Because the temperature drops, horses burn more energy to remain warm, therefore their energy requirements will enhance. We will provide our horses additional power within the form of concentrates and forage. Forages are digested by the microbes in your horses large intestine and produce extra heat than concentrates. A great analogy is to compare concentrate and forage to your metal horse statue wood stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would obtain free selection hay all through the winter. How a lot extra forage does your horse need to remain heat? Then they will regulate if they need kind of throughout the day and evening. Some of us have easy keepers who would not do well on free choice hay! For these horses, we have 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 need to do is learn the way a lot your horse weighs. Using body size plus heart girth tends to be more correct. I like to recommend utilizing the following method versus a weight tape that only wraps round the guts girth. Utilizing a gentle measuring tape (the kind usually present in sewing kits) measure your horses heart girth and write the number of inches down. Next, measure the physique size from point of shoulder to level of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL additionally, it will help make sure you that you are measuring at the same location every time. Be sure to write it all all the way down to discuss with all through the winter. If you are a couple of inches off, most probably you might be measuring from a barely different location (until you'll be able to tell by trying that your horse has obviously gained or misplaced weight). Strive to seek out landmarks. Paint horses have nice landmarks! Now that you know how much your horse weighs, you may determine how much hay he needs to eat. Your average horse in best weight should devour 2% of his body weight. Some hard 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 lower than that or you may be creating a complete other set of issues! 23lb of hay per day. Max weighs 1,159lb and must eat 2% of his physique weight. When the temperature drops under 45 levels F (together with wind chill) horses start to burn additional vitality to stay warm. This 45 diploma mark known as "Vital Temperature". For every 1 degree F below the crucial temperature, your horse would require a 1% improve in digestible power (DE). As with the whole lot horse associated, there are a variety of variables to this rule, corresponding to wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or when you blanket. Consider digestible energy like your horses calorie requirement. Since horse nutrition is 90% math, lets get back to that! If I continue with the math we might calculate your horse's DE necessities, next calculate how a lot further DE is needed to your current temperature, subsequent test your hay to see exactly how much DE it offers per pound, lastly calculate how a lot extra hay will present the additional DE required for the current temperature. If it's 20 degrees F where our buddy Max lives he would need a further 2 1/2-5lb of hay. This guideline is for horses at maintenance or light work. Further hay can be needed in case your horse is a tough keeper, in heavy work, or on poor quality hay.
