Winter Horse Feeding: Vitamin for the Senior

Conserving weight on a senior horse may be tough any time of 12 months, however with the challenges of chilly climate proper across the nook, dental points requiring soaked feed can create twice the headache. Nonetheless, with a little bit planning and these feeding and vitamin ideas, your senior horse can sail by way of the winter months in good weight and glowing well being.

Concentrate on Forage

Grass hay, cubes or pellets assist preserve weight and maintain your horse heat by elevating his inner physique temperature. This implies he can use the energy to take care of (or add) weight, fairly than burning energy to remain heat in chilly climate.

Purpose to feed at the very least 1.5 to three % of your horse’s physique weight per day in forage, or work together with your veterinarian on the correct amount on your senior horse.

Utilizing a sluggish feeder or small-hole hay internet will assist forestall hay wastage as mud and snow pile up. These have the additional advantage of mimicking grazing, which decreases stress and helps maintain the horse’s digestive system working effectively.

Soaking Feed for Your Senior within the Winter

In case your senior has misplaced enamel or has different dental points that forestall him from consuming hay (you’ll begin to see moist wads of partially chewed hay close to the feeder), feeding a soaked food regimen will present the proper vitamin and energy to maintain weight in your senior by way of the winter. Nonetheless, moist feed can freeze, making winter feeding doubly difficult. Listed below are a couple of ideas.

Probably the greatest hay replacements is unsweetened beet pulp. With an identical protein content material to grass hay (8 to 12 %), it additionally has a excessive stage of digestible fiber. Many horses prefer it plain, or you can also make it extra palatable by including hay pellets, cubes, or a high quality senior feed, and soaking them together with the beet pulp.

Even when a horse can eat hay, supplementing with soaked beet pulp is a good way to extend energy and assist preserve weight.

Beet pulp pellets have to be soaked for a number of hours earlier than feeding, and a standard ratio is utilizing twice as a lot water as pellets. To maintain the soaking pellets from freezing, it’s supreme to soak them in your own home or different heat place. One straightforward manner to do that is to have one bucket soaking in a single day for the morning feeding, then let the night feeding soak through the day.

A neater, faster answer is to feed shredded beet pulp as a substitute of pellets. Shreds want minimal soaking time, and fewer water relying in your horse’s desire. These are additionally massive advantages in case your horse is boarded.

NOTE: Straight beet pulp is excessive in calcium and low in phosphorus, so work together with your veterinarian to stability the minerals. Including a fats supply, like stabilized flax meal, will increase the calorie density of every meal.

Winter Feeders

Putting a feeder of soaked meals on the bottom will result in freezing extra shortly, so attempt to discover a option to elevate the feeder off the bottom. A straightforward answer is nesting a smaller feeder into a bigger feeder, or constructing an insulated feed field that holds the bucket.

It’s additionally good to rotate feed buckets so frozen feed doesn’t accumulate within the feeder.

As with feeding additional hay within the winter, attempt to feed solely the quantity that your senior can eat in half-hour or so. Including smaller, extra frequent feedings through the day will help your senior get the energy he wants with out the feed freezing earlier than he can eat all of it.

In case your barn has electrical energy, you possibly can strive utilizing a heated bucket for soaked feed. Like with a water heater, ensure the twine is horse-proof.

Serving to your senior horse preserve a superb weight through the winter may be difficult. The excellent news is that with some planning and easy horsekeeping and feeding tweaks, you possibly can chortle at outdated man winter and your senior horse can welcome spring in good weight and perhaps even a spring in his step

This text about feeding senior horses within the winter appeared within the October 2022 subject of Horse Illustrated journal. Click on right here to subscribe!