Feeding Pregnant Mare?

[gwyngyll2]

Our shire mare is due early June, she is at present on quite lush pasture, should she be move onto less forage to prevent the foal becoming big and causing problems foaling or left alone. Have been told different things, like I should be feeding her by some people and reducing grass by others, and not feeding at all by some.. Would be interested to read your opinions.

[Mehitabel]

no, i would absolutely not restrict her forage in the last month of pregnancy. at this stage the foal is growing to the size it's going to be regardless - restricting her food will just leave her stinting her own nutritional needs to fed the foal, and then she'll just have a big foal and be weak herself.

if she has a history of big foals and difficult births, then make sure the vet is on standby for the foaling and call them at once when she starts.

a very fat mare is going ot have trouble doing anything athletic like giving birth, but she doesn't want ot be skinny either. if you stuff a mare full of stud mix al lthe way through, then she will have more nutirents available so the foal may grow bigger than it might have otherwise done, but this is overfeeding as opposed to normal feeding. any pregnant animal, if food is restricted, will stint herself in favour of the foetus - that's how the 'selfish genes' ensure their survival - so it won't affect the birth size (especially at this late stage), just riskj making them both ill.
i'd never heard of this practice before, until last week on another board someone mentioned the practice of virtually starving heavy horse broodmares inthe last month for this reason. everyone's consensus was that it was an outdated opinion not based on any facts.

[puzzles]

she should absaloutely definately without any doubt be receiving ad-lib forage of the best quality you can get. it is common thought that you should be feeding for two; however (and this still surprises some people) you should be feeding exactly the same amounts you would normally give her. this goes until about her 7th month of pregnancy (i'm fairly sure) where the foal goes through the most rapid stage of develoment and she will need a specially stud-based feed with more protein and energy.
if she is a poor doer then a stud-based feed (such as a balancer) should be fed from the start.
it is crucial that she is receiving a balanced diet, more so than ever since she has to supply for a foal too. this will provcide all the vitamina and mienrals she needs.
i recommend that this be fed with Alfalfa - from Dengie preferably as it is of such quality and there will be one just right for your mare (such as the Alfa-A). therefore i advise you to contact dengie at www.dengie.com for more detailed help and information on what is best for your horse. Alfalfa contains a valuable source of calcium, energy, fibre and protei and I can't recommend any feedstuff better (other than the balancer) fro an in-foal mare.
if she starts to lose condition then mroe of the Alfalfa can be fed, and you can also introduce oil into her diet (some of the very best being Soya and (Flax) Linseed, from Global herbs for example) and up her feed by introducing a compound feed for stud horses (or as recommended by a nutritionist).
make any diety changes gradual, over a period of at least 7-10 days.

good luck

:-)

[Jessey]

In the last couple of months it is essential that she gets plenty of forage, but more so that she gets sufficent vitamins and minerals, as many aren't passed along in the mares milk foaly will have to manage on what s/he already has (from before birth) until s/he gets more onto solids :p Stud mixes are specially made to provide all the things she would need, but if she is a good doer then she might not need extra energy so a supplement might work best, talk to some of the feed companies nutritionists and see which of their products they would recommend :p

[puzzles]

you know what?

dittoooooooooooooo!

lol Jessey we have to stop doing this (hang on - no, I have to stop) :-)