As the temperature drops, horses burn extra power to stay heat, therefore their power necessities will improve. We will present our horses further power in the type of concentrates and forage. Forages are digested by the microbes in your horses large intestine and produce extra heat than concentrates. An incredible analogy is to match focus and forage to your wooden stove. Concentrates are your kindling and Forage are the logs. Ideally a horse would obtain free selection hay throughout the winter. How much additional forage does your horse need to remain warm? Then they can regulate in the event that they want roughly in the course of the day and night. Some of us have easy keepers who would not do properly on free alternative hay! For these horses, we have to regulate their intake. Weigh out their hay and provide it in small gap hay nets to prolong their quantity of chew time. The very first thing it's good to do is learn the way much your horse weighs. Using body length plus coronary heart girth tends to be extra correct. I like to recommend using the next method versus a weight tape that solely wraps around the guts girth. Using a mushy measuring tape (the type usually found in sewing kits) measure your horses coronary heart girth and write the number of inches down. Next, measure the body length from level of shoulder to point of hip, and write it down. Write down the HG and BL also, this can help make sure you that you are measuring at the same location each time. Be sure you write all of it right down to check with all through the winter. If you are a number of inches off, probably you might be measuring from a slightly completely different location (until you may tell by trying that your horse has obviously gained or misplaced weight). Try to seek out landmarks. Paint horses have great landmarks! Now that you know the way a lot your horse weighs, you can work out how a lot hay he must eat. Your common horse in preferrred weight should devour 2% of his body weight. Some onerous keepers require upwards of 2.5% of physique weight. When you have an overweight horse, you possibly can drop right down to 1.5% of his physique weight, but no less than that or you may be creating an entire other set of points! 23lb of hay per day. Max weighs 1,159lb and needs to eat 2% of his physique weight. When the temperature drops below 45 levels F (together with wind chill) horses start to burn further vitality to stay heat. This forty five degree mark known as "Important Temperature". For every 1 degree F beneath the critical temperature, your horse would require a 1% improve in digestible vitality (DE). As with every little thing horse related, there are numerous variables to this rule, reminiscent of wind chill, rain/sleet, your horses coat thickness or in the event you blanket. Consider digestible energy like your horses calorie requirement. Since horse nutrition is 90% math, lets get back to that! If I continue with the math we'd calculate your horse's DE requirements, subsequent calculate how much extra DE is required in your present temperature, subsequent test your hay to see precisely how much DE it gives per pound, lastly calculate how a lot further hay will present the additional DE required for the current temperature. If it's 20 levels F where our buddy Max lives he would want a further 2 1/2-5lb of hay. This guideline is for horses at upkeep or light work. Additional hay can be wanted if your horse is a hard keeper, in heavy work, or collectible horse figurines on poor quality hay.