The Prairie Star: Montana Ag Newspaper

LEWISTOWN, Mont. - Stacey Vestal has been an active equine enthusiast for as long as she can remember, always having a horse to ride, show and breed.

“I rode before I walked,” recalled Stacey Vestal, who in partnership with her sister, Elena, raises performance American Quarter Horses at her home near Lewistown, Mont., and her parents' ranch near Denton, Mont.

“My mother had horses and my grandfather worked them and used them on the ranch. I started working with horses through 4-H and took them to college with me, where I trained two horses in a horse management course I took at Montana State University.”

When a family friend passed away and left some horses to the Vestal sisters, their horse breeding business was born. Stacey and Elena began breeding the mares to Oakie Saylor, a stud belonging to another family friend.

Currently, the two Vestal sisters have eight brood foundation performance-bred mares and the stud lease for Oakie Saylor. The horses are bred to perform both in the show ring and in the arena, which represent the sisters' riding interests.

“I showed horses, and Elena did the barrels and team penning,” said Stacey.

While performance is the foundation of the Vestal sisters' horse venture, the two also take soundness and disposition seriously. “We are sticklers on soundness and disposition,” said Stacey. “We want horses that are easy to handle and train.”

Stacey enlists in some help training her horses, but she rides and halter breaks the horses at her home. “I put up an arena, do some ground work with them and ride them,” she said. “I also imprint them when they are born and work with their feet - that's why we like quiet, good dispositions.”

Furthermore, the Vestals take seriously to where their horses are sold. “We are more worried about where the horses are going rather than what we'll get,” said Stacey. “We've been raising colts for six years, now.”

With six years of experience in raising performance-bred Quarter horses, Stacey has learned year-round trace mineral supplementation is essential to a horse's performance.

“My horses still run to 12-12 horse mineral,” she said. “You can feed either a block or granules, but I feed the block.”

Providing horses with iodized salt, good pasture, clean water and protein and trace mineral sources appropriate to the horses' age and condition is the best way to aid in horses' health through the winter months, according to Sandy Gagnon of Montana State University.

“Senior horses' protein needs will be higher than younger horses,” said Gagnon. “They should have about 10 percent protein with a diet of 8 to 9 percent forage. You could supplement their diet by feeding a couple of pounds of grain a day.”

Two-year-old horses also require more protein than the average horse as a result of their growing bodies. “Two-year-olds need diets with 12 percent protein, and most winter diets are short on protein,” said Gagnon.

Trace minerals are also important to maintaining good horse health through the winter and spring months, according to research nutritionist Connie Larson of Zinpro in Eden Prairie, Minn.

“There isn't necessarily a change in what the horses need, but keep in mind copper, zinc, manganese, selenium and iodine,” said Larson. “Whether they're grazing dormant grass or hay, the trace minerals available are more limited than when they are grazing green grass.”

Zinc is important in maintaining good horse hair, skin and hooves, while copper is responsible for healthy tissues and production of red blood cells, which carry oxygen, she explained. Copper is also important for fetus development in pregnant mares, by producing the brown tissue that burns fat and warms the foal after birth. Manganese is key to maintaining good bone and joint health and is an antioxidant for immunity and breeding, while selenium is also essential for immunity, and iodine is necessary to maintain the horse's metabolism through the thyroid, said Larson.

“Cobalt is another trace mineral essential to horse health, but it doesn't get as much attention,” she added. “It helps with fiber utilization and improves the energy value of forage.”