Winter Mud Creates Health Hazards

 

Winter brings lots of rain and snow to North Carolina. While the snow can be beautiful, what it leaves behind is less so. The increased winter precipitation creates many issues with mud on our farms. When managing horses in muddy conditions, there are several considerations to keep in mind.

Excess moisture from the over-saturated ground creates the perfect environment for hoof conditions like thrush. Thrush is an infection in the frog of the hoof and is characterized by a foul odor and a black discharge coming from around the frog. If left untreated, the infection can eat away at the frog, exposing more sensitive tissue below. Prevention is the best approach for thrush. Cleaning out hooves regularly and providing areas with dry footing are ways to avoid this issue. If you do notice signs of thrush, move the horse to a dry and clean location. There are treatments available that will kill off the bacteria and fungi that cause the infection. It can take several days of treatment for the infection to die off and even longer for the frog to recover.

When constantly exposed to moisture, wet hooves usually become softer hooves. When horses’ feet get softer, they don’t hold on to shoes as well. Combined with the suction power of mud, lost shoes are a common issue in these conditions. Additionally, wet feet are more prone to issues with abscesses and bruises. All of these can result in lame horses. 

Winter moisture doesn’t just impact hooves. The mud can cause a problem with the skin, called “scratches” or “mud fever”. This bacterial and/or fungal infection is caused by excess moisture especially on the pasterns, fetlock, and even up the canon bone. Any horse can get it, but horses with white feet or heavy feathering are more prone to getting scratches. Keeping the horse clean and dry helps avoid this issue. Early detection is important for treatment. Check your horse's legs regularly when in wet and muddy conditions. Horses with heavy feathering may benefit from having their legs clipped to avoid trapping the moisture around the skin. If your horse does develop these scabs, then make sure to avoid picking off the scabs. Gently bathe the area with an anti-bacterial or anti-fungal shampoo. Topical treatments prescribed by your veterinarian can be applied to dry, clean skin. In extreme cases, a vet may prescribe antibiotics or steroids to help eliminate the infection.

Beyond the increase in conditions like thrush and scratches, mud can create hazardous footing. Horses can easily slip in the mud, causing injury. When frozen, mud can be just as dangerous, as the uneven ground can cause bruising to the hoof sole and be a tripping hazard. 

As with any time of year, always monitor your horse to catch any injuries or diseases before they become a more serious issue. Prevention is always the preferred approach. Keeping horses as clean and dry as possible will help prevent many mud-related issues this winter.

A New Year’s Resolution: Improved Pasture Management

 

     If you are like everyone else, you are setting goals and priorities for the new year. Focusing some of your yearly priorities on improved pasture management could potentially have a positive impact on your horse(s), the productivity of your pastures and your pocketbook.

     Improving pastures has many benefits, including improving overall forage quality, preventing water runoff issues, ensuring higher quality footing for horses, providing much of the equine nutritional requirements in a more natural form and potentially reducing supplemental feed costs long term.

     In the current climate, stored feeds, both grain and hay, are becoming significantly more expensive. Lime, fertilizer and herbicide prices are also on the rise; however, by planning ahead with a year long, but seasonal approach, on how to improve pastures makes it a bit more  achievable.

Winter

     The primary goal of winter pasture management is to minimize hoof traffic damage on winter pastures. This usually means removing horses from pastures or limiting access to pastures during the winter months, especially during extremely wet weather. This often requires the use of a dry lot or sacrifice area to put horses with supplemental forage, in the form of hay, to prevent horses from tearing up valuable pasture land when the weather is less than ideal.

     Frost seeding pre-inoculated clover seed can improve pasture quality and production. Broadcast a couple pounds per acre of beneficial clover seeds roughly four to eight weeks before the last hard frost into pastures that have been heavily grazed or mowed short. As the ground freezes and thaws, it will expand and contract, working the seed into the soil.  The seeds will then hopefully germinate in early spring.

Spring

     Pastures dominated by cool-season grasses will be highly productive during the spring time. Many farms produce more forage in the spring than their horses can keep up with. In these cases, mow or cut and bale excess forage for hay production.

