I was just curious…I know human mom’s have to take various vitamins to support pregnancy like folic acid, DHA, cod liver oil or what not. Do mares get certain vitamins and supplements as well?
At about 5 months of gestation, some mineral needs start to increase - copper for example. Overall nutritional needs increase from there, starting fairly slowly, but ramping up towards the end.
It’s less about supplementation than it is about overall nutrition increases. For example, if the mare is an easy enough keeper that she just needs 1lb of a ration balancer without being pregnant, then by the time 11 months rolls around, she’d be on close to 3lb for the increased nutrition, because calcium, protein and other things are up by them. Then once she foals and starts producing milk, some things REALLY increase - protein needs double, for example
And Farman makes a Broodmare supplement that is quite inexpensive. Good quality pasture is the best supplement;) We add ration balancer and Mare Plus - pastures around here are not irrigated, but they are wonderful (in most years, assuming decent rainfall) from February - May. Then boost with protein, and we end up with a pretty good nutrition base. On the East Coast where there is more rain, pastures stay green even later - I would be envious, except for the Winters:lol:
There are healthy babies born all over the world in different countries from women who don’t take these extra vitamins. I think Nature has designed a successful species to reproduce by drawing the needed nutrients from what they normally eat.
So in a perfect world, a mare would only need access to plenty of high quality pasture. But I (like many breeders) don’t have this in quantity enough for several mares and must feed hay 365 days a year.
Because of this I DO feed a vit/min supplement designed for this area and this is fed to all my broodies & youngsters all the time. I don’t bother with my mature, non-working horses, but if they are younger than 3 or used primarily as a broodmare, they get the daily vit/min (the amt. never changes).
Any increase in the nutritional needs of late pregnancy is (I feel) covered by the increase in concentrates the broodies are also fed (ration balancers just didn’t work for me…my mare needed more cals)…I provide the source and the mare’s body takes what it needs from that source, just like Nature intended, rather than give a specific supplement…if that makes sense? I’m sure there are cases in a mare who is in very poor condition or very old or something which requires more micro-management, but in general I think the mare’s body knows what it needs more than me. :winkgrin:
The only other supplement I feed is a commercial product called Dr. Beebe’s OCD Pellets. I feed it the last half of pregnancy and then in all of my foals through the first 12-18 mos.
This particular product has really impressed me and a number of my friends - people I trust and who are pretty knowledgeable horsefolk – so I’ve been using it pretty consistently for a few years now.
But that is a personal choice, and as yet there has not been any studies to show this particular product is a must.
Yep, in the ideal world, all the food being eaten would be high enough quality to begin with that the increase in intake due to the increase in calories would be enough 
But, there are also babies born all over the world who are born with problems caused by nutritional deficiencies or, if they are ok, the mothers are suffering because their body sacrificed itself for the sake of the baby.
[QUOTE=JB;7031356]
But, there are also babies born all over the world who are born with problems caused by nutritional deficiencies or, if they are ok, the mothers are suffering because their body sacrificed itself for the sake of the baby.[/QUOTE]
True – but most of this is because they don’t have enough food PERIOD. Again, Nature has culled the inefficient breeder, but (obviously) mustang mares get no added supplements and the survival rate of those foals AND the production record of the mares is equal to that of the domestic horse (assuming the range they live on is predator free, which most of them are).
As for the rest of the world and we humans – the USA has THE highest First Day Infant Death Rate of ALL the industrialized countries in the world. In fact, our rate is 50% higher than that of all the other ICs combined!!!
For that matter, our basic Infant Mortality rate (infants that survive their 1st year per 1000 births) is also nothing to crow about: Cuba, Serbia & Crotia all have lower rates.
Now, no one in America is starving, let’s face it. But for many poor people, their diet is high in empty cals & processed junk. Their body can’t take what it needs because the “food” lacks the nutritional value in the first place.
My take is that I doubt just a vit/min supplement is going to fix that, whereas if these moms ate only a balanced diet of healthy, unprocessed food, even if it was (somewhat) lower in daily cals, they would do ok even without extra supplements.
See, I’m a big believer in Nature and Nature’s designs (in successful species). I think Human Beings LOVE to micro-manage, but history has shown me that plenty of times we WAAY over do it and end up causing more harm than good.
