Feeding a native foal - advice please!

Mynyddcymro

Mynyddcymro

Well-Known Member
Joined
23 November 2009
Messages
320
Location
Shrewsbury
Visit site
Hi all,

I have purchased a six month old Shetland colt from the breeder of my lovely boy, they share the same sire.

I am hoping to keep him at his breeders till February time as unfortunately my mare didn't sell and is now on full loan at the yard to the girl who originally shared her. I hadn't planned to geld till he turned 3 - providing he was co-operative and well mannered however I guess my only option now is to geld next spring.

My main question is regarding feeding. He will have hay at night when stabled and will be out on grazing although it isn't brilliant during the day. I know I don't need to feed a lot of hard feed (if anything), however it's of up most importance he gets everything he needs to mature to his absolute best. I will be aiming him at a couple of county shows next year providing he isn't too gangly.
My YO has recommended a feed called Pavo - they have a foal range which is meant to be balanced however I only know of my YO that uses the Pavo range and not on youngstock.
I have had good results with Baileys LoCal on my 11year old Shetland but he has obviously finished growing.
I don't want to pump him with feed but I do want to help him along.

Any ideas anyone?
 
I will be taking delivery of a 6 month old standard filly foal in Dec so have been musing this one too - im fairly settled on feeding Dodson & Horrell as it's formulated for natives. If you look on their website they do a foal mix, suregrow and mare & foal mix too.
 
congratulations, photos needed!

I would use the lo-cal balancer still. IMO the stud balancers have too much protein for native foals.
 
Shetlands are bred to live on poor grazing and I would stick with that and hay (not too rich). Let him grow as nature intended.
 
I wouldn't feed anything-recipe for joint problems if you overfeed. Reasonable grass and hay quality should suffice
 
Mine is a native type (welsh x traditional cob) currently on nothing but grass and hay. Growing nice and steady. I won't feed anything unless condition starts to drop... Should that happen it will be chaff and beet from simple systems range.
 
You are asking for trouble feeding a native baby "horse balancers". It is way out of kilter for a pony that evolved to live on scrub in the highlands. Even "poor" grass by English standards is a feast for a Shetland Pony. All you are doing is making sure the pony gets laminitis sooner in life.
 
bumping this as interested to hear other opinions (hope you dont mind op)

My thoughts would be yes, to be very canny and careful about feeding a native foal of any kind and you don't want to promote too much early growth, but, if you want it to mature to it's absolute best then an appropriate native foal mix through the winter would be advisable? (Not a balancer or general stud mix.) Yes they are evolved to sustain themselves on sparse Shetland grazing *cough cough, Shetland, not the Highlands lol* but they may still come out of winter looking poor and not developing to their best potential. Does anyone else have any recommendations for native-appropriate foal mix other than Dodson & Horrell?
 
I purposely have poor grazing to enable the older shetlands to live out un restricted and un muzzled so all ponies get a supplement to ensure they get vits & mins. The youngstock get NAF mare, foal and youngstock supplement with a handful of unmolassed chaff and maybe a little speedibeet if needed.
 
tallyho! said:
You are asking for trouble feeding a native baby "horse balancers". It is way out of kilter for a pony that evolved to live on scrub in the highlands. Even "poor" grass by English standards is a feast for a Shetland Pony. All you are doing is making sure the pony gets laminitis sooner in life.
Click to expand...

This. Thank God there are a few sensible folk on here still.
 
catroo said:
I purposely have poor grazing to enable the older shetlands to live out un restricted and un muzzled so all ponies get a supplement to ensure they get vits & mins. The youngstock get NAF mare, foal and youngstock supplement with a handful of unmolassed chaff and maybe a little speedibeet if needed.
Click to expand...

is that youngstock shetlands catroo? I'll have a look at the NAF supplement, thanks for the info.
My grazing is very poor and my adult shetland is still muzzled just now as she blows up on nothing. Its still important to meet nutritional needs though if grazing is restricted, she gets a small feed of lowcal balancer in timothy hay chaff.
 
NeverSayNever said:
is that youngstock shetlands catroo? I'll have a look at the NAF supplement, thanks for the info.
My grazing is very poor and my adult shetland is still muzzled just now as she blows up on nothing. Its still important to meet nutritional needs though if grazing is restricted, she gets a small feed of lowcal balancer in timothy hay chaff.
Click to expand...

Yes - 6 month (he's s bit new to it all so has a bit of speedibeet to make it more appetising), an 18 month and a 36 month, all standard Shetlands, have the youngstock supplement. The adult shetlands just get a general supplement and there's a salt lick in field and shelter
 
If the grazing is really poor, I'd be supplementing it with some decent hay and a free access salt block -- but with an eye on condition == and nothing else.

As a general rule, natives should not be fed anything out of a bag with writing, let alone pretty pictures, on the side!
 
Thanks for everyone taking the time to reply. Singing dawg please don't imply I have no sense. Perhaps if I was lacking in that department I wouldn't have bothered asking advice and gone ahead and 'pumped him full of any old feed'.

I'm not out to encourage quick growth. Our grazing isn't great and whilst I know 'Shetlands live on nothing' why shouldn't they get all the necessary vitamins to support them like any other horse? Feeding isn't just about weight gain.
If I didn't feed my Shetland baileys local I can almost guarantee he'd still have crummy easily chipped hooves.

Please don't think I'm out to get a well conditioned (read fat) youngster, I'm not. I spent two years battling to shift the years of weight my pony had gained through mine and my YO ignorance and I will never go there again.

I will look into the vitamin supplements thank you Catroo.
 
Susie T - is that question aimed at me? I don't think any of us have mentioned haylage? I certainly won't be feeding that, far too rich. My current Shetland and Section A get reasonable quality hay, nothing wrong with it but certainly not what the other horses on the yard get. I don't expect my current two to get everything they need from hay and poor grazing and neither are fat from having a balancer only.

At least I know now to steer clear of any generic youngstock mix and perhaps just a supplement is the way to go.
 
Mynyddcymro said:
Thanks for everyone taking the time to reply. Singing dawg please don't imply I have no sense. Perhaps if I was lacking in that department I wouldn't have bothered asking advice and gone ahead and 'pumped him full of any old feed'.

I'm not out to encourage quick growth. Our grazing isn't great and whilst I know 'Shetlands live on nothing' why shouldn't they get all the necessary vitamins to support them like any other horse? Feeding isn't just about weight gain.
If I didn't feed my Shetland baileys local I can almost guarantee he'd still have crummy easily chipped hooves.

Please don't think I'm out to get a well conditioned (read fat) youngster, I'm not. I spent two years battling to shift the years of weight my pony had gained through mine and my YO ignorance and I will never go there again.

I will look into the vitamin supplements thank you Catroo.
Click to expand...

In the wild, they don't just graze the poor grass. They eat nettles, thistles, brambles, gorse (very nutritious) and any other wild edible plant they come across, many of which we now class as herbs. If you are woried about vitamins then I would feed a vit supplement in a handful of chop, but still nothing else.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top