Wintertime Horse Care

 

Taking care of your horse doesn’t get any easier in cold weather, but it pays off in increased equine health, fewer vet bills and a happier horse. Winter weather horse care is more about good sense than anything else: once you know the conditions your horse needs to stay healthy, it’s simple to provide them. While it’s true that horses face down cold weather much easier than people do, there are still some adaptations to his lifestyle that can be made to minimize or prevent illness or loss of condition during the winter months. Start planning in the spring, calculating the amount of feed your horse needs, arranging for plenty of bedding material, planning wintertime riding or exercise and creating adequate shelter for bad storms. Some new horse owners make the mistake of thinking that riding their horses less or not at all during winter months means less constant care, but horses still need daily attention in cold weather.

 

Health Precautions

Start your horse on the right path to wintertime by making sure his health is where it should be before winter begins. Horses should start winter at a healthy weight, or even with a little extra padding, but never underweight, because even well fed horses may lose weight over winter and it’s much harder to put it back on in the spring once his overall condition has become run down. Make sure your horse has up-to-date tetanus injections to guard against winter injuries and infection, and start the winter with a horse that’s dewormed and free of parasites.

 

Teeth should be checked annually, because a horse that can’t chew easily will suffer weight loss. Weight loss results in a lessened ability to stay warm, making thin horses more susceptible to illness. Losing nutrients by malnutrition affects the present and future of all horses, severely decreasing fertility in mature animals and stunting the growth of young ones. Pregnant mares can’t afford to lose weight, so it’s vitally important to make sure they have access to quality feed.

 

Regular visits with the farrier are another important part of horse hygiene, and in the winter you’ll also be making decisions about whether your horses will be shod or not during the coldest months. If you don’t plan to be riding your horse, experts say it’s best to leave him unshod. Horses that are ridden may need special shoe pads, and for frequently icy conditions, your farrier may suggest studs, calks or borium welds for added traction.

 

Hooves still need to be trimmed every six to eight weeks, (hoof growth may slow slightly in winter). When riding or at the end of the day, you’ll want to carefully pick out any impacted snow or ice from the hooves. Snow and ice balls can cause the same terrible foot, leg and sole damage as stones, with the added possibility of frostbite from contact between the soft sole of the foot and frozen mud, sand or water. To help prevent frozen material from accumulating and sticking on the foot, some vets recommend that you grease the foot with petroleum jelly, butter or shortening or non-stick spray. (Make sure the grease stays only on the foot and away from the hoof, or you may have an ice-skating horse.)

 

Water

If you can only make one change in the way your horse lives during winter, make sure he has plenty of warmish water to drink. Researchers have found that when water temperature drops below 45° Fahrenheit, horses drastically reduce the amount of water they drink. Horses will drink around 40% more water if it’s warmed than they will if it’s below 45° F. When horses limit their water intake, the risk of impaction or colic rises dramatically; the proper digestion of hay relies on the animal drinking enough water. Expect your horses to drink somewhere between 8 and 12 gallons of water a day apiece.

 

Some people think horses can get the water they need by eating snow, but eating snow has about the same effect on horses that it does on humans. It takes so much more energy to eat snow and then convert it to body temperature (while getting chilled in the process) that it’s a losing proposition. Horses need daily water, not snow, to maintain their digestive health and stay alive.

 

There are a variety of methods for keeping your horse’s water warmer, from sophisticated water heating systems to frequent replacement with fresh water. You may find a relatively inexpensive solution in the form of insulated watering buckets or a simple passive solar setup that warms the water by use of a panel and the right wiring. For people who don’t have high-tech solutions to the problem of freezing wintertime water, twice-daily water checks and replacement of freezing water with warm may be the best options.

 

Feed

Assuming your horse is starting the season in fine fettle, winter feeding requirements will depend on the severity of the cold and the amount of activity. In a very general way, you should expect your horse to eat around 20% more in the winter. One formula suggests that, for every degree in Celsius below -15°C, the average lower critical temperature for most adult horses, the energy intake of the horse should be increased by 2.5%. For growing horses, the lower critical temperature is 0° C, or 32° F, so younger horses will require more feed sooner than mature ones. Larger horses, like draft animals, tend to withstand cold better than sleeker animals with less body mass. Older horses may feel the extremes of temperature (both cold and hot) more keenly: as your horse ages, you may to consult with your vet for more specialized wintertime care.

 

A horse can lose a lot of weight under a thick winter coat before it’s noticeable to the eye, so make sure and give your horse a weekly going over with your hands as well as your eyes. Feel for some fat on the ribs, along the back and at the back of the tail. If your horse is losing a lot of weight, call in the vet for a consultation to determine if it’s feed-related or a medical issue.

 

Most experts agree that the ideal is to maintain your horse on high quality alfalfa and mixed grass hay during the winter months. Grains, while often used to help horses keep the weight on, just don’t provide the same sort of sustenance in terms of internal heat production. Hay ferments in the large intestine during digestion, which creates significantly more heat and keeps the horse warmer from the inside out. If you do decide to add grains to your horse’s diet, bear in mind that they should be added slowly and gradually over time to prevent laminitis (founder), and in the end should probably not exceed four or five pounds per day. If you worry about your horse foundering, keep to an all hay diet, along with the usual lick of salt and trace minerals.

 

On average, horses will eat somewhere between 25 and 35 pounds of good hay every day—count on a half a bale per horse, per day, and then add some just in case.

 

The social aspects to wintertime feeding should also be considered. If you have more than one horse, take into consideration the fact that the more dominant animals may eat all the feed—even when there’s plenty—while the more timid ones waste away. One method for creating a more equal feeding station is to place the hay in piles that exceed the number of horses. When the dominant animals move from pile to pile, there is still one left over for the other horses to feed from. Using feeders can reduce hay waste by up to 25%: feeding on the ground means that some of the hay will be strewn about and stamped into the earth or snow.

 

Shelter

Although horses can easily withstand temperatures that would send us running for cover, the ideal set-up is a three sided shed with plenty of width for shy horses to enter in the event of stormy or wet weather. Bedding that’s deep, soft and clean, accessible and warmed water nearby and enough room for horses to lie down also help keep them warm and dry while waiting out storms.

 

Blanketing

In many climates, blanketing a horse that’s turned out may not be necessary and may even be counterproductive. A horse with a nice, thick winter coat does nicely because as the cold increases, the coat fluffs up, trapping air and acting as a natural blanket. A wet coat isn’t a good insulator, though, so horses that are out in the rain would probably benefit from the modern, breathable, waterproof blankets recently morphed from human rain gear technology into equine fashion. Horses being groomed for show, stabled horses, elderly animals or those whose coats are short and thin may need blanketing in the cold. If you can, let your horses’ manes, tails and fetlocks grow before and during winter to add extra warmth.  All turned out horses may want blankets when the wind is nasty. Fitting the blanket to your horse is an art in itself, and a necessary one to prevent rubbing or chafing.

 

People sometimes make the mistake of thinking that their horses get colder than they really do. Most horses are still pretty comfortable when the weather is above freezing. Horses, like people, get too hot when they’re unnecessarily clothed, so make sure your blanketed horse isn’t standing around in a sweat. Wet horses are more susceptible to all sorts of ailments, so try to keep your horse out of the rain while preventing him from getting overheated as well. Warm-ups and cool downs for exercising animals should never be omitted, and currying him clean and dry right after exercise is another must.