Best way to prevent ankle injuries

[BridledObsession]

I've noticed that more than a few people here have posted that they've just had a large colt or filly born this year. We've been blessed with a healthy, tall filly ourselves. Obviously, we want to come up with the best plan possible to prevent an injury like Eight Belles suffered.

So, my question is: what would you do? Which supplements? Which type of workouts? How soon/late would you start?

To date, our plan has been to start her late and progress carefully. We've already started one supplement -- but I'm wondering if we should add calcium to her diet and if so when?

[joe horn]

Don't send three yr. olds a mile and a quarter!

[zinn21]

I don't think there is any formula other than good caretacking, nutrition, room to run, proper farrier and innoculation schedule.

I do subscribe to the theory that you start your babies on a training regiman before they end their major growth stage in the 18 to 23 month time frame.

Below is a link to a thread that may be of interest:

http://www.pedigreequery.com/forum/view ... =nunamaker

[madelyn]

In my opinion, the best thing you can do to end up with a healthy horse is make sure the mare and foal get good nutrition, plenty of fresh clean water and lots of sunshine and exercise.

[lazyfranch]

that's the route we are taking with our large yearling. She is just out at the stud farm doing nothing but eating good hay, fresh pasture grass, feed and running in the sun. She should be a handful when we bring her home

[BridledObsession]

Well, then, we're in good shape so far. She's in at night, out all day playing, handled multiple times daily and we're paying extra attention to nutrition in the hopes of building strong bones.

I just want to do as much research as possible, so that when it comes time to train, she's as ready as she can be. So far, I like the training approaches of people like Preston Burch and Carl Nafzger.

We're just finishing up a one mile exercise track at the farm. The plan is to do most of the training/prep work there for all of our horses. Any thoughts as to positive/negative affects on bone development running on grass or dirt at home vs the deeper sand/dirt at the track?

[teb]

When feeding make sure your complimenting the nutrition in your grass, have it analyzed if you don't know. During the summer you should only need a ration balancer for your mare and foal. Try not to be over supplementing as you get things out of balance. Really if you know what's in your grass and you have a good balancer, you should not supplement at all. Too little or too much of vits and mins does you no favors.

The biggest help of all is being out, let the legs build the bone they need by being out. They don't get it standing in.

Terri