Fall  and Winter Feeding  ~

            Keeping them healthy and warm! 

Fall pasture management

            Fall is upon us.  Harvest is in full swing, pumpkins and corn stalk towers are showing up on yards, and Christmas products have arrived in many stores!!  What fall also means is that our pastures aren’t supplying to our horses what they did only a month or two ago. 

                I get many questions during fall seminars, about when is the best time to start putting hay out for horses.  My answer usually is this:  Put some hay out in a feeder in your pasture and let your horses tell you if it is time or not!  The great majority of horses would prefer to eat fresh vegetation over hay if they can, so if they are going to the hay feeder, than those pastures probably aren’t what they once were.  If they leave the hay alone, than your pasture is still in good shape.

                Fall is also a good time to mow pastures down so you have nice, uniform growth in the spring.   You may also want to consult your local extension service or agronomist about fall fertilization.  In addition, this is also a great time to harrow down manure piles that have accumulated through the summer.  The more you can do now… the better pasture you will have next spring and summer.  Remember, your pasture is probably your most economical feed source and is what mother nature intended your horses to eat!             

Evaluating Your Horse

                Fall is also a great time to properly evaluate your horse to make sure you are meeting his needs before you go into the winter months.  Check on the status of his teeth to make sure there are not problems in this area.  You don’t want to be caught off guard in the dead of winter with a horse losing weight due to teeth problems that weren’t caught earlier in the year. 

                I also recommend doing a preliminary body condition score on your horse before he grows his winter coat.  This will give you an idea if you need to start increasing calories or not in order to keep him in the proper condition through the cold months.  Horses generally need more calories in the winter as they burn more energy trying to keep warm.  It is not a good idea to go into winter with a horse that is already existing in a low body condition score.  I highly encourage you all to “keep your hands on them” all winter long to make sure that they are not losing weight.  Get yourself a body condition scoring chart and make sure you maintain the score that you took in the fall all winter long.

Meeting His Calorie Needs      

                If you find your horse in need of some additional cover, you need to increase the calories in his diet one way or another.  First, I would evaluate the forage in your horses diet.  Forage is the foundation for feeding horses, so I would first make sure he is getting enough hay.  If he is on pasture, he will free choice forage himself through grazing all day long.  If he is in a dry lot or stalled situation, I would recommend giving him enough hay at each feeding so that he hasn’t quite cleaned it all up when you go to feed again.  This assures you that he is also on a free choice forage program and can graze all day, just as his pasturing counterpart does.  If this doesn’t address his low weight issues, I would then evaluate the concentrate (grain/supplement) portion of the diet.

                Do I need more grain?  Possibly, but don’t feed more than 5 1bs per feeding to a 1000 lb horse, or essentially, no more than 1/2% of their body weight in concentrate (grain/supplements) per feeding.  Check the ingredient listing on the tag or bag, if ingredients are listed as terms like “roughage products, forage products, grain by products” you may need to find a higher quality grain mix that you can feed less of to accomplish the same thing.  Look for a fat level of, at the very least, 3% and a fiber level of no more than 10%, this assures that there is only grain in your feed, and not fillers.

                Another option is using fat as an energy source instead of grain.  There are many fat supplements on the market that can replace grain and add calories in a much more efficient and safe way.  Look for fat supplements with vegetable fats, Flaxseed and Soy Oil are two of the best.  An extruded fat product like Progressive Nutrition's Envision Classic product allows for absorption in the small intestine and significantly reduces any chance of digestive upset.  In addition, keeping fat in your horses’ diet through the winter can aid in shedding that hair coat in the summer.

What About Hot Bran Mashes?

                Hot bran mashes are commonly used in the winter to either add more water to the diet and/or take the chill off.  Remember that bran acts as a laxative which will increase rate of passage.  If fed in excess, bran can actually become a gut irritant, draw water from the digestive system and potentially dehydrate the horse.  The increased rate of passage can also loosen the stools, causing compromised absorption of many other important nutrients.  Try just having them drink hot water to take the chill off.  If you must use bran, use no more than about 4 oz per day and pay special attention to calcium levels in your total diet as the phytates in bran can cause a calcium deficiency.

Fueling the Internal Furnace

                Most important to remember is this:  What really keeps a horse warm and produces internal body heat is fiber digestion.  Corn is 2-3% fiber, Oats are 10-12% fiber, but most forages (hay) is about 25-45% fiber.  Thus… what will really do the best job of keeping your horse warm in the winter is finding the best quality hay you can find, and feeding him as much as he’d like to eat!

By:  Kelly Ann Graber B.S., P.A.S.
Equine Nutrition Consultant for Progressive Nutrition
To request a seminar or simply ask a question:
Contact me at 888-360-2204 or lkgraber@win-4-u.net

Equine Nutrition Library