Do you grain your 3 y/o's?

[JB]

Very much agree stoic.

Muzzles and/or small hole nets/bags are great for reducing calories

Progressive has a concentrated RB that’s fed at 1/2lb. Or you can do like I do and use a v/m product, add amino acids, add a few other minerals (for me it’s minerals to offset high iron soil), and you can do pretty well

HorseTech has a new High Point v/m that is higher in minerals than most.

It can be done

It pains me to see so many growing horses having nutrition sacrificed for the sake of calories.

Harder keepers ARE easier! Lol. I have one, and also 2 “easy” keepers who are living in muzzles right now. My new foal is about 84% TB out of my “harder” keeping mare and I REALLY hope he takes after her!

[Laurierace]

My three year old is a race horse, so yes I grain her. She gets 1-2 pounds ration balancer, three quarts smart carb twice per day. In addition she gets free choice timothy and alfalfa and has a mineral block in her stall.

[Dalemma]

I have never feed my youngster grain…only pasture and hay along with supplements that my hay is lacking.

Dalemma

[RougeEmpire]

[QUOTE=pryme_thyme;5641533]
Hello everyone.

I have a just 3 year old Dutch Wb X filly and everyone I speak to is recommending that I stop giving her grain all together and feed only high quality hay.

(Thinking behind this is that grain makes the babies grow too quickly for their joints to keep up.)

I feed 4 cups of Fit and Fiber…

What grain do you feed your babies? Or do you at all?

Background: filly is on grass field most of the day with plenty of hay.
Very light u/s work.[/QUOTE]

What kind of hay? Thats really the kicker. Many places that ranch raise horses don’t grain, but those horses are out on the best pasture money can buy. If your feeding just “timothy” then YES you must grain. As most Timothy has is just empty calories. If you are feeding Alfalfa and Oat hay then grain may not be nessisary.

[JB]

Timothy is not “at most”, filler hay or “empty calories”

[Hampton_Bay]

I didn’t feed grain to my filly because she didn’t need the calories with the pasture and hay. She got SmartVite to fill in the holes.

But my gelding, who is now 5, did get quite a bit of grain. The woman I bought him from only fed one little flake of hay twice a day, but fed a good bit of grain. When I bought him, he still got a good bit of grain because he had been malnourished due to constant insect allergies that left him with open wounds, significant hair loss, etc. It took him a while to pick up the weight and health. Some periods, he was getting 4 big scoops a day.

They now all get alfalfa pellets, rice bran, and oats in the summer. One of mine is a bit sensitive to soy, and it’s easier to just feed them all the same thing.

[Beentheredonethat]

Hm. I have one year old and three year old full sisters out on 80 acres in CA (so grass now, but it’s getting brown and will look like brown weeds all summer and fall.)They get fed hay daily, also, some alfalfa and mostly oat.

Since it’s not close, they get a bit of grain when I can visit, once or twice a month. The three year old is REALLY big, like she’s been pregnant for several years. The one year old has grown about two inches and is not quite as fat as her sister, but doing VERY well.

If I were seeing them daily I would give them a bit as a treat and maybe the yearling some vitamins, but that’s it. They’re in good health and weight, and I’m more worried about being too heavy. The two other horses I’ve raised from birth went through rangy, ribby phases as two year olds, but I didn’t do much with grain with them.

I can’t imagine imagine graining youngsters unless something is lacking.

[showjumpers66]

Totally agree!

[QUOTE=JB;5644067]
Fat youngsters need calorie reductions, NOT nutritional reductions.[/QUOTE]

[JB]

@Beentheredonethat;5645076

I can’t imagine imagine graining youngsters unless something is lacking.

This is why one needs to define “grain”

I can’t imagine NOT “graining” a yearling unless the pasture and /or hay has been thoroughly tested and is just stupendous stuff containing all a growing horse needs.

“Grain” can be 1-2lb of a ration balancer to provide nutrition without a huge amount of calories.

I would MUCH rather muzzle a yearling for 12 hours a day to be able to give then 1lb of a ration balancer, than to rely on grass that might be majorly deficient in lysine and copper.

“Grain” does not have to mean 6lb of a Growth or “complete” or whatever type formula.

There are many ways to get high nutrition without 10,000 calories

How many adult horses have inferior hoof quality because they were never properly nutritioned during the growing ages?