Body scoring a weanling/yearling

Thank you for the lovely comments, most kind of you :smile3:.

Here's a Hanoverian filly of mine at slightly different stages to the lad above.

At 4 months old

26August2011004-Copy.jpg


18 months old

CopyofOctober6th2012011.jpg


And again at 2 yrs 3 mths

DSCN9826.jpg


And this one is an indulgence because she's always been my favourite youngster and she was such a beautiful baby.

37 days old

19May2011003.jpg
 
Scarlett said:
Really interesting thread. I have a 8 and a half month old filly, she's TB x Sports Horse and a fairly chunky little monster. She is out unrugged 24/7 with adlib hay/haylage and gets a small bucket feed each day of dried grass and soaked alfalfa cobs with Suregrow. Compared to some of the pics on this thread she looks like a cruelty case, I'm surprised no one has called the RSPCA! :) I have been very strict in keeping her unrugged as she went into winter a little too plump for my liking and we've maintained a weight that allows us to feel ribs but not see them. She is bright, naughty, fluffy and filthy, and I'm really happy with her, even if she doesnt look show ready.
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She sounds absolutely delightful! Do you have any photos of her to share with us and the OP?
windand rain said:
Those pictures are great If mine were not heavy built with table top backs even as foals I would like them to look like that. My Hanovarian grew like that he was absolutely stunning It is the level way in which he has grown that makes him very special
When we bred tbs many years ago they always grew evenly and never had poverty marks down their rumps
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Yes those little chunky monkey ponies seem to spend their whole lives being so. I have one lol. Yes I've found the same with the full TBs and the WBs, they all grow nice and evenly. I was into AQHAs before getting into the WB breeding and they grew exactly the same, very evenly and with nice toplines but showing rib too. I've fed balancers for a fair few years now, and they do seem very consistent with encouraging correct growth. Highlands are a bit different though, I suspect you have trouble keeping them trim, plus they're a chunkier breed to mine (although some of my AQHAs are quite solid now they are grown up). I stop feeding any hardfeed to the vast majority of my AQHAs once they get to around 3 or 4 years old as they can live on fresh air so I just give them great hay and a mineral block in their fields.
 
Spring Feather said:
I don't recall anyone recommending a stud mix, we were all talking about balancers. I don't know any of the named feeds so I looked up the analyses of them and to be honest there's no way I'd feed Fast Fibre to my youngsters, it's totally unsuitable for young growing horses as it's lacking in many components necessary for correct foal growth. The nutrition provided by Baileys Balancer is pretty much identical to the balancer I feed all of my youngsters. I think when you breed a fair amount of foals year in year out, over the years you really do get to see the difference certain feeds make. Just having a couple of foals in a lifetime isn't really a good indication of how good or bad a feed is.
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I never said you were suggesting a mix, others were saying they don't do mixes but do balancers. Mixes and balancers are very different as we both are aware. I was simply making the statement that I don't like mixes, and that my preference is a supplement over a balancer, although they are much of a muchness. Furthermore, I never ever said ff on its own was suitable. I said ff and a supplement was. A balancer and a supplement have the same components, it's just that they are packaged differently. I personally prefer using a fibre base to put my supplement in rather than a prefabricated food with the supplement in which is what a balancer is. Although neither is wrong, and both are a suitable and practical way of ensuring that a youngster gets the nutrition it needs without reverting to the trash that is additionally put into a stud mix. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with feeding ff as a bulk to add their nutrients to which is what I reccomended.

I'd also say that whilst I've only owned four youngsters myself, I have been manager at a stud farm and so I too have some insight. Although I wouldn't dream of putting myself on a par with your experience! all the young stock in my care were raised on a young stock supplement with a fibre base and all of them looked and developed fab on it.
 
