Nutritional Management of Growing Horses
نویسنده
چکیده
Horses are raised to become sound athletes, and therefore optimal growth is preferred to maximal growth, which may be required in other livestock production systems. in horses, optimal growth rate results in a desirable body size at a specific age with the least amount of developmental problems. While the genetic makeup, or genotype, ultimately determines a horse’s mature size, nutrition plays an important role in achieving mature size and optimum growth rates. other factors including the environment and how the growing horse is managed will influence growth. Managing equine growth is a balance between producing a desirable individual for a particular purpose without creating skeletal problems that will reduce a horse’s athletic ability. Growing a foal too slowly results in the risk of it being too small at a particular age or never obtaining optimal mature body size. Growing a foal too quickly results in the risk of developmental orthopedic disease (DoD) such as epiphysitis, angular limb deformities, and osteochondritis dissecans (oCD) (pagan, 2005a). it has been widely recommended to maintain a steady growth rate in young horses by regularly weighing and measuring horses during at least the first 18 months of life (pagan, 2005a; NrC, 2007) and adjusting nutrition as necessary.
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