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| Winter Warmers: Feeding Your Horse |
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 It's time to gear up for winter and start to think about how you will feed your horse in the colder months. Luckily in Australia the winters are pretty mild, but that's not to say that your management and feeding schedule can remain the same all year round.
As the weather cools off, and your horse starts to look decidedly woolly, you need to look at what you are feeding and think about how your horse's nutritional needs will change as the weather gets colder.
If you're living in Northern Queensland, though, you'll have to take measures to deal with the wet and you probably won't need to change your feeding all that much, but if you live in Victoria or Tasmania you'd better be prepared for whatever mother nature has to throw at you!
Cold and wet weather puts extra demands on your horse to stay warm, and day to day activities can require a little more energy than in the warmer months. Walking around a muddy wet paddock takes more energy as the horse has to pull his feet out of the mud with every step. Harsh winds tear away body heat, meaning your horse's body has to work harder to keep warm. When it's cold and wet, horses spend their time putting their bums into the wind, and don't graze. When you consider that they would normally spend 14-18 hours per day grazing, it's easy to see how these conditions can make horses lose weight.
Some horses, particularly ponies, do just fine in the winter, and need no real changes in their diet, except a bit of extra hay. Many pony breeds have evolved in Europe and other temperate climates, braving much colder weather than they are ever likely to experience here, and ponies being ponies, they can often thrive without even a sniff of grain!
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The grass is always greener...
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Take a look at your winter pasture. It may look nice and green to you with all the rain that winter brings, but what you're actually looking at is millions of green stalky packages of water and maybe some weeds that are also taking advantage of the wet weather.
There is very little nutrition in winter pasture so it's important to supplement with plenty of hay and chaff to make sure that your horses are getting enough roughage in their diets. For the average 500kg horse, you need at least 1.5% of body weight in forage, that's 7.5kg of hay and chaff per day or about 4 biscuits of hay or 25 litres of chaff each day!
Hay and chaff have the added bonus of creating waste heat in the hind gut as it is digested. Giving a couple of extra biscuits of hay on really cold days will help your horse to stay warm, and is much better for the central heating system than giving a warm feed or mash which only warms his mouth and very small stomach. It's often best and easiest to allow free choice access to good quality hay, especially with horses that tend to drop weight in the winter. Providing a large round or square bale in the middle of the pasture or turnout area or giving a couple of regular bales broken into 8 or 9 piles around the paddock will be enough to keep five or six horses busily eating all day and will help keep them warm.
For horses that need a bit of weight gain, a good quality lucerne or clover mix is great, although it may need diluting with some grass hay if it's very rich. If your equine friend tends to get a little too rounded and gorges himself greedily whenever the opportunity presents itself, then just stick to the 1.5% of body weight amount and feed a good quality grass/meadow hay or low oats oaten hay.
Using warm rugs and blankets, and having adequate shelter from driving wind and rain will also help to retain heat and keep your horse snug and happy. If you have a shelter in your paddock that the horse uses well, then putting some hay inside each day will also help.
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Feeding Fatsos
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If your horse or pony does pretty well on a small amount of feed, and puts on about fifty kilos if he gets more than a cup of grain, then you probably won't need to increase his feed at all.
Furthermore, if bad weather is preventing you from riding as often as usual, or is forcing you to keep your horse indoors, you may actually need to reduce the hard feed consumption to prevent your friend from blowing up like a football! If you feed hard feed regularly, then on days off from riding or when you have to confine your horse to a stable, cut the hard feed in half and just give a little extra hay. This will help to prevent some of the problems associated with overfeeding like behaviour changes, ulcers, laminitis, tying up and colic.
If you have a good doer, consider yourself lucky, it's a lot easier (not to mention cheaper!) to keep weight off your horse in winter than it is to have to put it on. If you are working your horse and he's not losing weight, then a low calorie vitamin and mineral supplement can be used to keep him in the peak of health without making him too podgy.
