Winter Horse Care Reminders

 

This time of year brings not only chilly temperatures and frosty mornings, but also a decline in forage growth due to the shorter days and colder temperatures.  It’s tougher to match the increase in calories needed to maintain weight, stay warm, and certainly for a youngster to grow or a mare to nurse a foal.  Minimum essentials for horses and other animals living outdoors are adequate nutrition, whether forage, concentrated feed, or both, along with clean water and some type of shelter. Being able to provide water instead of a block of ice is also critical.  Feed and farm supply stores sell tank de-icers and heated buckets or tubs that come in handy.  Making an investment might save you the cost of a vet bill later, or even worse, the loss of an animal as a result of cold weather dehydration.

 

Providing good quality, nutritious hay is another critical aspect to winter management of horses.  This is the time of year where hay supplies can get thin, so planning ahead and purchasing enough hay to get through the winter is critical.  When temperatures get below freezing, winter pasture growth reduces tremendously, and hay is our only forage option.  Horses, along with all livestock, need hay to stay warm.  Hay and other forages are digested in the cecum and large intestine of the horse, and this digestion process is the primary source of regulating body temperature. Many horses can maintain their weight through the winter with just an increase in hay consumption.  Those that are harder to keep weight on or older will often need a gradual increase of grain as well. Horses should consume at least 1.5% of their body weight in hay during cold periods.  For example, a mature 1000 pound horse should consume 15-18 pounds per day of hay to meet these temperature needs in cold weather.  It’s also important to pay close attention to body condition during these periods, and actually “feel” your horse.  A long hair coat or winter blanket can often cover up thin spots on a horse, so be sure to examine your horse closely and get a feel for where your horse’s ribs, backbone, etc. are and how much fat or “cover” there is over and around them.  If a horse given plenty of hay is having trouble maintaining weight, increasing fat to the concentrate diet may also be helpful.  Many “high fat” feeds are on the market just for this purpose. 

 

 

These are just a few tips to help you and your horses get through the brisk winter days that are starting and will be here for a while. For more information or advice, don’t hesitate to contact your local county extension agent or your veterinarian.

Management Tools for the Spring Transition

Management Tools for the Equine Owner

1.     Don’t graze too soon! It has been a long winter and hay supplies are dwindling but remember to wait for your pastures to reach a proper grazing height before turning horses out for long periods of time. Feeding hay a little longer come spring time can be a pain and time consuming but it will be worth it in the end. Your grasses are also trying to recover from winter and need all the help they can get to become bountiful again. Horses are hard on pastures because they have a full mouth of teeth unlike ruminants so they tend to rip grasses out of the ground at a higher rate. So, if you reseeded in the fall to have a more productive pasture for this year don’t shoot yourself in the foot by allowing your horses to pull newly established grasses out of the ground because they don’t have an adequate root base yet. Also, March and April are a great time to fertilize pastures, just be conscientious of temperature and weather. Consult with your local Extension Agent for further guidance.

2.     To further enhance your pastures production for your animals, adopting rotational grazing practices are extremely beneficial. Rotational grazing helps grasses rest and regrow for higher yields, helps deposit manure more evenly across the area reducing parasite loads, and helps make horses graze more evenly across an area so there is less spot grazing.

3.     Finally, one of the best management tools is to drag your pastures after moving horses off of an area. This helps break up the manure piles which in turn spreads out nutrients and helps reduce parasite activity. Some cheap drags can be made from a few old tires and works great to break up manure piles and not damage your forages.