Winter Care for Horses

1) The Pastured Horse : Stalling is not necessary for all horses, but protection from the winter elements is necessary. Horses acclimate to winter conditions extremely well, but need to be able to escape the bitter winds and moisture. A small, three sided run-in shed or timberline to provide escape from strong winds and snow or ice is often all that is necessary for pastured horses. Horses provided shelter will require less feed, can more easily maintain body weight and are less stressed. These effects make the cost of sheds and windbreaks more attractive by reducing feed bills and reducing stress related sickness.
If a three sided shed is used, the open side of the shed should be opposite the prevailing wind. Each mature horse should have at least 80 square feet. The back wall should be 9' high, and the opening needs to be 11-12' tall. A 4-6' overhang will help prevent rain and snow from blowing into the shed. Sheds should be located so they have adequate drainage. Make sure that the entrance is big enough so that any bullies in the herd do not get an opportunity to corner the other horses. If your horse will have access to a run-in shed, it should be cleaned out prior to winter really setting in. Remove old bedding and manure, and re-bed the shed with 4" to 8" inches of fresh bedding.
Check the drainage to be sure that water will not run into the shed. Make sure there are no loose boards or nails in the shed. Horses are active and prone to injuries.
Observe the horses for any indication of ill health or abnormalities, while they are turned out on a regular basis. A shiny, glossy hair coat is one of the best indicators of a healthy horse. Hair coat is reflective of good nutrition and health. When in a pasture, lot, or paddock horses normally try to stay in a group -- a horse off to itself may be hurt or ill. Horses normally have firm manure balls that are not loose and watery and do not contain undigested grains, etc. Urine is normally wheat-straw colored and not cloudy or dark red.
Care should be taken when leaving younger, less experienced horses on winter pasture. Running an older horse as a "baby sitter" can help teach the youngsters how to find shelter, food and water. Additionally, the "baby sitter" often has a calming effect on the young herd and reduces the chances of them running through fences and such.
Check your fence line periodically during the winter to ensure that downed trees or other hazards have not opened sections of your fencing. Also in the case of electric fencing, the level of the snow can short out a fence line. Hungry animals are more apt to challenge a fence than well fed ones. The solution is to arrange for more feed, not build a fortress fence.
2) The Stalled Horse : Horse owners will have much less labor, and at times healthier horses, if they are turned out during the winter months. Many horses wintered in closed barns develop respiratory problems. Damp stalls, ammonia build up, and poor ventilation all contribute to respiratory problems. When the barn is closed up, because of rain or cold weather, ammonia, dust, and stale air are trapped in the barn. Good ventilation is crucial. Research indicates that most of the ammonia and dust are below the level of 2 to 3 feet. This makes air quality a big problem for young horses. Therefore, it is important to have good ventilation and air flow through the barn to maintain good air quality and minimize respiratory problems. Horses tolerate a wide range of temperatures. In an unheated building with low air movement, the only horses likely to experience cold stress are new born foals or young stock whose metabolic rates are low because of disease or malnutrition.
It is critical to ensure thorough movement of air in a stable. The air should be allowed entrance at a low level, then be drawn out the top of the barn. Drafts at the level of a horses body trunk should be avoided, as these can result in chills.
Several management practices can assist in improving the air quality in a barn.
First, the barn should be designed where the prevailing wind can move through the barn. Even though it may be cold outside, it is better to open the barn doors and have good air flow than to reduce air quality and increase the probability of respiratory problems.
Second, the barn should be designed to have good air flow through vents on the sides and in the roof to maintain air flow when barn doors are closed.
Third, cleaning stalls daily and removing manure and wet bedding greatly improves the quality of the air.
A fourth suggestion is to design the bottom of the stall to allow good air flow at ground level. Slatted boards at the bottom of the stall up to 4 to 5 feet are regemended to allow air flow at ground level. Wire panels or metal bars are normally regemended for the upper half of the stall.
Preparing your barn for winter depends on where you live. In the South, with its mild winters, there will not be much need for expensive heating systems and heated water tanks. In the North, however, where areas may be snowed in for a length of time, it is essential to ensure that your barn is self sufficient and capable of riding out winter's worst.
Make sure that you have enough feed, bedding and hay and that they are stored in a dry place with feed in rodent proof containers.
Check your water supply. Insulate above ground piping with wrap around insulation, available from most hardware stores. For interior buckets that freeze overnight; various insulating devices are available, which your water buckets fit down inside. Heating elements that hook over the side of the bucket are also available. Resist the temptation to close every window and door in the barn. It's better to put an extra blanket on, if necessary, than to keep horses in a gepletely closed barn. Have your electrical wiring checked over. You will use the interior lighting more often in winter, it's best to avert a fire hazard.
Health Care: Maintain a good dental program and parasite control program. Teeth should be checked for wear and floated if needed. Sharp edges can cut the tongue and prevent proper chewing, which results in wasted feed and poor feed utilization. Normal healthy horses chew evenly with both sides of their mouth and show predictable enthusiasm for eating.