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Feeding Slim Jims
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If you have a poor doer that tends to fade away in the winter, often Thoroughbreds or older horses, then you've got some work to do. You need to begin to change your horses diet and management in anticipation of the colder weather. This way you are taking steps to avoid weight loss before you are left with a skinny hat rack to try and put weight on half way through the winter. Starting to monitor your horses weight at the end of summer and autumn using the condition scoring method can help you to recognise weight loss very quickly and change the diet accordingly.
If you need to increase feed for a poor doer, then hay and forage is the first place to start. It needs to be good quality, with lots of leaf and little stem. Forage is the safest and most natural feed you can give your horse. Feeding plenty of extra hay is far better for your horse's digestive system than feeding too many grains.
If your horse is working hard in winter or is a particularly poor doer, then you will probably need to feed some grain or hard feed in addition to forage. There are some very good, well formulated complete feeds available that take all the 'brainwork' out of feeding hard feed. The best way to use these feeds is to choose one that is designed for the type of horse you have and the work you are doing as well as the temperament and age of your horse, and feeding it at the recommended levels. Do lots of research and read lots of bag labels in the feed store before you choose, or call a nutrition advisor for some expert help. This way, you know that your horse is getting all the nutrients that he or she requires without overdoing it or feeding inappropriately.
If your horse does not need the volume of feed advised by the feed company, then you can feed at lower levels, but be sure to add a vitamin and mineral supplement to balance the diet. Remember that if you feed your horses outside, then pellets and extruded feed may dissolve and turn to mush in very wet weather, meaning that your horses may not eat all that you give them.
If you want to mix your own feed, then oats is a good place to start. Oats are the safest of grains to feed as they have a high fibre content and are very well digested by the horse, but if your horse 'goes silly' on oats then there are some good alternatives to choose from.
Barley is not as digestible as oats and needs some processing to get the best out of, like steam flaking, rolling, boiling or micronizing but barley can be great for weight gain. Lupins are a great source of digestible fibre and protein with little starch and so are excellent for horses that generally fizz up on grain, but again, they need to be processed to get the best out of them.
Adding some fat to the diet can be a really good way of adding energy without adding too much grain. Vegetable oil (canola, corn, sunflower oil) or stabilised rice bran (Equi-Jewel) can be added safely to the diet to help prevent weight loss in poor doers and hard working horses. High fat feeds can also be useful, like sunflower seeds or rice pollard. If you feed a complete feed look on the labels for one with a high fat content (above 5%), these are often cool feeds or performance feeds so be sure to pick the right one for your horse.
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Tips for Everybody
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Winter horse care can be great fun, fewer flies and cool afternoon rides are a welcome relief, but there are some general tips that everyone should remember for good winter management.
Salt and electrolytes are just as important in winter as they are in summer. Horses with long shaggy coats will sweat when they are worked, and so need a daily source of salt in their diets as well as an electrolyte for hard working days. A salt block in the paddock is a good idea all year round, especially if you are not giving any hard feed.
If the feet start to crumble with the wet ground, you can add a biotin, zinc and methionine supplement like Bio-Bloom to help strengthen the hooves. If wet paddocks are a problem in your area, or your horse suffers particularly badly, you might like to start this supplementation towards the end of summer to ensure good strong hooves at the start of the season.
Winter is a great time for checking on your worming programme, make sure you use a different active ingredient in your wormer each time you worm to make sure you get them all and avoid feeding the worms rather than your horse!
With all those dark winter nights you can afford to take a night off from the telly and make up a schedule for the next year to help you get your horses teeth checked regularly and get your vaccination and worming programme in order.
Remember, your horse doesn't need to be in show condition through the entire winter, but most horses need a little extra TLC to ensure that they come out of winter in tip top condition. Your horse relies on you to make the appropriate changes to his management in the wintertime, he can't simply whisk himself off for a holiday to the Bahamas when the going gets tough!
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For further information about your horses nutrition and feeding contact Kentucky Equine Research for free diet analysis and advice on 1800 772 198, or email at equivit@ker.com
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