     Seeding cool season grasses in the spring is a bit volatile and not the most ideal time to do so. However, spring and early summer are the best times to seed warm season grasses, such as bermudagrass and/or crabgrass. Planting success is based on proper preparation, including weed control and addressing fertility issues. Late spring/early summer is also an ideal time to scout pastures for undesirable weed species. Contact your local Cooperative Extension office for help with this.

Summer

     Summer is about managing warm season grasses and not overgrazing cool season grass pastures.  This is the time of highest production for warm season grasses. Horse farms in the south will be grazing warm season pastures heavily and making hay of any excess forage. Bermudagrass pastures are very responsive to nitrogen applications, especially if you want to maximize yields. This is also an ideal time to get a handle on warm season weeds, which again might require a field visit from your Ag Agent to identify the predominant weed species and a suitable herbicide protocol to eradicate them. They can also help you determine timing and suitable application rates of nitrogen and any other necessary fertilizers.

Fall

     Fall is the ideal timeframe to establish and maintain cool season grasses. Overseeding annuals and perennials into thin cool season stands will ultimately increase pasture productivity. Grasses are best established with a no-till drill. Seeding rates will vary with species and mixture. Fall is also an ideal time to fertilize your cool season pastures and treat for any late fall/winter weeds. Your local Ag Agent can assist you with seed varieties, seed mixes and suitable seeding rates for your area.

     In addition, fall is an ideal time to stockpile cool season grasses. Stockpiling refers to fencing animals out of specific cool season paddocks in late summer or early fall and allowing the forage to accumulate for grazing in the early to late winter months; therefore, potentially reducing the need to feed supplemental hay. Harvesting, baling, transporting and storing hay is an expensive process. By stockpiling forages one can then allow the horse to do the harvesting for you without the added expenses.

The Great Blanket Debate!

This time of year can prove difficult to decide whether or not to put a blanket on your horse and how heavy that blanket should be. Below are some tips from Penn State Extension and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville to help you make this decision! 

Should you blanket your horse?

The long winter hair coat serves as insulation by reducing the loss of body heat and provides the first line of defense against the cold. Its insulating value is lost when the horse becomes wet and/or is covered with mud. So provide a dry sheltered area in cold wet weather. How do you know if you should blanket your horse?

Blanketing a horse is necessary to reduce the effects of cold and inclement weather when

• There is no shelter available during turnout periods and the temperatures drop below 5 degrees F, or the wind chill is below 5 degrees F.
• There is a chance the horse will become wet (not usually a problem with snow, but much more of a problem with rain, ice, and/or freezing rain).
• The horse has had its winter coat clipped for showing.
• The horse is very young or very old.
• The horse has not been acclimated to the cold (i.e. recently relocated from a southern climate).
• The horse has a body condition score of 3 or less, or in poor health.

Blanket Fit

It is important that the blanket fit the horse make sure you have the correct size to fit the horse.

• Horses can develop rub marks or sores where the straps securing the blanket fit improperly. If the horse is continuously blanketed the blanket should be removed regularly to inspected for damage and reposition due to twisting.
• Make sure blankets are kept dry and do not put a blanket on a wet horse; wait until the horse is dry before blanketing. Or take a wet blanket off a horse to keep it from becoming chilled.
• Days that the temperature becomes warm remove the blanket so the horse does not sweat and become wet under the blanket. Air out the blanket and dry out the horse's hair coat.

The equine hair coat acts as insulation by trapping air, however, if the hair is wet or full of mud, air is excluded, reducing its insulating value and increasing heat loss. As little as 0.1 inch of rain can cause cold stress by making the hair and reducing its insulating value. It is important to keep the horse dry and sheltered from rain. Woolly horses with a thicker hair coat can retain more heat so sometimes it is better not to blanket.

Blanketing Horses in Cold Weather: Is it Necessary? 

Horses are very adaptable to cold weather and can tolerate temperatures as low as 5°F as long as they have a winter hair coat, shelter, and proper nutrition. In fact, blanketing horses that have long winter coats can cause more harm than good. Their winter coat acts as insulation by trapping air. Blankets compress the long hair and reduce the horse’s ability to stay warm.   

When is Cold Weather Blanketing Necessary? 

