Rio Tango was feeling pretty proud of himself. All summer Rio and the other colts had romped and raced around the Cicotti’s rolling fields along side their mothers. Rio liked to play the kick, twist and fart game and arch his neck and strut around like he had seen his daddy do one day in a paddock near the barn. Rio was hanging out with the other colts these days since his mother told him it was time to move out. Rio felt quite grown up and knew that Mrs.Cicotti quite admired him.

Rio’s mother was an aristocratically bred Thoroughbred who fuelled by lavish amounts of green grass had supplied the growing youngster lots of nutritious milk that summer. As a result Rio had grown quite big and strong for his tender age of 7 months. In fact he was the biggest of his friends thus his rather inflated view of himself.

Mr. Cicotti however had a little different view of the cocky track star to be. “ Rio, he said, you’re growing too fast for my liking. I’m going to put you on a diet. A handful of grain is all you’re going to get. The vet says to slow down your growth or we’ll have some problems.

Weeks went by and Rio wasn’t racing around the field any more. Nor was he playing any games. His buddies tried to get him to play the rear and kick game but Rio just walked away. His legs were too sore and he was starting to develop a clubfoot. Mrs. Cicotti was so upset she asked a nutritionist to come and offer some advice.

The scenario above is fictional, the word in fact might be allegorical. The reality is of course quite real. I have encountered many situations where well meaning owners have literally starved their growing horse into problems.

My experience is that a very minimal amount of grain fed to a growing horse is disastrous unless a suitable vitamin mineral supplement is fed to support growth. Research has pointed to an excess of energy, particularly carbohydrate energy, without adequate mineral, vitamin fortification as the usual cause of problems such as physitis, and OCD (osteochondrosis).

Take a look at this graph showing the requirements of key minerals (KER figures) vs. what hay and a minimal amount (2 pounds) of even a good growing ration supply.

As you can see this ration is drastically lacking in key trace minerals and phosphorus. Without adequate supplies of these important nutrients bone cannot form properly.

Now let’s look at what happens when we use a properly fortified supplement to supply those essential minerals without excess energy.

All of the key nutrients necessary for proper mineralization of bone are now supplied in adequate amounts. With a few months of a therapeutic ration like this along with moderate exercise and Rio will be back to his struttin self.

Rules for growing horses:

1. Make sure minerals and protein are supplied in adequate amounts, even on a calorie-reduced ration.

2. Avoid excess energy, particularly carbohydrate energy.

3. Feed a low glycemic (low starch) growing ration

4. Allow for moderate exercise but don’t put unnecessary strain on young legs.

5. Monitor growth monthly

6. Avoid increasing the amount of grain too rapidly

Do you know why the horse still hasn’t jumped over the moon.

It still can’t figure out how to say moooooooon.