A growing racehorse’s nutritional needs depend not only on their mare’s milk as a foal, but on the nutrition offered to supplement after weaning and as he continues to grow. The breeder and owner play a key role in the growth and development of the young racehorse.
For a second time this year, the Indiana Thoroughbred Alliance (ITA) and Kentucky Equine Research will work together to host a free webinar, this time focusing on Young Horse Nutrition and feeding the young racehorse. The event, which is free and will be livestreamed on both Zoom and ITA’s Facebook page, will be held Thursday, April 22 at 7 pm EDT.
Earlier this year the two groups co-hosted a webinar on broodmare nutrition with Dr. Peter Huntington. That webinar is available on-demand on the ITA YouTube channel.
In “Young Horse Nutrition,” Clarissa Brown-Douglas, Ph.D., a nutritionist with Kentucky Equine Research’s Australian division will present the following topics:
- Nutrition for all stages: foals, weanling, yearlings and beyond
- Growth rates: Monitoring them and growth-related conditions
- Nutrition management tools
“It is important that nutrition is right from the start. A foal’s most important meal is his first milk, colostrum, that is packed with infection-fighting, life-saving antibodies and other goodies like protein, energy and vitamins,” says Dr. Brown-Douglas.
Dr. Brown-Douglas recommends that breeders should monitor the weight of foals very closely, saying, “Monitoring body weight every 30 days or so will allow breeders to determine if a steady growth rate is being achieved.” She will expand on this and provide more knowledge throughout the hour-long webinar.
“Having such a knowledgeable expert like Dr. Brown-Douglas present for our members of the ITA and all breeders is a privilege,” says Tony Wolfe, DVM, president of the ITA. “We are thankful of the partnership that has been fostered between the ITA and Kentucky Equine Research.”
This webinar is free and open to everyone to attend as a service provided by the ITA.
Registration for the webinar on Zoom can be found: https://bit.ly/3tpr7ag
The webinar will also be livestreamed on the ITA Facebook page: http://facebook.com/IndyThoroughbred
Questions can be sent in ahead of time by email [email protected].
