Because the temperature drops, horses burn extra power to remain heat, therefore their energy necessities will enhance. We can provide our horses extra power in the form of concentrates and forage. Forages are digested by the microbes in your horses giant intestine and produce extra heat than concentrates. A terrific analogy is to check concentrate and forage to your wood stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would receive free alternative hay all through the winter. How a lot further forage does your horse need to stay heat? Then they will regulate if they need kind of through the day and night. A few of us have straightforward keepers who would not do effectively on free choice hay! For these horses, we need to regulate their intake. Weigh out their hay and supply it in small hole hay nets to prolong their amount of chew time. The first thing you must do is learn how a lot your horse weighs. Utilizing body size plus coronary heart girth tends to be extra correct. I like to recommend using the following technique versus a weight tape that only wraps round the guts girth. Utilizing a soft measuring tape (the kind often found in sewing kits) measure your horses coronary heart girth and write the variety of inches down. Subsequent, measure the body size from level of shoulder to level of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL also, this may assist ensure you that you are measuring at the identical location every time. Be sure to write all of it all the way down to confer with all through the winter. If you're a couple of inches off, probably you're measuring from a barely completely different location (unless you'll be able to tell by trying that your horse has clearly gained or lost weight). Try to seek out landmarks. Paint horses have great landmarks! Now that you know how a lot your horse weighs, you possibly can determine how a lot horse figurines hay he needs to eat. Your common horse in supreme weight ought to eat 2% of his physique weight. Some onerous keepers require upwards of 2.5% of body weight. When you have an overweight horse, you possibly can drop all the way down to 1.5% of his body weight, however no less than that or you may be creating a complete different set of points! 23lb of hay per day. Max weighs 1,159lb and must eat 2% of his physique weight. When the temperature drops beneath forty five levels F (together with wind chill) horses start to burn additional energy to stay warm. This forty five degree mark known as "Critical Temperature". For each 1 diploma F under the important temperature, your horse will require a 1% improve in digestible energy (DE). As with every little thing horse associated, there are a whole lot of variables to this rule, similar to wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or if you blanket. Think of digestible power like your horses calorie requirement. Since horse nutrition is 90% math, lets get again to that! If I continue with the math we might calculate your horse's DE necessities, subsequent calculate how a lot further DE is required in your current temperature, next check your hay to see exactly how a lot DE it offers per pound, lastly calculate how a lot extra hay will provide the additional DE required for the current temperature. If it is 20 degrees F the place our buddy Max lives he would need a further 2 1/2-5lb of hay. This guideline is for horses at upkeep or mild work. Additional hay shall be needed in case your horse is a tough keeper, in heavy work, or on poor high quality hay.
