What Are the Dietary Energy Requirements for Ponies Nursing a Foal?

A study was conducted to determine the dietary energy requirements for pony mares nursing foals.

Lactating pony mares were fed one of three rations for 12 weeks. The rations provided 80, 100, or 125% of digestible energy requirements, based on NRC (1978) recommendations. All diets provided 100% of protein requirements and adequate calcium and phosphorus. Mares and foals were weighted weekly, and foal heart girth and wither height were also measured weekly.

Mares receiving the low-energy diet lost weight and their foals gained weight more slowly and had smaller heart girths, though they were as tall as the other foals. Mares on the medium and high energy diets gained weight at similar rates. Their foals also gained weight and grew at similar rates.

This report of research conducted in 1984 by Joe D. Pagan and coworkers was published in Journal of Animal Science.

Read the entire research paper, titled Digestible Energy Requirements of Lactating Pony Mares.