Cold Weather Horse Care

[haypoint]

This was just released from Michigan State Univ.:

Horses require extra attention during winter’s coldest temperatures

As the temperatures decrease, a horse’s feed requirements increase. Consider taking the following measures to ensure the safety and health of your horse.

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Karen Waite, Michigan State University Extension










The next few days will bring the coldest weather we’ve seen this winter, and with that comes the need for extra care and attention for horses, donkeys, ponies, mules and any other outdoor animals. As the temperatures decrease, a horse’s feed requirements increase. Allowing horses free choice to good quality forage (hay) is the surest way to ensure that they consume enough energy, and the process of digesting forage will actually produce heat. Horses will typically consume 2 to 2.5 percent of their body weight in forage; that would be 25 pounds per day for a 1,000 pound horse. Winter pasture alone will not provide enough forage to sustain a horse and therefore must be supplemented with hay and/or grain.
Given the growing season we had last year, some available hay is overly stemmy or fibrous, and hence of lower digestibility than previous years. As a result, making certain that horses are supplemented with grain when fed lower quality hay will help them maintain body weight and condition, a key factor in withstanding cold temperatures.
Finally, constant access to clean, fresh water at 35 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit is an absolute necessity to keeping horses healthy. This can be achieved via heated tanks or buckets, or by filling a tank, letting it freeze, cutting an access hole in the frozen surface, and then always filling the tank to below the level of the hole from that point on. This provides a “self-insulating” function and will typically keep the water below from freezing.
Additional ways to keep horses comfortable in cold weather include making sure they have access to shelter. A well-bedded, three-sided shed facing south or east will typically provide adequate protection from wind and snow, as can appropriate bluffs or treed areas.
When the temperatures get colder, mature horses will not typically move around much in an effort to conserve energy. Making an attempt to keep hay, shelter and water fairly close together can limit the energy expenditure required, thus conserving body condition. Keeping horses at a body condition score of 5 or 6 will improve conception rates for those choosing to breed horses, and prevent surprises when horses shed their winter hair in the spring.
This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit http://www.msue.msu.edu. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu,

[Annsni]

Interesting! Thanks for the info! I know the guy I take care of usually will eat more hay the colder it gets. We have kind of a tough time with water because we will NOT do heated buckets due to old wiring in the barn but we're there 2x a day to give fresh water so it's not TOO bad.

[goodhors]

You probably should add some extra granulated salt to their grain daily, to make SURE horse is drinking well. If they don't drink a fair amount, probably 15 gallons a day, they stand a good chance of impaction colic in this kind of weather.

I have larger horses, and am adding 2 TABLESPOONS daily to 3 of them, they are my "good drinkers" and finish the 5 or more gallon buckets every night in their stalls. The other two horses are poor bucket drinkers, now are getting 3 TABLESPOONS of salt daily, so now they also finish their 5 gallon bucket each night. Water tank consumption is also more now, which is a GOOD thing for wintering horses.

I get the "feed salt" from the farm store or elevator in 50# bags. Cheaper than the salt boxes from the grocery store in the quantity of salt we use. Horses STILL are licking their white salt blocks in the stalls pretty well, so this is not overdosing them.

Any changes in water tank levels here, are looked into immediately. Not enough water means problems in short order.

We have our tanks inside insulated wood boxes, which lets us leave the heaters off during time horses use the tanks. NO CHANCE of a bad heater biting the horses and preventing drinking. Getting shocked while trying to drink is HARD training to overcome for horses, so we don't take even a chance of it. Heaters are run at night, tanks are covered, so there is little electric used to keep the water ice free in winter. Boxes being insulated and covering the tanks at night, saves us a lot of money in electric bills.

I have been doing the added salt to grain for a number of years, have found it very helpful in getting the horses to drink more. Yeah, they get wet beet pulp as well, but NEED to have water intake be in multiple gallons, not half a bucket or so in a day. I add salt until they show a better intake with the barn buckets. They are eating hay at night inside, need to be drinking water too. Only the old mare gets a heated bucket in her stall. No electric in the tie stalls, so they get one or two buckets of water at night, depending on how much they clean up. They are pretty dependable in daily quantity they drink each night, so one guy gets 2 buckets, others only drink one full bucket.

