How much to feed my 2 year old Belgian colt?

Question
I have a new 2 year old Belgian and I want to make sure I am feeding him the proper amounts of feed & supplements.  Currently, I am giving him approximately 40lb of alfalfa hay a day along with 1 scoop of Calf Mana.  At this time, I am not giving him any other supplements or any grain.  I have not had him officially weighed yet, but he easily it at 17hh and my best guess is 1800lb.

Answer
Dear Susie,

First off I want to give you a link to Dr Beth Valentines website.  She is a vet who specializes in drafts and she has a lot of good info on her page

http://www.ruralheritage.com/vet_clinic/index.htm#epsm

At 2 years old, your boy does not have the fast rate of growth that he had previously and it is nice to see you are feeding him a predominantly  forage diet.  The big horse's need to grow slowly so that they develop good bones and also they should not be fed a lot of grain as they are susceptible to various metabolic conditions.  I would like to see him on  no more than 50% alfalfa.  Alfalfa has too high of a calcium to phosphorous ratio and this can negatively impact bone growth.  While many people successfully feed 100% alfalfa it is safer to feed no more than 50% with the rest coming from a grass hay.  

If he is 1800lbs then you are feeding a good amount at 40lbs per day as he needs at least 1.5% of his body weight per day as forage and 2% is better.  he is just over 2% at 40lbs.  Alfalfa is more calorie dense than grass hay so you may need to feed more grass hay to maintain the same body condition.  Personally I think this is a good thing because the longer horses have hay in front of them the better.  It is a good insurance policy for gut health.

In addition to the hay I would add a good grass hay balancer or if you stick with more than 50% alfalfa an alfalfa balancer.  These are made with the typical amounts of various minerals found in these hay in mind and they will provide a well balanced mineral profile in most cases.  I like Progressive nutritions balancers and ADM nutrition also have good products and these companies take a forage first approach. ADM makes a mineral block and also free choice minerals which I hear good things about. Other good products for this purpose are made by Select the Best.  If these are not available in your area let me know what you do have access to and I can suggest which would be the best bet.  

Access to plain white salt is very important.  This can be added to the hay if you damp the hay it will stick or you can put a white salt block out.  Vitamin E should be fed in liquid form, at 500 IU per 500lbs of body weight.  This is particularly important for draft breeds who can have muscle related problems.  You can use vit E in capsule form made for humans or www.uckele.com have a good liquid vit E product.  Feeding ground stabilized flax is important for getting the required omega-3 fatty acids Omega Horse Shine is good and you can get it from Smartpak or bioflax from www.horsetech.com

The calf Manna is typically fed as a protein source and for some minerals.  However the alfalfa is already providing more protein than your horse needs and it is not created to balance hays.  If you want to make sure that the essential amino acid requirements are being fed I would recommend tri-amino by uckele.

You do not mention any concerns with your horses weight and so I assume he is in good weight.  I would want him to be on the slightly lean side as he grows in order not to risk stressing his joints.

I hope this info is helpful and please feel free to get back to me if anything is not clear. I would also be happy to create an accurately balanced diet for your horse if you wish and you can email me at info@equilibrateequine.com to discuss further.

Best wishes,
Clair Thunes, PhD

Independent Equine Nutritionist
Equilibrate Equine Consulting
www.equilibrateequine.com
info@equilibrateequine.com