A mare's ration should change late in pregnancy, not at the positive scan. For most of gestation her needs sit close to maintenance, but in the final months the foal does most of its growing, and energy and protein demands climb with it. Raise the quality of what she eats gradually across those weeks: better forage first, then a balancer or breeding-stock feed as advised, in smaller, more frequent meals. Condition is the guide — a mare who foals over-fat faces as much risk as a thin one — and water, minerals and a settled routine stay constant throughout. Settle vaccinations and worming for this stage with the vet who knows her due date.
Raising quality without piling on condition
The late-pregnancy trap is feeding for two by volume. A mare's stomach does not grow with the foal — if anything it has less room — so large, infrequent feeds suit her worse as term approaches. Little and often works better: split the concentrate ration, keep forage in front of her, and watch her ribs and topline weekly rather than trusting the scoop. Sudden changes are the other hazard; any new feed should be blended in over a week or more, and changes close to foaling kept to a minimum, because a disturbed gut at term helps neither mare nor foal.
A Workable Routine
Work through these in the final months and give each change time to settle:
- Score her body condition weekly and adjust quality, not just quantity
- Blend any new feed in gradually over at least a week
- Split concentrate into smaller, more frequent meals
- Keep clean water and minerals available at all times
- Confirm vaccination and worming timing with your vet for this stage
A short dated note after each change — what was fed, how she ate, how her condition looks — makes the trend visible across the weeks when memory alone smooths it away.
Sharing the late-pregnancy routine
Late-pregnancy care is a rota problem as much as a feeding one: extra meals, condition checks and closer watching in the last weeks land on top of the ordinary yard day, and they are exactly the jobs that get missed when one person is away. Write the routine down as a sequence of named duties — who feeds, who checks condition, who watches for the first signs of foaling — and review it whenever her ration changes or her due date nears. Those duties sit naturally in KinsLe's Care Teams, where each of her tasks is assigned to a family member or helper and each finished job is stamped with its completion time.