Nutrition and Management at and after Weaning
Résumé
Weaning is considered as one of the most stressful events in a domestic foal’s life. Artificial weaning takes place generally several months prior to the “biological” age of weaning when foals are still in close relation with their dams. Particular attention should be paid to the foal’s diet both before and after weaning because weaning is most often associated with weight loss of the foal. During the first 3 months of the foal’s life, mare’s milk covers the most part its nutritional requirements, and intake of solid feeds increases gradually when mare’s milk production decreases. After weaning, regulated individual and balanced feeding is an important factor to prevent the risk for bone abnormalities. Foals fed ad libitum and excess energy have often a higher occurrence of conformational and musculoskeletal abnormalities than those fed with restricted diets. Weanlings are sensitive to protein level and quality, and young growing horses require high-quality protein responding. Increased growth in response to an increasing dietary protein level can only occur when essential amino acids are the limiting nutrients for growth. Mineral intake alone does not increase the bone density, but mineralization and bone formation happen only when young horses are exercised and loaded regularly.