We know that Sales Prep is a very busy time, where every second counts. That is why we have compiled all of our Sales Prep articles into one place. Written by our Expert Nutrition Team, our articles are a fantastic resource for anyone preparing youngstock for sales ring success.
Sales Prep: Yearlings
A successful sales prep will see your yearling arrive the sales complex bright-eyed, with a healthy coat, and in good body condition with a well-defined topline. While most yearlings sail through the necessary preparations, others fail to hold condition, struggle with the added pressures of exercise, or suffer with coughs and colds when stabled in close confinement with other horses. Nutrition is just one cog in the wheel of getting your yearling successfully to the sales.
Learn more about Yearling Sales Prep
Practical Guide to Sales Prep: Feeding
The aim of yearling sales preparation is to produce an athletic, well-mannered, sound individual in good body condition to shine in the sales ring. Nutrition plays an important role in preparing yearlings for the sales ring, helping to ensure they achieve their maximum potential. Planning is critical, from selecting the most suitable forage and hard feed to tailoring supplements to the individual needs.
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Practical Guide to Sales Prep: Forage
For most horses being prepared for the sale, a high-quality and palatable early cut digestible hay or haylage is recommended. This will maximise the utilisation of fibrous feeds to meet their energy requirements and decreases the amount of hard feed required. It can also help to avoid the pot-bellied appearance that is often associated with ‘gut-fill’ when feeding a mature, less digestible forage.
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Practical Guide to Sale Prep: Supplementing
In an ideal world, having a steady and consistent growth rate from foal to fully-grown is the best way to avoid problems. The inclusion of supplements in your horses diet is a great way to offer additional support to keep them looking and feeling their best and to achieve that sales ring success.
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Practical Guide to Sales Prep: Finishing Touches
You have put in all the work across the Sales Prep process, and now, it is the finishing touches that are left to do. With over 250 years of experience in the horse care industry, Carr & Day & Martin provide a wide variety of horse care products to ensure your horses are in the best condition possible during sales prep and are immaculately turned out when they arrive at the sales ground.
Learn more about Getting that Sales Ring Shine
Nutrition for Sales Prep: Best Feed for Youngstock's Skeletal Development
The quality and condition of your yearling’s bone health starts in-utero; at birth, foals have 17% of mature bone mineral content. By 6 months, a horse can have reached 84% of its mature height, gaining another 10% by the time you are showing at the yearling sales. Playing catch up with any aspect of your yearling’s development is undesirable; therefore, the nutritional management of the mare and foal play a key role in determining skeletal health later in life.
Learn more about Skeletal Development, Bone Development in Youngstock and Physitis/Epiphysitis in Foals
Nutrition for Sales Prep: Building Condition, Muscle and Topline
A well-developed topline and healthy muscle tone in young horses will not only have a positive impact in the sales ring, but also on a horse’s soundness and athletic ability. Research has shown that low intensity exercise during the first year of a thoroughbred yearling’s life induces muscle adaptations, which positively influences athletic performance in later life.
Learn more about Building Condition, Muscle and Topline
Nutrition for Sales Prep: Coat Condition
The condition of a horse’s coat, skin and hooves are a reflection of overall health. Dry, lacklustre, ‘starey’ coats or brittle, cracked hooves can be a result of nutritional issues such as deficiencies in amino acids or inadequate vitamin and mineral intakes.
Learn more about Nutrition for Coat Condition
Nutrition for Sales Prep: Feeding for Behaviour and Temperament
A well-developed and mannerly yearling will show themselves to their best with a flowing walk and workman like attitude. A purchaser will not be able to make a thorough assessment of an individual if it is unable to stand to be seen and likewise if it is only able to jog and not walk freely.
Learn more about Nutrition for Behaviour and Temperament
Exercising the Sales Yearling
Exercise during sales prep can be the distinguishing factor in a horse who is mentally and physically prepared for the sales and its future career. Balancing exercise and progress can be a tricky process to manage to ensure the youngster arrives at the sales in peak condition.
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