• Horses that are body clipped
• Wet weather (rain is worse than snow because it saturates the coat)
• Horses that do not have a thick winter coat
• Horses that are not acclimated to cold weather climates
• Extreme drops in temperature when horses aren’t acclimated
• Old horses (may have reduced ability to maintain body temperature compared to healthy adult horses)
• Young horses (horses under 2 years old are still growing which requires more energy; their smaller body surface area will lose heat faster than large horses) 

Tips for Blanketing

• Check horses often to make sure they are not sweating and are dry under the blanket
• Only waterproof and breathable blankets should be used for turnout
• Use appropriate blanket weight for climate (blankets are available in light, medium, and heavy weights)
• For horses that are clipped, the blanket weight will depend on whether they have a full body clip, hunter clip, blanket clip, or trace clip
• Make sure the blanket is the correct size (measure from center of chest to point of rump)
• Check to make sure the blanket isn’t causing rubs
• Never put a blanket on a dirty horse 

The best way to keep horses warm is to feed plenty of good-quality hay and provide shelter from the elements. Good quality hay provides nutrients and calories, while generating body heat through fiber digestion. Horses should be fed around 2% of their body weight in hay per day in the winter (about 20lb for a 1,000 lb horse). Consider that the average cost of a medium weight turnout blanket is $200. Two hundred dollars would buy about 30 square bales of good quality hay! Thirty bales of good quality hay will last about 2 months for one horse in the winter. Unless blanketing is necessary, it’s typically in the best interest of the horse to spend the money on good nutrition rather than a blanket

Winter Horse Care Routines

Written By:

Dale Miller
Marion County Extension Program Director
Iowa State University Extension & Outreach

Horses, unlike ATVs, can't be put away for the winter just because they're not being used. Horse health and care is a year-round process. Good nutrition, vaccination schedules, parasite control and other care should be continued throughout the winter.

Dale Miller, Marion County program director and equine educator with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, offers some reminders about winter horse needs for good ventilation, feed and water management, and exercise. Miller adapted the recommendations from a publication by Dr. R. D. Scoggins, a retired equine extension veterinarian with the University of Illinois.

Ventilation

Fresh air and/or good ventilation are major requirements for horses kept inside. Judging from their own perception of what's comfortable, humans tend to close barns up too tightly. Horses can tolerate considerable cold if they can move around and are dry. Avoid drafts, but allow sufficient air exchange to move stale air, humidity and ammonia out of the environment.

Keeping stalls clean is necessary to keep ammonia levels low. Studies at the University of Illinois have shown that ammonia concentrates at about 18 inches above the surface of the bedding (where the horse's head is located when it lies down). High levels can cause a decrease in athletic ability and overall quality of life. This emphasizes the need to keep stalls cleaned regularly.

Feed and water management

Horses need free-choice, good quality hay, loose salt and minerals, and water heated to 45-65 degrees Fahrenheit. Several studies have shown that warming water to 60 F will increase water consumption by 40 to 100 percent. Dehydration (lack of water) is the number one cause of impaction colic in horses. Cold weather combined with a diet of dry feed also can cause impaction colic. Warming the water is much more effective than feeding bran, linseed meal or other so-called laxative diets.

Most horses will not require grain if the hay is of good quality. Hay generates more heat than grain does during digestion and thus is more helpful in maintaining body heat during cold weather. However, the extra energy provided by grain may be needed to maintain normal weight when the horse is exposed to severe low temperatures or deep snow.

Exercise

Attempting to maintain some level of physical fitness will decrease the time needed to get the horse in shape for the coming season. Exercising three times a week for an hour at a walk and trot will help maintain physical fitness. Use this time to increase flexibility by doing suppling exercises at the walk and trot to reduce the incidence of lameness.

When working horses in cold weather, warm horses up slowly and thoroughly before asking for serious work. In cold weather most horses are more "cinchy" when being saddled, so be sure to move them before mounting.

Hot horses need to be cooled thoroughly then brushed to stand the hair up again before turning them back out. Fluffy hair traps air and keeps the horse warm; hair plastered down flat or wet lets body heat escape.

During all seasons, horses are generally better suited to being outside where they have an area for adequate exercise and access to a windbreak or run-in shed for shelter. Horses not in competition should have shoes pulled and hooves trimmed regularly, every six weeks. Let their hair coat grow out for natural protection during the winter.

By anticipating weather changes and adapting exercise schedules and feeding programs accordingly, there is no reason not to enjoy horses all year long.