As the temperature drops, horses burn extra energy to stay heat, subsequently their energy requirements will improve. We can provide our horses further energy within the type of concentrates and forage. Forages are digested by the microbes in your horses large intestine and produce extra heat than concentrates. An ideal analogy is to compare concentrate and forage to your wooden stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would receive free alternative hay bronze horse statue all through the winter. How much extra forage does your horse need to remain warm? Then they can regulate if they want more or less throughout the day and night. Some of us have straightforward keepers who would not 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 very first thing you might want to do is find out how much your horse weighs. Using body size plus coronary heart girth tends to be more accurate. I like to recommend utilizing the next method versus a weight tape that solely wraps round the guts girth. Utilizing a tender measuring tape (the sort often present in sewing kits) measure your horses coronary heart girth and write the variety of inches down. Next, measure the body size from level of shoulder to point of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL additionally, it will assist ensure you that you are measuring at the same location every time. Ensure you write all of it down to check with throughout the winter. In case you are a couple of inches off, probably you're measuring from a slightly totally different location (except you may inform by trying that your horse has obviously gained or lost 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 figure out how a lot hay he needs to eat. Your average horse in superb weight ought to consume 2% of his physique weight. Some hard keepers require upwards of 2.5% of physique weight. If you have an overweight horse, you'll be able to drop right down to 1.5% of his body weight, however no less than that or you can be creating a complete different set of points! 23lb of hay per day. Max weighs 1,159lb and must eat 2% of his physique weight. When the temperature drops under 45 degrees F (together with wind chill) horses start to burn extra power to remain heat. This forty five degree mark is called "Critical Temperature". For each 1 degree F below the important temperature, your horse will require a 1% improve in digestible power (DE). As with every little thing horse associated, there are loads of variables to this rule, akin to wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or should you blanket. Consider digestible vitality 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, next calculate how a lot additional DE is required to your current temperature, subsequent check your hay to see exactly how much DE it offers per pound, lastly calculate how much 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 upkeep or gentle work. Additional hay will be wanted if your horse is a hard keeper, in heavy work, or on poor quality hay.
