As the temperature drops, horses burn extra power to remain warm, therefore their energy necessities will improve. We will present our horses extra power 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 awesome analogy is to match concentrate and forage to your wood stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would obtain free selection hay all through the winter. How much additional forage does your horse want to stay warm? Then they will regulate if they need kind of during the day and night time. Some of us have easy keepers who wouldn't do well on free choice hay! For these horses, we have to regulate their intake. Weigh out their hay and provide it in small gap hay nets to prolong their amount of chew time. The first thing that you must do is learn the way much your horse weighs. Using body length plus coronary heart girth tends to be extra correct. I like to recommend utilizing the next technique versus a weight tape that solely wraps round the center girth. Utilizing a gentle measuring tape (the sort usually found in sewing kits) concrete horse statue measure your horses coronary heart girth and write the number of inches down. Next, measure the body length from point of shoulder to point of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL additionally, it will help ensure you that you're measuring at the same location every time. Ensure you write it all down to discuss with throughout the winter. If you are a number of inches off, more than likely you are measuring from a slightly completely different location (except you'll be able to inform by wanting that your horse has clearly gained or misplaced weight). Try to search out landmarks. Paint horses have great landmarks! Now that you understand how much your horse weighs, you'll be able to work out how much hay he needs to eat. Your common horse in excellent weight should eat 2% of his physique weight. Some hard keepers require upwards of 2.5% of physique weight. If you have an overweight horse, you'll be able to drop down to 1.5% of his physique weight, however no less than that or you'll be creating an entire other set of issues! 23lb of hay per day. Max weighs 1,159lb and needs to eat 2% of his body weight. When the temperature drops under 45 levels F (together with wind chill) horses begin to burn additional energy to stay warm. This forty five degree mark is known as "Essential Temperature". For each 1 diploma F beneath the crucial temperature, your horse would require a 1% enhance in digestible power (DE). As with all the things horse associated, there are numerous variables to this rule, resembling wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or in case you blanket. Think of digestible energy like your horses calorie requirement. Since horse nutrition is 90% math, lets get again to that! If I proceed with the math we might calculate your horse's DE requirements, next calculate how a lot additional DE is needed for your present temperature, next take a look at your hay to see exactly how a lot DE it offers per pound, lastly calculate how much extra hay will provide the extra DE required for the current temperature. If it is 20 levels F where our buddy Max lives he would want a further 2 1/2-5lb of hay. This guideline is for horses at maintenance or mild work. Further hay will probably be wanted in case your horse is a hard keeper, in heavy work, or on poor high quality hay.
