Thoroughbreds sold at commercial sales are more appealing if they are big and athletic looking. To achieve this, young Thoroughbreds are often fed cereal-based diets that include oats, corn and barley; though this diet can assist in producing a large horse, it can also cause developmental bone disease and gastric ulceration.
Drs. Meriel Moore-Colyer, Philippa Tuthill, Isobel Bannister and Simon Daniels collaborated with Eclipse Feeds in Ireland to complete a study on supplemental feeding of foals. The team used eight foals placed in pairs and found that foals that were fed high-fiber diets while still nursing maintained a healthy gut environment when compared with those foals that ate a conventional cereal-based feed.
These findings are not in line with the industry belief that feeding high levels of fiber to foals will give them pot bellies and make their growth rate unsustainable. The growth measurements showed that high-fiber diets supported rapidly growing Thoroughbred foals in a manner similar to those foals fed cereal-based concentrates, without the possible growth abnormailities associated with the feed.
Read more at HorseTalk.
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