Mucous Membrane ColorThe membranes of the horse's gums and lip should be a healthy pink color. Pale white, yellow, or deep purple colors are all cause for concern.
Legs should be kept clean. Mud and snow will accumulate on long hair (feathers) of the fetlock and cannon. Keep them clean and remove caked mud, snow, and manure. Soreness and ulceration can develop if cleanliness is not maintained.
Hoof care must be kept on schedule throughout the winter. Shoes should be pulled unless you plan to ride on rough surfaces. Care should be taken not to trim horses too closely to prevent bruised, sore feet from the frozen ground.
In winter weather, the horse should be cooled out slowly by rubbing down and walking. A horse may need to be walked for up to 45 minutes after an intense workout.
Impaction colic begees more prevalent during cold weather. This normally occurs because the horse does not consume an adequate amount of water during cold weather and does not have an adequate amount of water in his digestive tract for digestion. Water should be warmed so that the horse will consume adequate amounts.
Wet conditions can cause the outer covering of the foot to deteriorate, which causes cracking and splitting. Mud and sand can work their way into the cracks, causing the hoof to spread even further. Every effort should be made to keep the hoof wall intact. This can be done by keeping the hoof as dry as possible and applying hoof dressing regularly. Hoof dressing has waterproofing properties that keeps water from soaking into the foot.
Update any needed vacinations, make sure the horse has been immunized against tetanus. Horses often get undetected cuts in the winter that are an ideal environment for the tetanus microorganism.
Assessing The Horses Condition: For a horse to be an "easy keeper" during the winter he needs to be free of parasites, in good flesh, and properly immunized going into the winter. The cost of deworming, veterinarian checkups, and immunizations will more than pay for themselves in reduced feed costs through the stressful winter months. Work with your vet to set up a health program for each of your horses and stick with it.
We tend to think that if we are cold, our horses must be cold, too.Not necessarily so. Preconditioning horses before the onset of cold temperatures helps to reduce the effect of cold weather on the horse and will reduce his nutritional needs to maintain weight. A horse shouldn't lose weight in the winter. In fact, a little extra layer of fat to fend off the cold won't hurt. Fat cover acts as an insulator and provides energy reserves during stress. Altering your feeding program for the upgeing winter by providing some extra calories will allow horses to lay down an insulating layer of fat under the skin.
The horse's winter coat is a horse's first defense from the cold. When allowed to grow, a horse's natural hair coat acts as a very effective thermal blanket, it increases both in length and density as the days grow shorter. A horse's winter coat is also naturally greasy, which helps it repel snow, ice, and sleet. A heavy winter hair coat is a tremendous insulator and provides as much warmth as the best blankets. Horses that are to be maintained outside should be allowed to grow a long hair coat, plus the hair within the ears and around the fetlocks should not be clipped throughout the winter months. Horses have the ability to fluff out their coats in cold weather, thereby trapping a layer of air in the coat which provides them an insulating layer. Once the hair coat begees wet, the hair lies down and loses its insulating ability.
Stabled horses may need blanketing when they're turned out during the day, but the best blanket for an outside horse is his own full winter coat. If you do blanket your horse, make sure you take it off and brush him often. Also, realize that a blanket that is not warm enough is worse than no blanket at all. A blanket keeps the coat flat, again causing loss of insulating ability.
Horses add body fat from front to rear and top to bottom. Evaluate their necks, withers, covering over their rib cages and croups, and around their tailheads for deposition of fat. It is really important that you feel your horses in winter due to their heavier winter haircoat. Often, one cannot accurately evaluate a horse's body condition by only visual appraisal. It is important to body condition score your horse each month in winter. By the time you see that the horse is getting thinner, it's too late and it may be difficult for horses to increase body condition during extremely cold weather. During long periods of freezing temperatures, most horses will experience some loss of body condition, no matter how well they are fed.
A horse's ears are said to be a good indicator of whether or not he is cold - cold ears mean a cold horse. Also, watch to see if your horse is shivering, a warm blooded animal shivers to produce more body heat, if they are shivering, they are not warm enough.
As with all warm-blooded animals, horses must maintain their body temperature to survive. The temperature, wind chill factor, wetness, hair coat and the heat produced within the body determine the extent to which heat must be conserved. As environmental temperatures fall below the individual horses gefort zone, heat production is increased by the body by speeding up chemical reactions, which produce heat.
The gebination of a cold wind and rain or sleet is probably the worst case scenario for a horse. Under those conditions, without shelter, he can quickly begee chilled. Older horses, in particular (from their late teens on up), tend to have difficulty maintaining their internal temperatures in such circumstances. The effects of falling temperatures, wind and wet conditions will put a enormous requirement on the horse's body for heat production. How much body condition a horse loses depends on the severity and duration of the cold season and the amount of energy the horse receives from its feed.