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I have been feeding balancers for about 20 years now since they first came on the market here roughly. We used to feed high fibre diets even 30 years ago when they were not fashionable. Grass and hay forming the basis with sugar beet, grass nuts and boiled linseed in the old days I spent many happy hour soaking and boiling large quantities of linseed I am so pleased you can buy it ready cooked now. The mares were fed oats as well but I soon dropped those unless we had a really skinny one who may have had a few oats but usually boiled barley. I used to feed powdered vitamins and minerals in the old days balancers made it so much easer. Always used topspec from when it came on the market as I didnt like the blue chip as much. The natives have half rations per weight as they would explode on the full amount
The youngsters stop being fed at about rising 3 if fat and grass plentiful as the risk of Laminitis is high as an unbroken 3 year old because they are not working and not growing so fast. They then go onto the adult regime of a small feed of linseed and vitamins and brewers yeast to keep flies at bay in a little alfalfa all year round but the grazing is restricted to lawn length grass so no lush grazing for these ponies never had a joint issue in 30 years never had laminitis in the stock apart from the Dartmoor who was let off the short grass by well meanig walkers into a growing hay field in spring by the time I got to him he was unable to move He made a full recovery because I am an avid learner and am willing to learn anything and I had been, recently to his episode to a lecture from Robert Eustace from the laminitis trust and I followed his advice to the letter no movement and a sugar starch free diet and plenty of fibre in his case oat straw
 
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Sorry QB, I've just seen your edit. Hmm I'm not so sure about supplements for foals tbh; which one are you talking about that gives the correct level of nutrients/protein/calcium which a growing foal requires? Fast Fibre isn't a feed I'd be looking at to feed foals, not even if I could find a super duper supplement to add. My foals get their fibre from grass and their hay so I don't need to add any to a feed. I'm not into bulk tbh, small feeds with everything in them suits me perfectly. But it's each to their own, I was posting only as a guide to hopefully set the OPs mind at rest because she feeds a very similar balancer to the one I feed my own foals. I personally wouldn't put supplements in the same class as balancers but if you feel they are and you're happy with the results then that's all that matters.
 
Spring Feather said:
Sorry QB, I've just seen your edit. Hmm I'm not so sure about supplements for foals tbh; which one are you talking about that gives the correct level of nutrients/protein/calcium which a growing foal requires? Fast Fibre isn't a feed I'd be looking at to feed foals, not even if I could find a super duper supplement to add. My foals get their fibre from grass and their hay so I don't need to add any to a feed. I'm not into bulk tbh, small feeds with everything in them suits me perfectly. But it's each to their own, I was posting only as a guide to hopefully set the OPs mind at rest because she feeds a very similar balancer to the one I feed my own foals. I personally wouldn't put supplements in the same class as balancers but if you feel they are and you're happy with the results then that's all that matters.
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Personally, I like the equimins youngstock supplement and equimins tip top as they get older. I don't have the content percentages to hand but I believe it covers everything required by the growing horse as a balancer does.where I worked I believe they used this too, although it was many years ago so I can't be sure. Never seen a foal not looking well on it. Neither am I into 'bulk' but basically a balancer is a supplement in a bulk carrier, normally a grain and therefore with a higher protein content. All balancers differ in content as do all supplements, its a case of shopping around for the right one for your horses needs (but isn't that always the case?). Supplements need a carrier, so Ben would have his supplement in 1/4 scoop of fast fibre, because I don't hold with feeding grain unnecessarily. All my horses have always had excellent fibre diets, with grass and hay meeting all their calorific needs which is how I like it to be. their vitamins and mineral supplement needs a carrier, I would rather it be fibre than not, using fibre does not equal feeding a large feed if you don't want it to, as a youngster, Ben probably had no more an amount than you would feed in balancer in his bowl, I see no problem in that.


Here is a link to the breakdown of the supplement I use:
http://www.viovet.co.uk/Equimins_Young_Stock_Formula_for_Horses/c16532/
 
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Felix (pure bred Arab weed) has worried the heck out of us at times growing up as he has looked pretty light. But the vet has always been happy with him, and the one time we did up his feed he put it all into growing, didn't look any better, but his ligaments tightened, and he chipped a bit off his pedal bone doing handbrake turns in the field. So since then we've just closed our eyes and accepted that he is a slow burner. He still looks like a weed at 4 but this has been the first winter his weight looks ok.

You need patience with some youngsters.
 
