Feeding my Warmblood Yearling Colt (breeder opinion needed)?
I have a Warmblood yearling gelding born 4-27-08 (Appendix QH X Hanoverian) He right now stands 15h and i just cant seem to keep weight on him. We are in mid. MI and i feed local 2nd cutting hay. 3 Flakes 2X a day and he gets 4lb. of triple crown grow per day. along with Show glow supplement. He is on pasture and i keep up well with my worming. But i can still see his ribs. the vet said that there is nothing blood-work wise wrong with him. So what should i be feeding him and how much. Would love the opinion of other warmblood breeders and what you feed. I can get a custom mix if i knew what to get.
thank you
natalie
This is typical of warmbloods. As the other posters have pointed out, he is going to go through several of these growth spurts for the next 5 years. Warmbloods just can’t handle high protein the way the quarter horse folks feed. If the protein is too high, you’ll have problems with the growthplates at the end of the long bones.
The Triple Crown Grow grain is great for fast growing quarterhorses and TB’s, but for the warmbloods, you need to feed them more like they do in Europe, very low carb and controlled protein. The Europeans have fed warmbloods for a couple hundred years, and they do it well. They don’t do so well with the quarterhorses they have imported. Most of the feed available in the States is designed for the most popular type of horses here–stock horses and hot bloods. The warmbloods needs are different.
Warmbloods need lots of hay, at least another feeding of the two flakes, if not more. If you could find 24 hour turnout with a roundbale or good grass, it would be even better, but at least one more feeding of hay would be beneficial.
The other things we have done with our warmblood colts and adults is change to Purina Wellsolve Low Carb pellets. We used to feed Purina Strategy, but the Welsolve works so much better at getting good muscle and keeping them with good minds. Stay away from sweet feed with warmbloods as they don’t handle that well either.
http://horse.purinamills.com/nutrition/mgmtpractices.asp is the website for Purina, and in the search box put “low carb” or Wellsolve.
When we changed to this feed, I was amazed at how much more useful energy my horses have. Before they would blow so much just on nerves. Now we don’t have such a problem with the youngsters being so ribby–but they will not and should not look like a quarter horse colt of the same age. Warmbloods grow much more slowly, and we have to give them time. My boys don’t reach full size until 6 or 7 years old.
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Bildprospekt zum Katalog der Verdener Fruhjahrsauktion [Picture Bruchure of the Verden Spring 1959 Auction of Hanoverian Horses] … |
