Equine Winter Management
06/01/2012

http://hoofworks.co.uk/

Rohan Fox is an Equine Podiatrist based in North Wales, covering North & Mid Wales, Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and the Midlands. He can be contacted by email on rohan@hoofworks.co.uk or by either text message or phone call on 07702 682 691.

Warmth

 We know that horses burn more energy over winter to keep themselves warmer, and this is the primary concern that we have as horse owners when we're trying to keep weight on. This is largely combated by either bringing your horses in overnight if you have the ability to do so or if they have to remain out, putting them in a rug that's a sensible weight for them.

These aren't the only things we can do to make sure our horses are warmer over winter though. The one thing I find that people forget, is that muscle tissue generates heat. In fact, it's quite a considerable amount of heat. There are various reports in humans that muscles generate around 70-85% of the body's overall heat, with the rest of the heat being generated by microbiological reactions within organs such as the liver. In people, skeletal muscle makes up around 40% of body mass in the average human being. In horses, that number is likely to be around the same, if not a little bit higher. With this in mind, we can begin to build up a picture of how much having a horse that's visibly fit is going to make a big difference over winter when it comes to maintaining that condition, because they're going to be warmer and happier.

This is especially compounded by the fact that because skeletal muscle is the muscle that's used when the horse moves, it's also the easiest form of muscle to build up. How fit your horse is, is also an important factor later on when we begin talking about horses that are a problem to feed over winter because they are prone to dropping condition rapidly as well as getting laminitis if you over feed them.

 The final consideration when we come to warmth is simple (yet very complicated!). Horses digest the fibre in their food by fermenting it in their hindguts. As I'm sure all of you horse owners know, the process of fermentation generates a lot of heat. We've all stood on top of a muck heap while it's breaking down and thought “Wow, it's warm up here.”. Okay, maybe not all of us, but it's a good place to keep warm over winter. Honest. Joking aside, though, the horse's hindgut generates enough heat that the blood supply that feeds the area is actually designed to spread the heat out over a larger area. Now, the key to this heat generation is essentially fibre. The fermentation process in the equine hind gut is designed to break down fibre into an accessible form of energy, and it's this process that you're looking to hijack to help keep your horses warm. Which neatly leads me on to...

What should I feed my horse over winter?

 The previous standard of feed over winter was something that was quite high in carbohydrates and starch. Traditionally the typical feed that's given to horses in this situation is something that contains various grains such as barley, oats or so on. There's various conditioning mixes on the market, as well as mashes, that claim to do the same thing. However: they all have one big common problem, they're all lower in fibre than we'd like, which is in turn somewhat counter productive due to the fibre digestion process creating heat for the horses to in turn keep themselves warmer. The idea of using the calorific content to keep weight on is logical: however starches and sugar bring their own problems when you start putting them into the horse in large quantities, namely laminitis.

 So, what would I suggest would be a good diet for horses over winter? Well, ad-lib forage for a start in either the form of grass, hay or haylage for the horses that can tolerate it. As for a bucket feed: a basis of some form of chaff (HiFi Light, Readigrass, Alfa-A Oil are all a good basis for a feed.), either unmollassed sugarbeet (KwikBeet or Speedibeet) or something like soaked alfalfa (Simple Systems do very good alfalfa with their lucinuts. You can use Alan and Page Fast Fibre too). This is a really simple feed to mix up, and it's a brilliant base to put other things into because the feed itself is high in fibre, fairly low in sugar, which means you can give your horses a bucket or so of it as something of a hay replacer overnight. Plus, it means you can put things into the feed as necessary such as oil, micronised linseed, supplements such as magnesium or biotin, or if you're feeling very mean, wormer tablets!

But my horse drops so much condition over winter! 

Then you can give him more! If you give your horse a feed that weighs 4-5kgs, he's going to graze it down overnight if he's stabled, and if there's a goodly amount of calories in the feed then you're onto a winner. This is something that cannot be done with grain based feed, since if you feed too much grain in one go you risk the back flow of starch into the hindgut and colic. If you find they're still dropping condition, you can up the amount of linseed or oil in the feed and see if that helps. However, if they're still continuing to drop weight then you may need to start considering other issues: worms or stomach ulcers are the major issues that can contribute to weight loss, as they're both going to limit the digestion of the food. It's at this point that contacting a proffessional with more experience in the field is a wise idea!

My horse is laminitic, and needs to gain weight!

 All of the suggestions I've given are very similar to the suggestions I'd give to a laminitic anyway! Exercise, and controlling the diet. For a laminitic, I'd suggest not using readigrass as a feed however, and using hi-fi light simply because it's lower in sugar and digests slower. You can feed a large amount of the above feed safely to a laminitic, especially if they're on hay rather than haylage and are in regular exercise (at least 25 mins a day where possible!). I would also definatly recommend the supplementation of magnesium and biotin to any laminitic horse; and over winter this is especially important in the case of magnesium, since the horses' body is likely to be under greater levels of stress due to the colder tempreatures, weather and so on. Keeping the horse's magnesium levels in check will help them dramatically going into spring, also.

I want my horse to lose weight over winter 

Then don't give him oil in his feed, or no feed at all if they're a very good do-er, and try to make sure he's exercised more. Personally, I don't believe that there's any justification for turning out a horse in freezing cold weather without a rug on just so they lose weight. It's extremely unfair, doubly so if there's little shelter in the field. If the horse is very overweight, you can try soaking the hay to reduce the amount of sugar that's in it. However, exercise is key. Please, don't turn your horses out to get cold. How would you like it if on a dieting plan one of the steps was to walk around in rain and wind for several hours each day while in a shirt and shorts? This is especially true if you have a non-native breed with a very thin coat.

Other things to bear in mind 

Bear in mind that all of this is just my experience, and that it's not the be all and end all guide to feeding and managing your horses over winter. It's a step in the right direction for many, and for most horses all of the above suggestions are going to make a huge difference to the way your horse keeps weight and condition over the winter months, however for those that don't then you need to seek professional help from someone who can get involved in the individual case and then advise you based off of what they see. In extreme cases, it may even involve getting the vet in to blood test for various things such as tape worm or insulin resistance. If you're at all worried about anything, and would like some questions answering, please don't hesitate to drop me an email on the one listed and we can have a chat about your horse

Rohan Fox is an Equine Podiatrist based in North Wales, covering North & Mid Wales, Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and the Midlands. He can be contacted by email on rohan@hoofworks.co.uk or by either text message or phone call on 07702 682 691.

http://hoofworks.co.uk/

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