Feeding a yearling

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Linda B. Merims lbmerims@curl.com
Susan Garlinghouse said:

>Nutritional Management of Developmental Orthopedic Disease
>
>DOD is also known as epiphysitis, osteochondrosis, angular limb
>deformity-different manifestations of metabolic bone disease which disrupts
>normal bone formation in young growing horses.  Most common in large,
>fast-growing, light horse breeds, but can occur in any breed.

Am I correct that "angular limb deformity" includes the variety of phenomena
variously described as "contracted tendons" and "club foot" (the mature manifestation
of an uncorrected contracture)?

The material in your course notes corresponds with my conclusions on the
cause of the heartbreakingly frequent occurrence of club foot in Morgans.
After years of struggling with the question "What causes club foot?" with
so many seemingly contradictory and inconsistent instances, I had concluded
that it was:

- a genetic predisposition common in the breed, but more common in some lines

that was disastrously combining with:

- the tendancy of people to feed grain early and in quantity to attain what
  they thought was the maximum finished horse size

plus the real kicker that makes it *much* more frequent in Morgans:

- the breed's natural *thriftiness*--the fact that most Morgans "get fat
  on air." 


Given this last truth, I wonder about these recommendations:

>3) Grain mix:
> Nursing foals (age 0-4 months) - 0.5 - 0.75 lbs/100 lbs of present BW
> Weanlings - (age 4-12 months) - 1.7 - 2.0 lbs/100 lbs of BW
> Yearlings (12-18 months) - 1.3 - 1.7 lbs/100 lbs of BW
> Long yearlings (18-24 months) - 1.0 - 1.25 lbs of BW
> two-year-olds (24-36 months) 1.0-1.25 lbs/100 lbs of BW
>
>*NEVER feed more than 0.9 lbs of grain per 100 lbs of expected mature BW
>(this takes precedence over above recommendations)*.

Which breed(s) were used to generate this list of recommendations?  I know
that most grain companies recommend quantities for the mature horse that,
if I fed it to my Morgans, would result in a Morgan so large it would
collapse into a black hole.  And the recommended quantities aren't, say,
50% more than I use, they are more like 500% of what I need to use!
(They seem to be based on trials with thoroughbred youngsters.)

The most critical time for contracted tendons/club foot is the first year.
If you get past that, it seems you are pretty much home free for deep
flexor contracture. 

I would worry that even these conservative recommendations would be too
much to feed the 0-1 year Morgan, particularly the recommendations for
months 4 through 12.  1.7 to 2 lbs per 100 pounds of body weight is way, way
more than I feed even a mature 900 lb horse.

Thoughts?

Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
lbmerims@curl.com
Massachusetts, USA