THE WINTER BLUES FOR BOTH HORSE AND OWNER. its going to be all up to you to decide....

This post is for one of my readers..I had a request to comment on winter care and I have got a boat load of advice on that subject and I thank my reader for the request.

The winter months are more brutal on the horse owner than it is the horse..with a few...and I did say few exceptions.  Reason is..well horses actually like the cold weather.  I see my horses out in the rain cold and sleet without ever retreating to the barn and it bothers me like you would not believe.  I usually run back and forth to the window to check to see if they are actually out there in that type of weather. 

But..now there are some buts...and you have to make a decision based on your horse and what type of situation presents itself there. 

I have witnessed my horses live through the toughest parts of winter with the rain, getting wet then a super cold front hits and I can actually see them shivering.  Yes they are cold but it also their bodies response when they shiver to keep them warm just like humans.  I tend to lend a little help when they get to that point..but there are times I would not and I shall explain.

I have dealt with thoroughbreds a good portion of my career, so..in saying that... I have an animal that is different from the rest.. The metabolism, the thickness of their skin, the amount of nerve endings in their skin versus other horses and the way that they burn energy to keep themselves warm all add up to doing more for them than I would for lets say a quarter horse. 

Let us start off with this piece by piece..so what do you feed a horse in the colder winter months?  Well consider this, fat makes fat and the fat storage on your horse in winter will be the very thing that keeps him/her warm during the cold and this is the case without blanketing. but we will get to the blanketing later.  Horses have the greatest ability to maintain their body temperature.  Now the key is to feed a feed that is high in fat or an additional fat supplement and feed ample hay so that they are not going to lose fat during the cold months which means once the fat is gone then their body goes for the muscle to maintain the body temps and then you get a horse that is going to be out of condition and that leads to other problems all in themselves.  They have plenty of supplements that add quite a bit of fat to the diet if you don't want to change your feed to a higher fat content.  Corn oil added to feed, Fat Cat is great, any fat supplement is going to add more fat for what you need to accomplish.  Now the thing I like to do is add alfalfa to the diet as well...I do not feed alfalfa in the summer months, it is too hot of a feed and can cause many problems and they just don't need it in my opinion.  But a good supplementation of alfalfa is great in the winter time.  The key here is to give your horse enough nourishment to adequately supply him/her self with the warmth they need during the cold winter months.

Water is very important in the winter months and horses can go either way, they either drink a lot and then you have no worries or they back off of the water intake and that can lead to impaction, by not having enough water to work the bowels properly.  In this case it is going to be up to you to observe your horse's water intake and a quick fix for this would be to add electrolytes to the feed and not in the water.  Adding to the water may discourage water intake, but when you add it to the feed, it will do what it was meant to do if you put it in the suggested route of administration, the water. This is important stuff so pay attention.

Bran mash in the winter is something that people think is doing something for their horse.  Just the thought of giving a warm, steamy bran mash  is a warm fuzzy feeling carrying that bucket to give to your horse, I know all about that .  But...giving too much of a bran mash is detrimental... it can do more harm than good..I have previous post that discuss this.

Now blanketing..this is controversial but let me give you my feelings and that may allow you to make a decision one way or the other.  First off, horses have the ability to grow a fantastic coat that keeps them insulated and warm during the cold winter months.  Horses also have the ability to grow a heavier coat if they are experiencing more cold as the months go on.  So, horses have the ability to adapt to the conditions they live in.   We can greatly reduce this ability if we choose to blanket our horses for the winter.  Now, I do blanket, but in certain situations.   My feeling is this...if you impeded the growth by putting on a blanket, how do you know if you are able to keep that horse as warm as it should be?  I mean this when I say that.....you start blanketing early, you hinder the natural ability to accommodate cold weather by not allowing the coat to grow to meet what the horse is needing and you can get a cold snap with sub zero temps and that blanket that you put on too early is not enough to keep that animal warm adequately so now you got their furnace working on over drive.   More than likely, you didn't give any extra feed for this and so you start getting an animal that is going to use internally what it needs to stay warm when it had exactly what it needed externally if it was given the chance to maintain the proper growth of coat.  So it's gonna be up to you.

I do blanket my thinner skinned thoroughbreds, and if I see that they are not liking the blanket, I do not use a blanket at all.  They actually help me decide.  I will blanket in the winter on a day that has temps and wind chills that are hard for any animal to take.  I will blanket a horse that is not thriving in weight and needs some help to maintain his temp, otherwise I will be like a hamster on a wheel trying to get that horse to gain weight.  I will blanket a sick horse if necessary and I will blanket a horse that had come up from a warmer climate to a bitter cold one because they have not adapted to the climate and need assistance, but they will eventually grow the coat they need in a few seasons.

Never blanket a sweaty horse, and replace wet blankets with dry ones because you greatly reduce the insulating abilities to keep warm.

I once went to a barn where the manager lacked management skills so serious that I do not wonder why she is no longer in business.  She was a lazy manager and would let the  wired stabled horses out in an arena as a herd with the blankets on and the horses ran like fools and would get all worked up and sweaty.  One day I walked in and there was a smoke coming from the arena, I thought the place was on fire.  It was steam...all of those horses were soaked with sweat, and it being a frigid day, they all were steamed and the amount of horses involved, you couldn't see them in the arena because of the steam.   Now did she do anything for those horses as that time?  Just think of how miserable they must have felt carrying around a soaked blanket and then being thrown in a stall...needless to say I was nauseated.

Well folks I hope this helps you and thank you for stopping in...have questions or concerns, I am here to tell ya what I think...