way, the foal may learn better - even in the long term. It also applies if you start on foal feed earlier.

16 months to 2.5 years: 

The growing teenager

At this stage, the foal starts to look like an adult horse - but with a slightly scruffy and teenager-like body.

The horse continues to grow, but as we approach the second summer, the legs stop growing. The growth lines in the elbow joint and the knee joint on the hind legs close during that period.

In terms of feeding, the focus should be on ensuring the horse maintains its weight (4-5 body condition), but does not gain too much weight.

The first one and a half to two years is when the bone tissue needs to grow and the foal grows in height and body length. The muscle tissue grows in length to follow the growth of the bone tissue, and after two years the horse’s weight is focused on muscle growth and strength. Both bones, tendons, and muscles are developed and strengthened through exercise and play.

When the foal is around two and a half years old, the focus shifts to muscle growth instead of bone and tendon growth. So bones for the first two years, and then length growth of the muscles.

It is important to note that even though the horse may look scruffy, it should not be too fat. If the horse is in a weight category over 5-6 for an extended period, you should take action. Ideally, it should be just under five and after that, fat tissue will accumulate, causing the horse to be overweight and placing a burden on the bone tissue, either inhibiting bone growth or making it crooked. The horse needs nutrients, proteins, minerals, and vitamins appropriate to its age, while the energy level should be adjusted to its weight.

Feed requirements

In terms of energy, the young horse should intake almost the same amount of energy as the foal. The protein content should be reduced to 770 grams per day. This means that the horse in this age group should not be overfed with protein, as it places a burden on the system. Excess protein is actively excreted from the body through the kidneys, so overfeeding means that the young horse has to use energy excreting protein, instead of using energy on other important aspects in this phase.

If the horse has received extra protein, concentrates, lucerne or the similar, it should be removed from the horse’s diet during this period. A roughage analysis is a very useful tool and remember, the horse should have what it needs, and no more.

During this period, the young horse buffers between a specialised foal feed and adult feed. It still needs fat and digestible fibres and good hay or silage with a customised protein level. Young horses can have sugar, which comes naturally with hay, silage and grass. On the other hand, supplementary feed should be focused on quality protein, fat and fibres. Many feed companies are basing the feed on grain and sugar raw materials, which results in too high sugar content. Therefore, supplementary feed for foals and young horses should be low in sugar and starch, but provide digestible fibres, quality protein, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.

Once you have good quality hay or silage, the young horse only needs to receive a supplement of minerals and vitamins. You take care of the young horse as if it was a one year old, only with the quantities adjusted accordingly to its age.

It will be able to eat more and can take some coarser feed, so the digestibility does not need to be as high as previously. Differences can be seen in the variations of  horse breeds here and they may have dissimilar requirements.

In addition, the farrier should already be involved with the foal. A worry can be that the foal develops a club foot. That is, if the foal grows too fast, the bone grows, but the tendon will not follow. Therefore, you should be aware of growth disorders and especially the foal’s leg position. The farrier knows what to look for in terms of both hocks, stride and general hoof and leg position. The veterinarian can also be an advantage as the foal’s immune system is not as strong in the beginning, so vaccination and worm treatment can be a good idea

It is necessary to ensure that the foal not only spends time with the mare without any playmates. As a starting point, the mare will primarily be able to feed the foal, but she will not necessarily be able to exercise and activate the foal - especially if it is an older mare. Therefore, the foal should preferably spend time with other foals - also from a young age. Determining an exact age when the foal should be introduced to other foals can be difficult, but a rule of thumb is that when the mare and foal have established a connection during the first few weeks, the foal can start spending time with other foals as well.

In addition to the foal’s well-being and feeding, this age also requires attention to the mare’s feeding regime and ensuring that she is covered with vitamins and minerals. This way, she can produce the nutrition that the foal needs to grow correctly. Offering the foal specific foal-feed, as preparation for accustoming to solid feed, can be a good idea.

Always have a farrier, veterinarian, and possibly a feed consultant involved with the foal from the start - the most important collaborator is the farrier, because a lot happens with the foal’s tendons and growth in the first months of its life.

