Because the temperature drops, horses burn extra energy to remain heat, due to this fact their power requirements will improve. We will present our horses additional power within the type of concentrates and forage. Forages are digested by the microbes in your horses massive intestine and produce extra heat than concentrates. An ideal analogy is to compare concentrate and forage to your wood stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would receive free alternative hay throughout the winter. How much additional forage does your horse need to stay warm? Then they will regulate in the event that they need more or less throughout the day and night. A metal horse statue few of us have easy keepers who wouldn't do nicely on free alternative 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 first thing you might want to do is learn how a lot your horse weighs. Using physique length plus heart girth tends to be extra correct. I like to recommend using the following method versus a weight tape that solely wraps around the heart girth. Using a soft measuring tape (the kind usually found in sewing kits) measure your horses heart girth and write the number of inches down. Subsequent, measure the physique size from level of shoulder to point of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL additionally, this can help ensure you that you are measuring at the same location each time. Make sure you write it all right down to confer with throughout the winter. If you're just a few inches off, most definitely you are measuring from a slightly totally different location (until you can tell by trying that your horse has obviously gained or lost weight). Strive to search out landmarks. Paint horses have nice landmarks! Now that you know the way a lot your horse weighs, you may determine how a lot hay he needs to eat. Your average horse in ultimate weight ought to devour 2% of his physique weight. Some onerous keepers require upwards of 2.5% of physique weight. If in case you have an overweight horse, you can drop all the way down to 1.5% of his physique weight, however no lower than that or you can be creating a complete different set of issues! 23lb of hay per day. Max weighs 1,159lb and needs to eat 2% of his body weight. When the temperature drops under forty five levels F (including wind chill) horses start to burn extra power to remain heat. This 45 degree mark is called "Crucial Temperature". For every 1 degree F below the vital temperature, your horse would require a 1% improve in digestible energy (DE). As with every thing horse related, there are plenty of variables to this rule, comparable to wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or when you blanket. Think of 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'd calculate your horse's DE necessities, subsequent calculate how a lot extra DE is required in your present temperature, subsequent check your hay to see exactly how a lot DE it gives per pound, lastly calculate how much extra hay will present the extra DE required for the present temperature. If it's 20 levels F where our buddy Max lives he would wish an additional 2 1/2-5lb of hay. This guideline is for horses at maintenance or light work. Extra hay will probably be needed if your horse is a hard keeper, in heavy work, or on poor quality hay.
