Start the Breeding Season with Equine Nutrition Review

Horse owners can help to prepare their animals for the upcoming breeding season and keep them healthy through the winter through proper nutritional management and veterinary oversight, said Kristina G. Lu, VMD, Dipl. ACT, a theriogenologist at the McGee Fertility Center at the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky.

“Careful assessment of the nutritional status is

Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Horse owners can help prepare their animals for the upcoming breeding season–and keep them healthy through the winter–through proper nutritional management and veterinary oversight, said Kristina G. Lu, VMD, Dipl. ACT, a theriogenologist at the McGee Fertility Center at the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky.

"Careful assessment of the nutritional status is critical for all animals, especially in preparation for the breeding season," Lu said. "You have to pay attention to nutrition; make sure they have enough to keep their weight consistent, but avoid the tendency to overfeed as part of expressing care and concern. Both under-nutrition and over-nutrition can have negative impacts on fertility.

"The beginning of the calendar year, just before breeding season, is a great time to schedule a wellness check for horses that includes careful assessment and recordkeeping of the body condition, haircoat, how the horse is carrying its weight, and more," Lu explained. "This should include a comparison with past examinations, if available."

Owners should be aware of their mare's weight before and after pregnancy, and ideally have a record of these stats over past years in order to help them to keep an accurate measure of what their horse should weigh

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
292 votes · 292 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!