Add salt to daily feed, you don't know how much trouble you could be preventing because they drank more water!

[LisaInN.Idaho]

I don't grain my horses but I dip carrots in salt and feed them as a treat to get teh extra in so they keep drinking.

[Annsni]

Just thinking about the salt thing. Doesn't added salt draw moisture out of the body so they drink more to replace it??

[LisaInN.Idaho]

Not that I know of...I would think it would keep water in the body, like it does people. our vet also recommends adding a little extra salt to keep them drinking in "colic season".

[farmerDale]

People up here who have had horses for decades, rarely supply water to them in the winter. Snow is relied on as their water source. I know, I know, this is supposed to be oh so wrong, but our horses thrive in the winter. They adapt, they do fine. They live to be as old as horses anywhere. I do sure agree they eat more at -40 than they do at -10, or in the summer. Good information overall, just wanted to mention the snow/water thing.

Lots of stock men rely on snow for supplying winter water... Of all kinds of stock.

[wr]

I never restrict feed in winter and hay consumption is a way better weather indicator than any meteorologist.

farmerDale, I don't rely on snow to water my stock because I've always been aware that those that do seem to have a lot more impaction type issues but I do know that even with water provided, my horses will still eat a certain amount of snow.

[Barn Yarns]

my sheep eat more snow than water in the winter. I have one horse that seems to preffer the snow to water also. water is available to all tho.

as far as the article..... im pretty sure that my old guy doesnt eat 50# of hay a day. he gets hay free choice. the drafters do so much better this time of year than in the summer.

Ive gotten soft on him this year, tho. been bringing him in the barn at -30 rather than -40.

[whodunit]

Originally Posted by Annsni

Interesting! Thanks for the info! I know the guy I take care of usually will eat more hay the colder it gets. We have kind of a tough time with water because we will NOT do heated buckets due to old wiring in the barn but we're there 2x a day to give fresh water so it's not TOO bad.

Old plastic ice chest with the lid popped off work great at keeping the water from freezing as fast.

I suppose a person could make a plywood box lined with rigid insulation or foam for a bigger watering tank...... one could even cover/insulate part of the top leaving enough space for the animals to drink.

Mrs Whodunit

[Lilith]

This explains a lot that I never paid any attention to. All the horses I have been involved with the last few years have been sent to warmer weather areas in the winter time while ER Ranch kept only a handful here in winter. Due to unforeseen situations, My mare has had to winter here this year. After finally getting all her records (she was a Christmas present this year) I found out that she was one of the mares that stays up north year round except when she was with foal and the beginning of this year. We brought her back mid winter, and she is taking way more water and food than she did in summer when I was taking care of her after a nasty run in with someone's dogs and a fence. She is also more active than this summer, which I would normally credit to being healed up more, but she is way more active than the neighbors horses just on the other side of the fence.

The first part of winter, we would take her inside at night, but now that we have the horse shed cleaned out and safe for a horse again, she can come and go as she pleases. We feed her in there to encourage her to go in the new shelter, but her water is still outside where it can be reached with a hose.
We started off with an old aluminum 200 gal trough, but it leaked so bad after the first freeze that we cut a plastic 55 gal drum off and let her drink from that. I would guess that she has at least 40 gal of water available from it, so more than enough. We also found a cage for a floating tank heater and keep it ice free that way.
I'll admit that she was in pretty sad shape when I first started working with her, but she is defiantly on track to becoming a healthy horse again. Thanks for the article explaining why things were so different summer to winter with her.

[Annsni]

Lilith - I've always found that horses get friskier in the winter so that might be what you're seeing. We actually used to drug the horse that I ride when he was younger because during the winter he became dangerous. With some reserpine, he was finally able to be ridden. We hated to do it but we had no choice. Now we don't need to bother because he's 18 and has finally settled down.

But ALL of the horses get silly in the winter. WAY more energy and stuff and it's nice to let them out in the big arena to just let them get their goofies out (we only have smaller paddocks for each horse so no way to really get their bucks out).