Growing foals and hard ground....

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Alec Swan

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How's the weather with you? We haven't had any rain of any use since the beginning of March, here, and the ground is like iron. We had a dry spring last year, and a serious drought the year before, in '09.

With ground as hard as it is, keeping mares, and their foals separate, is a pain. I don't put the soft and growing joints at risk, with foals playing or needlessly flying about, on ground which is so unforgiving.

In '09, the faster growing youngsters had visual and audible "clicks" in their pasterns, and I separated them. I don't mollycoddle growing foals, but am I right in being concerned?

I'm tempted to keep them as a group, and then separate them as they become more boisterous. Or am I worrying about nothing?

Any thoughts?

Alec.
 
Because of the dry Spring last year, my foal's foot cracked and he got an infection in the white line as a result...

It's a really hard one Alec, and obviously, I have the same problem as you... sort of stuck between a rock & a hard place (pardon the pun) where you don't really want to restrict their movement and playing and boisterous behaviour because it's an important part of growing up, BUT you don't want trauma to their soft joints either.

I have taken the view that it is more beneficial to him to be able to run around & will hope that the joints won't suffer too much - supplementing with Glucosamine to hopefully help grow better cartilage.

Not much help in your case I guess, sorry.

G x
 
I get to find out tomorrow morning if I have a blob or not. If so I am going to get one of the paddocks closed off to try & ensure plenty of grass coverage for next year. If it then rains it wont really matter, but if we have a 3rd spring like these last 2 then at least there will be more of a cushion affect.
 
I am not sure how the ground plays a part in the foals development.. I'm sure it would have some impact.... but it's not a factor you can control...

I worked in Australia for 2 years and the ground was rock hard all year round... and I never once heard the Aussie's say anything about the impact of the ground on the foals running around etc.. each foal was taken on a case by case situation... eg- bad legs.. it was restricted.. (turned out 24/7 but restricted). - and these were not cheap Thoroughbreds i was working with - and they were mollicoddled

I'd be interested to see what others have to say.
 
Of course you need to be careful with young foals with just the risk (heart in mouth) of them having a tumble on hard and uneven ground. Provided they have no limb deviations or ae not, even temporarily, knock kneed, there is evidence to say that the development of joints and bones is improved with impact. This was a study done of somewhat older youngstock (yearlings and then twos and threes) to look at OCD and the conclusion was that moving on hard ground was a key factor in low OCD scores.

This makes sense to me as women too benefit from exercise with impact to avoid osteoporosis.

However, if we have a foal with any sort of limb deviation, contracted tendons or the aforesaid "knock knees" we restrict their freedom yo gallop around as this impact will be non aligned and could cause deviation from the growth plates.
 
Hard ground can affect some foals. Particularly ones that have a tendency to be upright at an early age. We have one that we were struggling with, he's just gone to Ireland with his mum, where there is more give in the ground and already the stud say there is an improvement in him! He arrived there last Monday night. We're lucky in that our fields, paddocks and nurseries are regularly aggravated to keep the ground as even as possible and that we have indoor and out door all weather turnout areas. Even so we've started to use sprinklers in the nurseries and paddocks at the foaling unit and at the barns where there are young foals. When the ground gets this hard, when they start to play (and they don't need a playmate to play, they can be chasing butterflies lol), then pedal bones can be fractured, feet get chipped, physitis (epiphysitis) can develop and all number of things. More often than not, they don't, but it's always a worry.
 
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