Young Horses

The challenges of young horses

As a young horse, you are confronted with special challenges every day. Depending on the housing conditions, they have to find their position in the herd, learn to be an "adult" and learn social behaviour. This is roughly comparable to kindergarten or elementary school. If necessary, the young horses also have to cope with a change of stable, for example to a training stable. You have to get to know the person as a trainer and put aside their more or less pronounced escape behaviour. As a riding horse, they are also constantly learning new lessons. This often means stress for the young horses. The body reacts by releasing stress hormones, which in turn - assuming a healthy metabolism - have to be broken down.

In addition, they are growing. That means the body of these horses is still in the middle of development. Some of the bones are not yet fully developed and, depending on the use of the horse, appropriate muscles develop.

Due to all these special challenges, young horses have an increased energy requirement during training.

Basic feed for young horses
The same applies to young horses: Correct and species-appropriate feeding is the basis for a healthy animal. It does not make sense to try to cover the increased energy requirement by large amounts of concentrated feed.

As a permanent eater, the horse primarily needs sufficient hay and crude fibre, hardly any or better still no eating breaks and good basic mineralisation, for example with Stiefel Organic Minerals. Essential trace elements and vitamins that the horse cannot produce itself must be supplied with the feed. Protein is of particular importance in growth.

The importance of protein
Almost every single cell in the body consists, to a large extent, of protein. This includes not only muscle cells but also, for example, skin cells or cells of the immune system. Proteins, in turn, are made up of 20 different amino acids. 10 of these amino acids are essential, which means that the organism cannot produce them itself and has to take them in with through feed. That is why we developed Steifel Elomin with essential amino acids to optimally support the young horse.

Proteins are constantly built up from these amino acids in a functioning metabolic system and then broken down again. Therefore, the body must constantly be supplied with protein from the outside so that the need for amino acids is met. If one of these 20 amino acids is used up, the body cannot build up any more individual cells. It is necessary that there are always enough of all amino acids available.

As I said, it makes no sense to pour excessive amounts of amino acids or proteins into the young horses via concentrated feed. Excess amino acids have to be broken down and excreted by the body. Therefore, a targeted supplementary feeding of high-quality and essential amino acids, for example with Stiefel Elomin, makes sense.

Muscle building
It is well known that muscle cells grow through proteins. On the one hand, this is true, as already explained above, but you also have to be aware that only a relaxed muscle can grow. This is particularly important in the training of young horses, which - as flight animals - are always exposed to stress when they have to get to know the world as a riding horse and are therefore prone to muscle tension. This increases the need for the trace element magnesium in order to relax the muscles. In combination with vitamin B12 and the essential amino acid tryptophan, stress reduction can be effectively supported (product tip: Stiefel MAG Power Liquid).