As the temperature drops, horses burn extra energy to stay heat, therefore their power 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 giant intestine and produce more heat than concentrates. An amazing analogy is to match concentrate and forage to your wooden stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would receive free alternative hay all through the winter. How much further forage does your horse want to remain heat? Then they will regulate in the event that they need more or less through the day and evening. Some of us have simple keepers who wouldn't do nicely on free alternative hay! For these horses, we need to regulate their intake. Weigh out their hay and supply it in small hole hay nets to prolong their amount of chew time. The very first thing that you must do is learn the way a lot your horse weighs. Using body length plus coronary heart girth tends to be more accurate. I like to recommend using the following methodology versus a weight tape that solely wraps around the heart girth. Utilizing a mushy measuring tape (the type often found in sewing kits) measure your horses coronary heart girth and write the variety of inches down. Next, measure the body size from point of shoulder to level of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL also, this may help make sure you that you're measuring at the same location every time. Make sure you write all of it all the way down to refer to throughout the winter. In case you are just a few inches off, most probably you might be measuring from a slightly different location (unless you can inform 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 much your horse weighs, you'll be able to figure out how a lot hay he needs to eat. Your average horse in ultimate weight should eat 2% of his body weight. Some exhausting keepers require upwards of 2.5% of physique weight. You probably have an overweight horse, you can drop all the way down to 1.5% of his body weight, however no lower than that or you will be creating a whole different set of issues! 23lb of hay per day. Max weighs 1,159lb and must eat 2% of his body weight. When the temperature drops under forty five degrees F (including wind chill) horses start to burn extra power to remain warm. This forty five degree mark known as "Critical Temperature". For each 1 degree F beneath the critical temperature, your horse will require a 1% improve in digestible vitality (DE). As with every little thing horse associated, there are a number of variables to this rule, equivalent to wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or in the event you blanket. Think of digestible power like your horses calorie requirement. Since horse nutrition is 90% math, lets get back to that! If I proceed with the math we might calculate your horse's DE requirements, subsequent calculate how much extra DE horse statue is required for your current temperature, subsequent test your hay to see precisely how much DE it provides per pound, lastly calculate how much extra hay will present the extra DE required for the current temperature. If it is 20 levels F the place our buddy Max lives he would wish a further 2 1/2-5lb of hay. This guideline is for horses at maintenance or light work. Extra hay might be wanted in case your horse is a hard keeper, in heavy work, or on poor quality hay.
