Pregnant mares carry your hopes and dreams, be it for the next bigchampion or just a quiet riding companion. Regardless of what you are breeding, goodcare of the mare during her various stages of pregnancy has long term impacts on bothher and her foal's long term health and athletic capacity. Here are some tips forkeeping mares healthy and breeding sound, strong and athletic foals.

Tip #1: Don't let mares get fat
Mares in their early stages of pregnancy don't need many, if any additional caloriesthan they needed when they weren't in foal. All mares are different, so to reallyknow how much feed your pregnant mares need you should condition score regularly.Pregnant mares should ideally be maintained at a condition score of 6 and should notbe allowed to exceed a score of 7. Having mares too fat can:

- Reduce their milk production when they foal.
- Put unnecessary strain on their hooves and joints, making them heavy anduncomfortable.
- Lead to difficulty foaling (though this isn't necessarily proven to occur).
- Make it difficult to fall pregnant again, particularly if a mare is forced to loseweight just prior to or immediately following foaling.

As mares progress through their pregnancy their requirement for energy and proteindoes increase, so you may find you need to feed additional feed to maintain theirbody condition score. For more information on Condition Scoring read our FeedXLNewsletter #1. If you are feeding pregnant mares, get in the habit of running yourhands over them every time you feed them. Doing this means you will quickly pick upif they are putting on more condition than they need and will allow you to adjusttheir feed intake accordingly.

Tip #2 - Don't let mares get skinny
A pregnant mare shouldn't be allowed to drop below a condition score of 5. Mares thatare any lighter will fall away quickly after foaling, reducing the body energy andprotein reserves for milk production and also switching off the reproductive cycles,making it difficult or impossible to get in foal again. Thin mares may also be moresusceptible to disease.

Again, get in the habit of running your hands over your mares to assess whether theyneed more feed to hold them in the desired body condition. If you notice their ribsbecoming easier to feel or their topline and rump starting to fall away, you willneed to increase the amount of feed they are getting. Because so much room is takenup in the mare's abdomen late in the pregnancy you will likely need to feed highenergy grains (make sure they are cooked—see FeedXL Newsletter #18) or high energyfibre feeds that use ingredients like sugarbeet pulp or soybean hulls to allow themto increase their energy intake enough to hold their body condition. High fat feedsare also useful for late pregnant mares.

Tip #3 ­ Make sure mineral and vitamin requirements are met
Meeting the mineral and vitamin requirements of pregnant mares during early and latepregnancy is crucial to:

- Promote the sound development of their foals.
- Prevent deficiencies like iodine that can affect the thriftiness and survival ofnewborn foals.
- Prevent problems in the mares like retained placenta and the associated laminitis. - Maintain a strong immune system in the mare and foal.
- Maintain the long‐term health and soundness of the mare for future reproduction.
- While pregnant mares can often be maintained on good quality pasture with littleadditional feed, without supplementation of minerals, a pasture‐only diet will almostcertainly have quite dramatic deficiencies of copper and zinc and depending on thegeographical location may also be very deficient in calcium, phosphorous, magnesium,iodine and selenium.

If the mare doesn't receive the additional minerals she needs to support herself andher growing foetus she will draw them from her own body reserves. However if she isrequired to do this for many consecutive breeding seasons it will eventually haveimplications for both her and her future foals' long‐term health, soundness andathletic ability. One study has shown that foals born to mares early in her breedingcareer have less structural problems than foals born later in that mare's life, whichmay indicate that over consecutive pregnancies, mares can run out of reserves ofminerals that directly impact the sound development of her foals.

FeedXL allows you to quickly and easily determine your mare's requirements for thesecritical minerals as well as vitamins and helps you make sure the diet you arefeeding is meeting her requirements through all stages of pregnancy.

Tip #4 - Feed high quality protein
During pregnancy a mare requires high quality protein to meet her own requirementsand those of her growing foetus. If the pasture your mare is on is of low quality(for example sub‐tropical C4 Type pastures, or pasture that has matured, gone to seedor browned off), add some high quality alfalfa/lucerne hay to raise the quality ofprotein in the forage component of her diet.

If you are using supplementary feeds on low quality pasture, select feeds that uselegumes and oilseeds with quality protein, including soybean, lupins, faba/fieldbeans and canola meal. Low quality protein sources like cottonseed meal shouldn't beused for pregnant mares. FeedXL will help you make sure you are feeding enough goodquality protein to your mares to produce healthy foals and will also stop you fromoverfeeding protein which will make your mare's diet very expensive.

Tip #5 - Make the most of pasture if you have it
Pasture is an excellent source of energy and protein. Feeding a diet that relieslargely on pasture has two main positive effects. The first is it will make for aneconomical diet, with pasture being one of your cheapest feeds available. Secondly, ahigh fibre diet will keep your mare's gastrointestinal tract healthy, reducing therisk of problems like colic (something to be avoided in a pregnant mare).

To really know what is in your pasture and what your mare needs in addition for herdiet to be balanced, you should have your pasture tested for energy, protein andminerals levels. Once you have had your pasture tested we can enter the results intoyour FeedXL account so you can see what is in and what is missing from your specificpasture. Then you only need to add what is missing from the mare's diet. Equi‐Analytical can run a full analysis starting at $26 USD. It is well worth theinvestment. If you rely on hay for your mare's main source of forage this too can betested and the results put into FeedXL.

Summary
Because it is so often said that a pregnant mare needs little more than a horse atmaintenance, it is sometimes mistakenly thought that mares and particularly earlypregnant mares can be fed diets of forage only with little or no supplementation.However while a pasture or good quality hay diet may be sufficient to maintain yourmare's bodyweight, it will almost certainly be lacking in critical nutrient includingminerals that can determine if your foal is born structurally sound or not.

Keeping mares in the correct body condition, making sure you meet mineral andvitamins requirements from day 1 of the pregnancy, feeding high quality protein andusing pasture when you can will help you to breed sound foals that are healthy andfull of life when born. It will also mean your mares can remain healthy and able toproduce strong foals with good structural soundness year in, year out. Being pregnantmay not appear to be hard work, but it will take a toll on your mare's body if she isnot properly cared for.

Dr. Nerida Richards (PhD) is Australia's foremost expert in Horse Nutrition. Thisarticle is courtesy of FeedXL DIYDiet Planner for Horses. If you would like be among the first to receiveFeedXL newsletters then please consider subscribing to FeedXL.

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