Nutritional strategies for raising and competing sounder Thoroughbreds, many of which can be applied to horses of all breeds, was presented by Laurie Lawrence, PhD, at the Thoroughbred International Exposition and Conference (TIEC). Lawrence, who has done extensive research on equine nutrition at the University of Kentucky, covered nutrition of foals, weanlings, and broodmares.

Foals and Weanlings
Measuring growth of foals and weanlings by charting weight and height is easy for the horse owner to do on a regular basis. It is more difficult to measure quality of growth. For instance, it’s very difficult for horse owners to measure bone strength, integrity of cartilage, and changes in conformation. Lawrence said that average growth of foals is about 75 pounds and 1.3 inches per month, and weanlings add about 50 pounds and 0.85 inches per month