As the temperature drops, horses burn extra power to stay heat, subsequently their energy necessities will improve. We can provide our horses extra energy in the type of concentrates and forage. Forages are digested by the microbes in your horses giant intestine and produce extra heat than concentrates. An incredible analogy is to match concentrate and forage to your wood stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would receive free alternative hay throughout the winter. How much additional forage does your horse want to stay heat? Then they will regulate if they need kind of through the day and evening. A few of us have easy keepers who wouldn't do properly on free selection hay! For these horses, we need to regulate their intake. Weigh out their hay and supply it in small gap hay nets to prolong their quantity of chew time. The very first thing you want to do is learn how much your horse weighs. Using body size plus heart girth tends to be extra accurate. I recommend using the following method versus a weight tape that solely wraps around the heart girth. Utilizing a smooth measuring tape (the sort usually present in sewing kits) measure your horses coronary heart girth and write the variety of inches down. Subsequent, measure the body length from level of shoulder to point of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL additionally, this may help ensure you that you're measuring at the identical location each time. Make sure you write it all down to confer with all through the winter. In case you are just a few inches off, almost certainly you might be measuring from a barely totally different location (until you'll be able to inform by wanting that your horse has obviously gained or lost weight). Try to search out landmarks. Paint horses have nice landmarks! Now that you know how a lot your horse weighs, you'll be able to figure out how much hay he must eat. Your average horse in splendid weight should eat 2% of his physique weight. Some arduous keepers require upwards of 2.5% of physique weight. When you have an overweight horse, you'll be able to drop all the way down to 1.5% of his physique weight, but no lower than that or you will be creating an entire different set of issues! 23lb of hay per day. Max weighs 1,159lb and must eat 2% of his body weight. When the temperature drops beneath 45 degrees F (together with wind chill) horses begin to burn extra energy to stay heat. This 45 degree mark is named "Vital Temperature". For every 1 degree F under the crucial temperature, your horse would require a 1% enhance in digestible vitality (DE). As with all the things horse related, there are a variety of variables to this rule, similar to wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or in case you blanket. Think of wooden horse statue digestible vitality like your horses calorie requirement. Since horse nutrition is 90% math, lets get again to that! If I proceed with the math we would calculate your horse's DE necessities, subsequent calculate how a lot further DE is required on your present temperature, subsequent check your hay to see precisely how much DE it provides per pound, lastly calculate how a lot additional hay will present the extra DE required for the current temperature. If it is 20 degrees F where our buddy Max lives he would want an extra 2 1/2-5lb of hay. This guideline is for horses at upkeep or mild work. Further hay can be wanted if your horse is a tough keeper, in heavy work, or on poor quality hay.
