feeding the 'Q' horse filly

[Fairynuff]

I bought a quarter horse filly who is now 8 months old. She lives in and is turned out for 5 hours a day with some hay( grass is non existent). When she is in her box she has ad lib hay plus D and H 'Mare and Foal Mix' as recommended. What i would like to know is...for a big muscled beastie, is the rec dose enough? I have no experience whatsoever with 'Q' horses and would hate to make a cockup. All advice is more than welcome. Mairi. PS, Ive added some unsugared sugarbeet and some cider vin to her evening feed.

 

[wattsy]

Hi, congratulations on your QH! generally you should go with the recommended feeding amounts on the bag of your chosen feed. If in doubt ring the feedline of the feed company, they are always helpful. Whilst they need to get enough protein, you need to be careful you don't give them too much. typically a pound a day for each month of age is common, and then feed the 6 month max until they are 2 or even 3. If they look skinny, look at worm count/rugging up/plenty of haylage or hay before you think of increasing short feed. Where did you get your youngster from?

 

[Fairynuff]

Thankyou for your reply

. It seems that QH's are a rarity on here

. My filly was born and bred here in Italy( which has become the biggest importer of QHs anywhere)

. There are some excellent bloodlines here and surprisingly enough lots are being sold back to America and the Italians are winning serious reining etc comps here in europe and in America

. I will follow your advise and see what happens-sounds good to me

. Thanks again, Mairi.

 

[Tia]

I have no idea what type of hay you grow in Italy; what species I mean; but you should bear in mind, that if you feed top quality hay then the hard feed doesn't need to be anywhere near that of those with lesser quality hay.

I am not a big hard feeder with my young QHs - I prefer ad-lib hay with a reasonable amount of alfalfa in it, but not too high a percent of it. My QH yearlings only get around a couple of pounds of feed per day during winter; the rest of their nutrients come from the hay and mineral blocks. I would be careful about over feeding as QHs generally flourish on thin air!

I do think we are about due for an updated photo of her though - it's been, oh, at least a month since we have seen the gorgeous girl!