How to Put On Weight On a Nursing Mare

Nursing her foal places a great deal of strain on the new mother horse; her body requires extra protein and energy to remain healthy. She must provide nutrients for her baby and herself; additionally, many breeding mares become pregnant again within a week or two of giving birth. Without the proper food and supplements, the mare loses the weight and the body condition necessary for the well-being of her baby and herself. Providing your lactating, or nursing, mare with the proper hay, grains and minerals keeps the mare and her foal happy and healthy.

Things You'll Need

  • Legume hay
  • Oats
  • Whole corn
  • Wheat bran
  • Molasses
  • Plain salt
  • Dicalcium phosphate
  • Grass hay
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Instructions

    • 1

      Feed your nursing mare approximately 14 lbs. of a protein-rich hay daily. Legume hay or a legume/grass mixture provides the 12 percent protein needed by a lactating mare. Allot five pounds for morning and evening feedings, and four pounds for the noon feeding.

    • 2

      Concoct an 11 lb. grain mixture of approximately 60 percent oats, 30 percent whole corn, five percent soybean meal, five percent wheat bran, a dollop of molasses, a tablespoon of plain salt and a tablespoon of dicalcium phosphate daily. Feed your mare four pounds in the morning, three pounds at noon and four pounds in the evening.

    • 3

      Allow your mare access to free-choice water at all times.

    • 4

      Replace the mare's legume hay with a total grass hay after she has nursed for three months. Slowly add in the new hay over a period of 10 to 14 days as you remove the same amount of the old. This substitution lowers her protein levels as her milk yield decreases while keeping her from becoming obese.

    • 5

      Reduce the amount of the nursing mare's grain mixture after three months by slowly decreasing the amount you give her over a period of 10 days to two weeks; a healthy nursing mare requires only three to five pounds of grain daily during weaning.

    • 6

      Continue adding the dicalcium phosphate supplement to her diet until the foal is fully weaned, recommends reproductive physiologist M. C. G. Davies Morel in "Equine Reproductive Physiology, Breeding and Stud Management."