When temperatures dip, the best heat source for your horse is extra hay. During the cold weather it is best to increase the amount of hay, not concentrated feeds. Hay is digested in the cecum and colon which results in heat production by bacterial fermentation. On the other hand, concentrated feed is primarily digested in the small intestine in a short amount of time and does not produce much heat. This means a greater amount of heat is produced through the utilization of hay than utilization of grain. This makes hay a more desirable way to meet a horses' elevated energy requirements. Supplementation with grain is only necessary if horses have difficulty in maintaining body condition. Therefore, horses maintained in extremely cold conditions for an extended period, with minimal shelter may need grain supplementation to meet their energy demands.
The first step to winterizing for your horse is knowing the nutrient value of your hay. Your local county Extension office can assist you in getting your hay tested. The test will take several weeks to get the results back, so plan ahead. While you are waiting on your hay sample, find out the nutritional requirements of your horse. There are nutritional tables that determine equine nutritional requirements, which can be found in reference books, or in some cases, your feed store may have a copy. The nutritional requirements are based on age, size, reproductive stage (mares), and amount of work.
When your hay sample results are returned, gepare the nutrient value of your hay to the nutrient requirements of your horse(s). Every horse should be fed as an individual. You will need to calculate your horses' weight to determine his feeding needs. Once you have your horse's weight, there's a simple rule of thumb you can use to determine how much feed your horse should be getting each day. The total weight of feed per day should be between 1.5% and 3.0% of your horse's body weight.
Extra calories are particularly important for older horses in winter, regemendations are that horses on the high side of 20 years be fed at least 120% of the National Research Council's regemendations for daily intake (from 1.5% to 3.0% of the horse's body weight).
Many adult horses can maintain body condition on a geplete diet of a good quality hay with access to free choice trace mineralized salt. Adult horses should consume between 1.5 and 2 percent of their body weight in hay or a 1,000 lb. horse will eat 15 to 20 lb. of hay per day. Supplementation with grain is only necessary if horses have difficulty in maintaining body condition. Therefore, horses maintained in extremely cold conditions for an extended period, with minimal shelter may need grain supplementation to meet their energy demands. In cases where a gebination of hay and grain will be required to meet the nutritional needs of the horse, savings may be realized without affecting the horse if you can utilize more of the cheaper hay and less of the more expensive grain. Make sure that vitamin and mineral requirements are met as well. Get in enough good hay to last through until next year's hay crop. To calculate how much you need, figure on half a square (50 LB) bale per horse per day then add some to cover for the occasional moldy bale or extra cold weather.
Providing more hay is fairly simple; just feed an extra flake or two per meal, and monitor how much your horse eats and how well he maintains his weight. Since a horse's tendency is to be wasteful and trample the hay into the ground, you'll need to allow at least 25% extra for wastage. With horses fed in groups make sure each get their fair share of hay, space the piles out of kicking distance and put out one ot two more piles than the number of horses. That way, when the boss of the herd keeps thinking another pile looks better than the one she's presently eating from, the other horses can move to new piles too. This is one instance when you might want to seek out hay with a slightly higher legume content than grass, even for your mature horses. Higher protein legume hays are also higher in energy and nutrients, and that bit of extra energy might be a boon when temperatures plunge.
Feed only clean hay , discard any that shows signs of moldiness (generally noticeable as white matted or fuzzy patches within a flake), smells musty, or raises clouds of particles when dropped to the floor from a height of a few feet.
All horses should have access to a trace mineralized salt block.
Without water, nothing in your horse's body will function. Horses will often reduce their water intake as temperatures fall. This reduced water intake, gebined with increased forage consumption can lead to a greater incidence of impaction and colic. Ideally, water should be warmed so that the horse will consume adequate amounts. Water should be available at all times. Water should be maintained between 45 and 65 degrees F and any ice crystals should be removed. If you are in a area that has regular freezing, check the water supply twice daily as horses will drink 10 to 12 gallons a day.
Some people believe horses can get by on snow. "Get by" they might, but horses require a lot of water to digest dry feed. Forcing a horse to produce moisture by eating snow is counterproductive. Six times as much snow must be eaten to provide an equal amount of water. Furthermore, calories are used to melt the snow that should be used for body warmth.
When it is very cold, the horse will reduce its water consumption and be at risk of colic. Horses should not be fed excessively cold water, as it may bring on colic symptoms. Try a heated waterer or consider taking warm buckets out when it's cold outside. If nothing else, make sure to break the ice on a horse's water supply in freezing temperatures. In very cold weather, water heaters may be needed to prevent the water from freezing. If you are using a submergible electric water heater to keep the water supply open and free of ice, check to see if it is giving off stray voltage and shocking the horses when trying to drink. Be careful that you do not get shocked. If you use automatic waters be sure the heating element is turned on and that there is no stray voltage.
Whenever possible, offer your horse warm water at a temperature of about 45-65 F. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that a horse's water intake in winter increases dramatically if he has access to warm water. Recent research has shown a 40 percent increase in water intake when horses are offered warm water on wintery days.
Create and maintain a proper winter management plan for your horses and they'll respond by geing out of winter fit and ready for the new year.
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