Be aware of:

  • Hock/tendon strain

  • Common well-being and worms

8-16 months: High protein and energy feed

In the foal’s first winter, feeding - besides the mare’s milk - will be essential for the foal’s health. The foal continues to grow. If we take, for example, a horse (for example, a warmblood), which will weigh about 500 kg when fully grown, then the foal in this period should have 845 grams of raw protein per day - compared to an adult horse that should have 630 grams of raw protein per day. And this is despite the fact that the foal may weigh about half at this time - depending a bit on the breed. Furthermore, the efficiency and the cells of the foal’s digestive system is being developed. The cells in the intestinal wall need to be trained to absorb nutrients, and the bacterial flora needs to be developed for the horse’s feed. Everything on the foal is growing during this period. Therefore, the foal should also have easily digestible feed.






Examples of easily
 digestible feed:

  • Best quality hay and silage - that is, hay or silage with a high protein content and high nutritional value, it may contain sugar but most importantly a high level of digestible fibre.

  • They need to have vitamins and minerals adjusted to the roughage content based on the foal’s needs.

  • Hard feed should focus on the digestibility rate and high nutritional quality with plenty of protein and energy.

  • The feed should suit the foal’s needs and help with a stable development that does not make the growth too fast or too slow. Body condition scoring is wise, and your foal should not become too fat (body condition score 6 or higher on a 9-point scale).

At this stage the main growth component in the foal is the skeleton. There is no need to focus on building muscles. The foal builds muscles from playing with other foals in the pasture and it strengthens the bones. It is primarily the legs that are growing here, the pastern bone, the hoof, and the hocks. It is bones and joints that need to grow, but it requires a lot of energy.

Be aware of:

  • Correct growth and limb conformation.

  • Worm counting in a manure sample.The foal may develop worm-induced colic, so be proactive and make a worm strategy with the veterinarian - preferably with a veterinarian who knows the place and its experiences with worms.

  • Coat and mobility.

At this age, it is okay if you can see or feel the ribs, but they must not stand out clearly. The foal should be fine and rounded over the hindquarters, and it may be 4-5 on Don Henneke’s body condition scale (1-9). This is not about being ahead, it is about keeping up. They should have what they need, but the feed intake should be adjusted if needed.

In this age group, focus should be on natural exercise, fresh air, and playing with friends in the pasture - preferably in hilly terrain - and also with an older mare or gelding. Make the weaning transition as natural as possible so that it becomes a pleasant and gradual process.

Meet Martha Voss

Martha Voss is a horse agronomist who graduated from the Agricultural College of Copenhagen. She has been involved with horses since she was four years old. She runs the independent advisory and training business NENUC with courses, advisory visits and development of learning games, etc. Martha has over 30 years of experience in teaching and research in horse keeping and correct nutrition.

Throughout spring and summer, the green pastures begin to swarm with foals. Foals that will grow up and hopefully be able to handle a life with riding, groundwork, driving or something completely different. Regardless of what you will use your horse for, it is your responsibility as an owner to ensure that the horse is nourished correctly - right from the start - so it can have a long and healthy life.

0-8 months:
 Movement and leg position

This is the first summer of the foal’s life and it will be spent with its mother.. The foal grows immensely here, but obviously you should not take a lot of feed considerations, as the foal gets nourishment from the mare.

Therefore, you should look more at the foal’s overall health such as:

  • Is the foal thriving?
  • Is its coat shiny?
  • Is the foal fresh and has good mobility?


By Cæcilie Kallehave Jensen // Photos: Vielbauch - Thorsten Schneider & Kamila Tworkowska

When looking at a newborn foal, it is difficult to imagine that one day it will be a strong and healthy horse you can ride. There are many considerations to be taken, but do you actually know what happens in the horse’s body in the first four years?

What Should You Be Aware of?

From Foal to 

Fully Grown: 

DIGITAL MAGAZINE

Malgré Tout Media´s digital magazine is Europe´s new digital bi-monthly equestrian magazine with 100 % FREE content. Here you will find exclusive articles with a wide range of topics for anyone with a passion for horses and the equestrian sport.
Fullscreen