In addition, what passes for “fact” (which is usually our information from science) changes from decade to decade – sometimes even year to year – so I give cautionary credence to much of the information that comes out. Remember when we were all told that PROTEIN caused OCD? That has been disproved for some time now (probably by the same guys who “proved it” in the first place), but I wonder how many breeders cut the mare’s protein ration down to the bone hoping to avoid leg issues.
Jeeze, for that matter, MDs use to PROMOTE smoking cigarettes for a myriad of reasons, including wgt. loss, relaxation, etc. Today we can’t imagine anything that foolish, but there you go. Science. And when the guy who first suggested that simply washing your hands before delivering a baby saved lives presented his theory he was laughed at & ridiculed by just about every other medical professional of his day. It took several decades before the rest of the medical community caught on.
Some people believe in Science like others believe in Religion, but speaking for myself, I think any time a human is involved, there is a HUGE possibility of error. History proves this without a doubt.
However Nature has been producing horses VERY successfully for 10,000 years, so I figure she has the process down and maybe She doesn’t need as much help as we think She does;)
I think another interesting stat is the one Equine Repro often quotes: that the rate of pregnancies/live births in the domestic horse has not changed in the last 70 years. Now, she was talking about fertility in general, but I think we can all agree our horses are fed better these days than they were “back in the day,” (at least, that’s what Science tells us)…so why hasn’t that improved?
Just because the Scientific Community comes out with a new study that proves This Or That, doesn’t mean it’s actually TRUE. No reason to follow them blindly.
Again, I freely admit I give a daily vit/min supplement, but the biggie in my area is selenium and I want to make sure that is covered. However for all the other stuff, I prefer to let the mare & Nature work it out.
So far, for the last 14-16 years at least (KNOCK WOOD FURIOUSLY) it’s worked for me.
I agree - if you eat good food and enough of it, you’re pretty likely to be ok. The American diet SUCKS for the most part, as attested to by the soaring obesity rate. Sure, those folks are eating way too much food, but they’re eating the wrong food with low nutritional value.
Vegans who don’t pay attention to nutrients they aren’t getting from meat can easily get into trouble with babies, as attested to by the recent case of the baby who died as a result of a Vit A deficiency because of the vegan mom’s lack of understanding of nutrition.
[QUOTE=JB;7031428]
Vegans who don’t pay attention to nutrients they aren’t getting from meat can easily get into trouble with babies, as attested to by the recent case of the baby who died as a result of a Vit A deficiency because of the vegan mom’s lack of understanding of nutrition.[/QUOTE]
I hadn’t heard about this – how sad. But again, if she ate the way NATURE designed Humans to eat, the baby probably would have been ok. Chimps (which are the closest primate relative of ours) are NOT vegans & never have been. Per observation, we’ve discovered they consume about 20% of their diet in protein – much of it animal protein.
And isn’t 20% about the amt. of protein modern nutritionists recommend a person consume?
Yes, people need at least 20% of their diet to be protein. The argument comes with how much of that should be plant-based vs animal based.
Face it, we ARE omnivores. Just a fact. We are not designed to be herbivores, we are not designed to be obligate carnivores. Omni.
But, just because are are omnivores doesn’t mean that all our protein should come from animal sources. There are benefits to animal meat. The problem lies largely with the type of meat people are eating too much of: commercially grown to be high in fat and other undesirable things, and low in desirable things (you’re simply not going to get a lot of Omega 3 from the feed-lot grown cow); highly processed with lots of nitrates and sodium; etc.
Throwing out animal products because of the problems made by modern processing is throwing the baby out with the bath water.
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Throwing out animal products because of the problems made by modern processing is throwing the baby out with the bath water.[/QUOTE]
Agreed. The chimps main source of animal protein by far are smaller monkeys and of course they are eaten raw. their main source of plant protein are nuts & such.
Now, I have never eaten monkey flesh, but I assume it is not real fatty. And not cooked, so potential carcinogens are not present.
But I’m sorry – no matter how much I believe in Nature, I refuse to eat raw monkey meat.:eek:
Yeah, well, I’m not going to go stand in the middle of a stream, catch a salmon as it jumps out of the water, and start noshing away either :lol:
