in weight followed by compensatory development . From the point of view of their osteoarticular health , the worst possible situation . Tameness resulting from this kind of management is a value difficult to quantify , but which is very much appreciated by tamers and future users . Lastly , very often when deciding to choose this system of feed management , it is believed that a lot of staff is needed . I have seen establishments where 40 births a year occurred , attended by two people , and perfectly managed with daily individual rationing for over several years .
-What is your perspective of feed in the raising of animals until they are weaned in the different areas of the country , from the best locations of our Humid Pampas ; the West ; the Salado catchment area or our more tropical Northern area ? -Reality has given me a glimpse of very well bred animals raised on farms that are not considered good , as well as foals with very poor development on farms of excellent quality . The problem is not the productive quality of the land , but awareness of the needs of the horses , i . e ., giving them the space they need and all that is necessary for them to be well fed every day . There is no doubt that as the things we must provide ourselves increase , the more difficult it is to obtain good results . This happens not because it is difficult to find the items with the nutritional quality needed , but because the management of this “ socially ” complicated species is difficult . Exhaustion through stress of the great majority of those who make up the management group ( 15-20 foals ) is huge , and consumption irregularity — because they are competition animals — is irreparable as their feed dependency on their daily ration increases . Last year , when I visited an important Quarter Mile stud farm during the mid-Texan summer ( USA ), I noticed that annually they needed to resolve continuity of their production of some 200 foals from the moment they were weaned till adulthood , spending the dry season without altering the excellent development of each batch . In order to give them the space they needed , the batches of approximately 30 foals were distributed into 20-25 hectare pastures that were stripped of greenery because they were awaiting plantation of pastures for the following winter . In order to give them fiber , placed close to the water troughs were several grass troughs raised on a 4-leg stand , the classic type that are like two sets of railings placed in a “ V ”, each of which held a huge bale of very good-quality grass . The amount of grass troughs and the distribution , made it possible for all to have access to it without any competition problem . In order to complement what could be lacking in protein , minerals and vitamins a truck would arrive every day driving a small feed hopper , and the curious thing about this was that it would drive in wide circles around the grass troughs , dropping 1-2 Kg fractions of its load on the ground , separated by several meters . The operator would let fall as many doses as foals there were . It was incredible to see how each of the foals would find its dosage of balanced feed as it followed as in a procession behind the truck . It was an amazing spectacle ! Those batches of foals of perfect body fitness walking on compact clay ground as though it were a back yard . This protocol , which they repeat year after year , is proof that if we give them space , fiber and the adequate supplements we could raise horses on almost any kind of land .
-Is it possible to reach a good development with foals born late ( January-February-March )? -Before I go any further , I wish to make clear that feeding horses correctly does not increase their size . Adequate feed ( feeding them what is right ) allows us to get each individual to reach what is genetically programmed for it . Feed can do no more than that . Some years ago it was common to see polo herds raising their foals on fields that were far from being the best on the farm , and when some of the playing ponies that had been born and then raised after they were weaned in these conditions , went on to become donors , their offspring — after having received good feed management — reached a larger size than their dams . That donor that had been underfed had not expressed its “ genetic ” size , whereas its offspring had . Returning to your question , yes , it is possible to reach good development with foals born late . It can
251