[Krystan]

OK. Thanks. I'll make sure if I feed him grain that he's not getting too much protein.

[Cool Time 84]

My filly(Sugar) was eating grain out of her dam's(Angel) bin at 3 days old, Angel didn't even care, she'd walk away and let Sugar eat alone for a minute or two then push her away for a few mouthfuls then let her eat again, my the time Sugar was 4 months old, she rarely suckled off Angel and when she was 6 months was completely weaned off Angel and in a stall of her own eating her own grain, we kept her on Angel's feed for the next few months then gradually switched her to my QH's feed....

Angel got fed a type of Omelene 300 (only we had it mixed at our feed mill special, instead of paying a price and a half for the Omelene NAME)

My QH gets fed 12% feed also specially mixed for her, since she is an aging show horse, its got extra vitamins and supplements for bones and coat and hair texture(etc)..

Sugar is HUGE, but the vet said we did what was best for her, since she was such a large independent baby and was in need of good protein.... we never had any problems with her, and her joints look great, the vet said that even if we hadn't fed her extra protein we wouldn't be able to safely ride her on hard trails until quite a while after her 3rd birthday due to the fact that when she was born she was already 10.1 hands high...

She's now almost 15.0 and she's just turning 1 1/2 this month.... vet said we could put a max of 45-50 lbs on her for short periods of time (like 15-20 minutes) and if we only had no more than 35-36 lbs on her we could walk her for that amount, he said she'd be fine, he also said to go ahead and break her to ride when she was 2, just so long as she was only ridden by someone no more than 160lbs and only then for max of 45 minutes at a slow walk or very slow flat walk(for no more than 5 min at a time) and not to ride her more than 3 days a week until she is almost 3....

My uncle always feeds his horses feed as foals not off their mothers, but like some have said, every breed is different, but not only that, every horse can be different also, we feed them according to their size and or energy level... just depends on them...

Good Luck!

<small>[ February 01, 2004, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: Cool Time 84 ]</small>