New foal coming tomorrow .. What feed?

Aidey

Aidey

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Going to pick up the newest addition to the family tomorrow, he's a ISH x TB, Dam by Clover Valley(by Clover Hill) and Sire is by Sadler's Wells.
6 month old chestnut colt.

He has been living out up until tomorrow but unsure if he has been on hard feed, will ask tomorrow though. He will be being stabled over night with turnout during the day.

If he is already on hard feed and looks fine I will leave things as they are but if not any recommendations on what to feed him?

Majorly excited to get him, early Christmas present from me, to me :D:p
 
hello!

i'd carry on with the diet your foal is used to (assuming he is used to something), then see how he goes through the winter. Remember that as a weanling and yearling, he will look thin, don't expect him to look like a grown horse till he he about 3 or 4, overfeeding at this age gives a lot of problems in later life.

You could always call one of the feed lines, I like Top Spec, and find them very helpful and they can advise what to feed him.

I expect lots of photos tomorrow! Good luck!

bye!
 
Definitely agree with using what he is used to for at least a fortnight so it is one thing less for him to contend with (travelling, new home, new person, new water, new company; it all takes a lot out of them mentally so to have the same food for a while will be a comfort to him) Once he's settled down I would personally change gradually (over a week or so) to D & H Suregrow if he's not already on it; you don't have to feed anything else with it at all and all my youngsters have preferred it that way, they don't like it when I added things to it! It's a complete pellet and fully formulated for growing youngstock. It will give him all the goodies he needs without overloading on calories and you don't need to feed a lot of it. That along with good hay/haylage and grazing with loads of turnout with company and decent handling will see him well.
Good luck with him, hope you'll post pics.
 
Maesfen said:
Definitely agree with using what he is used to for at least a fortnight so it is one thing less for him to contend with (travelling, new home, new person, new water, new company; it all takes a lot out of them mentally so to have the same food for a while will be a comfort to him) Once he's settled down I would personally change gradually (over a week or so) to D & H Suregrow if he's not already on it; you don't have to feed anything else with it at all and all my youngsters have preferred it that way, they don't like it when I added things to it! It's a complete pellet and fully formulated for growing youngstock. It will give him all the goodies he needs without overloading on calories and you don't need to feed a lot of it. That along with good hay/haylage and grazing with loads of turnout with company and decent handling will see him well.
Good luck with him, hope you'll post pics.
Click to expand...

100% this ^^ :)
 
As little as possible.

Don't get caught into the overfeeding trap.

My Clover Hill (direct) mare is an unbelievable doer as have been her foals. My other mare (saddlers hall by saddlers wells!) is less so.

All foals/weanlings youngsters live out 24/7 on ad-lib haylage and mineral lick.

Not sure about the suregrow as have never used it.

Less is definitely more when it comes to feeding youngstock!
 
The one thing I'd add is be flexible about your plans to keep him in - my 6 month old Fjord colt had only ever lived out & took grave exception to my attempts to stable him when he arrived with me, trying to come over the door three times before I got the message & put him out. It took three months to get him to a place where he was happy to be stabled which when I think about it isn't terribly surprising: he'd been on a lorry for five hours, had been taken away from everything he'd ever known and then I tried to shut him in a stable. He's happy as Larry about it now, just didn't need the extra stress when he was already stressed beyond belief.
 
Thanks for all your replies, just spoke to the seller and he is already on suregrow so will keep him on this, she also said only a tiny bit and will go through everything properly with me tomorrow when I go to pick him up :)

rolocandy73 - Thanks, good point, our yard doesn't allow them to live out so will check out some local yards/fields incase this is a problem.

Will post pics tomorrow for you all to have a nosey at :D
 
Great that he is on sure grow and the owner will run through things with you. If he is looking well on it then you should hopefully be able to stick to just that, grass and hay. Our TB foals bred for racing lived out with good quality ad lib hay and a mineral lick, and did very well.

I would also second being flexible about turnout if he has lived out until now. Some may be ok with it, but it is obviously quite alien for some!
 
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