EstherYoung said:
Felix (pure bred Arab weed) has worried the heck out of us at times growing up as he has looked pretty light. But the vet has always been happy with him, and the one time we did up his feed he put it all into growing, didn't look any better, but his ligaments tightened, and he chipped a bit off his pedal bone doing handbrake turns in the field. So since then we've just closed our eyes and accepted that he is a slow burner. He still looks like a weed at 4 but this has been the first winter his weight looks ok.

You need patience with some youngsters.
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Interesting you should say that Esther. The two colts I've had by H Tobago out of Bea (so full Anglo Arab) have been the gawkiest of all the foals I have bred over nearly 30 years! Not only gawky but have grown very unlevelly (is there such a word?!) one minute being bum high, then levelling out only to become very short and squashed up looking (can't say short coupled but that's what it looks like!) which makes them look pot bellied then they lengthen out and look like normal (and pretty handsome types too which gives me heart!) and then we're back to being bum high again; the sequence seems to take about three months at present (we're at the just levelling out stage just now but it's so frustrating; if you miss the chance of taking pics in those few days you're back on the treadmill again. Still, Sparks is now showing his new owner just what a smart boy she has, he's just the most athletic shape now with no pre yearling yo-yo growing patterns, I just have to wait for Merlin to do the same.

Can we please fill this page up quickly so I can stop scolling across miles due to that very big pic, it's spoiling what is a very good thread!
 
This as her last weekend, so 8 and a half months.


7 months.. Just after weaning...


This was at about 6 months, before weaning.


Call the RSPCA!!! :)
 
Well it's a but random! Sire is appy x welsh and mare is hackney x tb so all sorts really! Could make 13hh to 14hh but I'd say nearer 13hh as both mare and stallion small.
 
Spring Feather said:
Here's one of mine, he's fairly typical of what I breed. He's an Oldenburg and they are quite heavy set warmbloods. If I have time I will try to find some Hanoverian youngsters of mine, but to be honest, their growth rates are very similar to the lad below. Hope it helps anyway.

At 3 months old

WestRequest4.jpg


At 12 months old

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At 18 months old

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Spring Feather said:
Thank you for the lovely comments, most kind of you :smile3:.

Here's a Hanoverian filly of mine at slightly different stages to the lad above.

At 4 months old

26August2011004-Copy.jpg


18 months old

CopyofOctober6th2012011.jpg


And again at 2 yrs 3 mths

DSCN9826.jpg


And this one is an indulgence because she's always been my favourite youngster and she was such a beautiful baby.

37 days old

19May2011003.jpg
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stunning youngsters. really love the bay Oldenburgh


Come on Maesfen and Cortez, then see some of yours now:D
 
Lol, I haven't taken any of him since this video the day after weaning and all my other pics are on the other computer but he looks remarkably at the same sort of stages as Scarlett's filly, just muddier!

 
This is an interesting thread for me. I have a rising four year old and every year I am reported to their r s p c a as as people think she is underweight. She is not. She is a growing gangly youngster. I really hate to see any animals carrying too much weight.
 
Here's Felix in at the end of his yearling summer:
317850_1938669067203_1414318318_n.jpg


At the end of the that winter:
426357_2746981874518_359208432_n.jpg

(It was shortly after this pic was taken that he chipped his pedal bone cos he grew too much due to us increasing the feed cos we were worried he was too thin)

In his 2yo summer:
540425_3476767638706_1398275263_n.jpg


The following winter:
12564_3968247805403_1990155076_n.jpg


In his 3yo summer:
945415_4800267245369_1833266812_n.jpg


I haven't got a side on shot from this winter yet, but he looks better than he did the previous two winters.
 
What a lovely frame and bone he has, you must be so pleased with him. Condition wise, for me, he's just how he should look for his age, any heavier and I think you'd have problems but it's so hard to get people to understand they would be killing with kindness to want him heavier at this stage at least until you can be sure he's stopped growing.
 
Thanks Maesfen, he is a bit of a dude. We've had the opposite issue with the half Welsh Wolf, as he lives on thin air. At least while he was putting energy into growing I had a chance of him deflating over the winter, but now he's virtually fully grown he just looks like he ate all the pies the minute he has a break from work.
 
Trakfoals_zps14b46ca1.jpg


These are some I bred more than 20 years ago (doesn't seem like that!); a month old, a weanling and a two year old, all different sires and dams.
 
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