July 7, 2000

Keep that mare in shape!

Dr. Don Topliff gives the following tips in keeping your mare in optimum breeding condition:

• Follow a good deworming and vaccination program. “I don’t care how good of feed you feed, if they’re eaten up with internal parasites it’s not going to do you any good,” Topliff said. “But it’s the cheapest money you can spend, I promise you.”

• Feed at least 1 percent of body weight per day in roughage. “If it’s pasture, please make sure there’s grass out there,” Topliff advised.

• Feed on a schedule. “I don’t care what you’ve got to do, horses do not do well when they’re not fed on schedule,” he said.

• Feed by weight, not volume. There’s a lot of difference between a coffee can full of corn and one full of oats. Taking into account the weight and energy difference, “the corn will have about twice as much energy,” Topliff said.

• Keep the concentrate portion of the diet 10 percent or higher in crude fiber. “When concentrates get below 20 percent crude fiber, they get pretty dicey to handle,” Topliff said.

• Slow down feed intake. “Anything we can do to slow down rate of eating, we need to do it. That’s one of the reasons mixing hay and grain together and putting it in there together works pretty well,” he said.

• Never force horses to compete for food. Be sure there’s space for every horse to eat. “Rule of thumb—put out enough feeders for every horse, plus one. Don’t bunch feeders up,” he maintained.