Because the temperature drops, horses burn extra energy to remain heat, therefore their power requirements will enhance. We can provide our horses further energy in the type of concentrates and forage. Forages are digested by the microbes in your horses large intestine and produce more heat than concentrates. An important analogy is to check concentrate and forage to your wooden stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would obtain free choice hay throughout the winter. How much additional forage does your horse want to stay warm? Then they'll regulate if they need kind of during the day and night time. Some of us have easy keepers who wouldn't do effectively on free alternative hay! For these horses, we have to regulate their intake. Weigh out their hay and supply it in small hole hay nets to prolong their quantity of chew time. The very first thing it is advisable do is learn the way much your horse weighs. Using body size plus heart girth famous horse statues tends to be more correct. I recommend using the next technique versus a weight tape that only wraps around the center girth. Using a tender measuring tape (the sort usually present in sewing kits) measure your horses heart girth and write the number of inches down. Subsequent, measure the physique length from level of shoulder to point of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL additionally, this will assist make sure you that you are measuring at the same location each time. Be sure you write it all right down to refer to throughout the winter. If you are a few inches off, most probably you're measuring from a barely different location (unless you can tell by looking that your horse has clearly gained or misplaced weight). Attempt to seek out landmarks. Paint horses have nice landmarks! Now that you understand how a lot your horse weighs, you'll be able to determine how much hay he must eat. Your common horse in perfect weight should consume 2% of his physique weight. Some laborious keepers require upwards of 2.5% of body weight. In case you have an overweight horse, you possibly can drop down to 1.5% of his body weight, however no less than that or you may 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 under forty five degrees F (together with wind chill) horses begin to burn extra vitality to stay heat. This 45 diploma mark is known as "Essential Temperature". For each 1 degree F beneath the essential temperature, your horse would require a 1% improve in digestible energy (DE). As with every little thing horse associated, there are plenty of variables to this rule, reminiscent of wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or should you blanket. Think of digestible vitality like your horses calorie requirement. Since horse nutrition is 90% math, lets get back to that! If I continue with the math we'd calculate your horse's DE requirements, subsequent calculate how a lot further DE is needed for your present temperature, subsequent check your hay to see exactly how a lot DE it provides per pound, lastly calculate how a lot extra hay will present the extra DE required for the current temperature. If it is 20 degrees 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. Additional hay can be wanted if your horse is a hard keeper, in heavy work, or on poor high quality hay.
