Because the temperature drops, horses burn extra power to stay warm, therefore their vitality necessities will enhance. We are able to present our horses further power in the form of concentrates and forage. Forages are digested by the microbes in your horses massive intestine and produce more heat than concentrates. An excellent analogy is to match concentrate and forage to your wooden stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would receive free selection hay throughout the winter. How a lot extra forage does your horse want to stay warm? Then they'll regulate if they want roughly during the day and evening. Some of us have straightforward keepers who wouldn't do effectively on free choice hay! For these horses, we need to regulate their intake. Weigh out their hay and provide it in small hole hay nets to prolong their quantity of chew time. The very first thing you'll want to do is learn how a lot your horse weighs. Using physique length plus coronary heart girth tends to be more accurate. I like to recommend utilizing the following technique versus a weight tape that solely wraps around the center girth. Utilizing a gentle measuring tape (the type typically found in sewing kits) measure your horses coronary heart girth and write the number of inches down. Next, measure the physique length from level of shoulder to point of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL additionally, this may help make sure you that you're measuring at the identical location every time. Be sure you write it all right down to confer with all through the winter. If you are a couple of inches off, most definitely you are measuring from a slightly different location (until you'll be able to tell by wanting that your horse has clearly gained or misplaced weight). Attempt to search out landmarks. Paint horses have nice landmarks! Now that you understand how much your horse weighs, you can determine how a lot hay he needs to eat. Your common horse in preferrred weight should eat 2% of his physique weight. Some arduous keepers require upwards of 2.5% of body weight. You probably have an overweight horse, you possibly can drop down to 1.5% of his physique weight, but no less than that or you will be creating a complete other set of issues! 23lb of hay per day. Max weighs 1,159lb and needs to eat 2% of his physique weight. When the temperature drops below forty five levels F (together with wind chill) horses start to burn additional power to stay warm. This forty five diploma mark is called "Essential Temperature". For each 1 degree F under the vital temperature, your horse would require a 1% increase in digestible power (DE). As with every part horse associated, there are a lot of variables to this rule, equivalent to wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or in case you blanket. Consider digestible power like your horses calorie requirement. Since horse nutrition is 90% math, lets get back bronze horse statue to that! If I continue with the math we would calculate your horse's DE necessities, subsequent calculate how a lot additional DE is required on your present temperature, subsequent take a look at your hay to see exactly how a lot DE it supplies per pound, lastly calculate how much extra hay will provide the additional DE required for the current temperature. If it's 20 levels F where our buddy Max lives he would wish an extra 2 1/2-5lb of hay. This guideline is for horses at maintenance or mild work. Additional hay can be wanted if your horse is a hard keeper, in heavy work, or on poor high quality hay.
