Off to the Sales: Managing Sales Yearlings

Taking yearlings to sales venues involves significant changes to their lives. First, there is a major shift in environment. Many yearlings have never left the farm where they were born, and they must now travel to the sales complex and mix with hundreds of other equally excited young horses in strange surroundings. Second, there will be a change in diet as there won’t be any grass at the sales complex and the feed that is given may change in type and amount. Third, the amount of exercise may vary, as a popular horse will be shown to potential buyers all day, while the less fashionable ones will spend nearly all day in their box or stall. Finally, with luck, the yearling will change hands and ship to a new home.

Feeds

So what can you do to minimize the impact of this change on the yearling’s life? Like people, horses adapt to change in different ways, but acclimatization plays a key role. You don’t have a lot of time to spend preparing complicated feeds at the sales, so if you are mixing your own feed at home, it may be a good idea to switch gradually to a commercially prepared feed for use at the sales complex. Alternatively, you could use a specially designed feed for young growing horses throughout the preparation.

Supplements

You won’t be able to make significant changes in body condition in the last week before the sales, so this is a good time to taper the grain intake and workload. Young horses that are full of grain and jumping out of their skin will take longer to adapt to change than a horse that is being fed a more moderate diet.

If a horse needs more weight at this late stage, adding a high-fat supplement such as oil or stabilized rice bran will leave you with a more relaxed horse. If a horse is very nervous and will have trouble traveling or will take a long time to settle in at the sales complex, then this may be a good time to increase the fat and digestible fiber (e.g., beet pulp) and cut back on the grain intake. It may be worth trying a calming agent, too.

If you think you may need to feed electrolytes to replace losses in sweat when the yearling travels to, or at the sales complex, then start adding these to the feed a week before departure. This will also reduce the potential for dehydration prior to leaving home. Allowing free-choice access to hay will provide the yearling with a good reserve of energy, water, and electrolytes for the trip to the sales complex and the settling-in period. However, yearlings that show a pronounced hay belly may benefit from a restriction in the amount of hay offered during the last few days of preparation and parade days.  Restore SR and Restore Paste, products available through Kentucky Equine Research, are designed to match the content of a horse’s sweat, helping to re-establish proper electrolyte balance and hydration. In Australia, look for Restore.

Young horses that are paraded often may also develop sore feet from hard surfaces; some may even look unsound by the time they reach the sales ring. Feeding a hoof supplement containing biotin, zinc, and methionine through the preparation period may help to strengthen the hooves and will increase hoof growth to help grow out any hoof defects. This can also help growth of mane and tail, improve the quality of the coat, and bring out a lustrous shine. It is vital to present a yearling with a shiny coat. Kentucky Equine Research recommends the use of Bio-Bloom PS (Bio-Bloom HF in Australia), a dual-action supplement designed to promote and maintain healthy hooves and skin from the inside out. Other nutritional considerations are added oil or high-fat supplements and trace mineral supplements, which some horse owners believe help darken a faded or bleached coat.

Management

If the yearling is to be fed during the trip, dampened hay or haylage is the preferred feed. This will provide the yearling with a dust-free forage supplement during travel and help maintain normal gut function. The addition of a supplement to help maintain healthy gut function can help to prevent gastrointestinal problems associated with stress and periods without feed. This may also be useful at the start of the preparation, often a stressful time for young horses.

At the sales, the amount of grain fed will vary according to individual needs. Small meals are desirable to reduce the risk of grain overload and to spread the feed out during the day. Some horses will spend a lot of the day being paraded and may need extra energy to maintain the right presence. Keeping these yearlings feeling well with all of this additional exercise can be supported by using a fat supplement throughout the preparation, as this provides a store of extra energy. In other cases, the yearling that is hot to handle will benefit from less grain. If grain intake is reduced, replace lost calories with extra chaff or hay.

There are some horses that are prone to a hay belly and look better with a bit less gut fill. These horses may need restricted hay intake rather than free-choice hay supply. It is a balancing act, though, because if you reduce hay feeding too much the yearling can suffer gastric ulcer development, hindgut acidosis, or other problems. Feeding digestible fiber in the form of beet pulp can help reduce a hay-belly appearance.

Like all aspects of yearling preparation, the feeding prior to and at the sales should be approached individually. Many horses become very sour from spending nearly all day in the box or stall, and feeding time provides a distraction as well as a source of nutrients. After the sales, you should let the purchaser or their agent know the type and quantity of feeds given. Many horses fall away after yearling preparation, and sometimes this is simply due to changes in feeding practices. Appropriate feeding during preparation and at the sales can ensure that yearlings look their best and are prepared to adapt to their new home.