As the temperature drops, horses burn extra vitality to stay warm, subsequently their vitality requirements will enhance. We are able to present our horses further energy in the type of concentrates and forage. Forages are digested by the microbes in your horses massive intestine and produce extra heat than concentrates. An excellent analogy is to compare focus and forage to your wood stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would obtain free selection hay throughout the winter. How much extra forage does your horse need to stay warm? Then they'll regulate if they want roughly through the day and evening. Some of us have simple keepers who would not do nicely on free choice hay! For these horses, we have to regulate their intake. Weigh out their hay horse statues and supply it in small gap hay nets to prolong their quantity of chew time. The very first thing you need to do is find out how much your horse weighs. Utilizing physique size plus heart girth tends to be more correct. I recommend utilizing the next methodology versus a weight tape that solely wraps round the center girth. Utilizing a smooth measuring tape (the sort often found in sewing kits) measure your horses heart girth and write the variety of inches down. Subsequent, measure the body length from point of shoulder to point of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL additionally, this may help ensure you that you are measuring at the identical location each time. Ensure you write it all all the way down to discuss with throughout the winter. If you are a couple of inches off, almost certainly you are measuring from a barely completely different location (until you may inform by trying that your horse has obviously gained or lost weight). Try to find landmarks. Paint horses have great landmarks! Now that you understand how a lot your horse weighs, you possibly can determine how a lot hay he needs to eat. Your average horse in excellent weight ought to consume 2% of his physique weight. Some exhausting keepers require upwards of 2.5% of physique weight. In case you have an overweight horse, you'll be able to drop all the way down to 1.5% of his physique weight, but no less than that or you will be creating an entire 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 below 45 levels F (including wind chill) horses begin to burn extra energy to stay warm. This forty five degree mark is known as "Crucial Temperature". For every 1 degree F below the critical temperature, your horse will require a 1% increase in digestible energy (DE). As with all the pieces horse related, there are quite a lot of variables to this rule, equivalent to wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or if you blanket. Think of digestible energy like your horses calorie requirement. Since horse nutrition is 90% math, lets get again to that! If I continue with the math we'd calculate your horse's DE necessities, next calculate how a lot additional DE is needed to your present temperature, subsequent test your hay to see precisely how a lot DE it gives per pound, lastly calculate how much additional hay will present the extra DE required for the present temperature. If it is 20 levels F where our buddy Max lives he would want an extra 2 1/2-5lb of hay. This guideline is for horses at maintenance or mild work. Extra hay will be needed in case your horse is a hard keeper, in heavy work, or on poor quality hay.
