Kickstart The New Year With Nutrition
As we step into a fresh new year, it’s the perfect time to focus on health and wellness—not just for ourselves but for our equine partners too! January is a crucial month to evaluate your horse’s dietary needs, especially with winter conditions and post-holiday reset vibes. Here’s a guide to keeping your horse energized and balanced this season.
1. WHY ENERGY BALANCE MATTERS IN WINTER
Traditionally, during colder months horses would use more energy to stay warm and depend on the fermentation of forage to generate heat. However, with more modern management practices, such as using rugs and stabling, the likelihood of "natural" weight loss is reduced. In fact, with the shorter days and poor weather causing havoc with exercise and activity levels, some good doers may even start to gain unwanted weight.
At the other end of the scale, limited turnout and quality of grazing can make a forage only diet insufficient for maintaining weight, which may result in underfeeding and difficulty maintaining proper body condition.
The balance starts by understanding your individual horse's needs, their body condition and temperament, plus the changing circumstances that the winter months bring.
2. Adjusting for Winter Energy Needs
Factors to Consider:
- Body Condition Score (BCS): Body Condition Scoring is a method of assessing your horse's body fat coverage and should form part of your routine management plan. Your horse's body condition score will determine whether they are considered a healthy condition that needs to be maintained, or whether they need to lose or gain weight.
- Activity Level: Workload and energy expenditure will play a significant role in how many calories are required to support the work your horse is doing. Whilst every horse is different, a horse in very light work over the winter months will not require as many calories to maintain their body condition as a horse who is in hard work. Accurately assessing your horse's current workload as well as the general time spent out of the stable is crucial for their health and welfare.
- Temperament: Reduction in turnout and exercise can have an impact on those horses with plenty of natural energy. Behavioural issues can be intensified when turnout is restricted and feed is not adjusted. Evaluating the best source of energy for your horses' requirements is essential for keeping your horse cool and calm during the cold months.
- Temperature: Horses burn more calories in freezing weather to maintain core body temperature. The thermoneutral zone of a healthy adult horse is generally between 5°C and 25°C, though this can vary based on age, breed, coat thickness, activity level, and acclimatisation. Below 5°C, horses need extra energy to maintain body heat. The combination of cold, rain and wind can exacerbate this demand further. Therefore horses kept outdoors in the cold season may need more feed. Older horses have reduced thermoregulatory ability due to decreased metabolic rate and so may require additional feed to maintain body condition when temperatures drop.
- Herd dynamics: For horses turned out in herds, dominant horses have been shown to spend more time eating hay, and consequently gaining weight, while lower-ranked horses spend more time grazing and may lose body condition. To ensure all horses can access sufficient forage, hay should be provided in multiple piles around the field. Lower ranked horses may also struggle to access water or shelter if more dominant horses are taking priority.
3. Balancing Calories: Forage First
The foundation of any horse’s diet is forage.
- For those that are struggling to maintain their weight, firstly increase hay, this will help their internal radiator in keeping them warm and support digestion. Forage intake should never fall below 1.5% of their body weight per day, with this being increased to 2-2.5% for those requiring weight gain.
- For poor doers, use high-quality hay or haylage to offer the best nutritional value. In addition you can consider supplementing their forage with alfalfa or beet pulp. This is also helpful for increasing fibre intake in fussy feeders with limited appetites.
- For horses with compromised dentition that struggle to chew hay, forage replacers such as chaff, sugarbeet, grass pellets, fibre cubes, or hay cobs should be used to increase fibre intake.
- For overweight horses, reduce the calorie density of their fibre by offering lower calorie forage options (such as Timothy hay), soaking it if required, and using a slow feeder to extend eating time. Regularly monitoring your horse’s BCS ensures their fibre intake supports their individual needs while keeping them healthy and content.
4. Fine-Tuning with Concentrates
If forage alone is not enough to support weight, a concentrated feed may be necessary to increase calorie intake. Before heading to the feed store to pick up a bag of ‘high energy horse feed’ it is important to think about what type of energy your horse requires, particularly if turnout and workload is restricted.
For horses with plenty of natural energy who require calories for weight maintenance, looking out for ingredients such as soya hulls, alfalfa (lucerne) and beet pulp are key. These ingredients are known as ‘Super-fibres’ which are highly digestible and provide as much energy as cereal grains but from a slow-release energy source. In addition, feeds with a moderate oil content are also considered a ‘safe’ energy source that are calorie dense and suitable for those with a history of temperament, digestive or metabolic issues.
For those who are working harder over the winter months, instant energy may be required to support work requirements. When feeding instant energy, it is starch that will be responsible for providing added ‘sparkle,’ and supporting overall recovery. Starch is provided by cereals in the hard feed, such as oats, barley and maize. Starch is also the best energy source for ‘topping up’ muscle glycogen stores after exercise periods as starch digestion results in a direct rise in blood glucose and insulin, two of the most important factors involved in glycogen synthesis.
DID YOU KNOW?
Although they get a bad reputation, oats are actually the highest fibre, lowest starch cereal grain.
5. HYDRATION IS KEY
Whilst we usually think about dehydration in hot weather, horses in fact tend to drink less in winter. This combined with an increase in stable time and dry forage can all increase the risk of impaction colic. Encouraging hydration is key, and can be done by:
- Providing warm, unfrozen water where possible. Heated drinking water is shown to increase water intake compared to water near the freezing point (Kristula and McDonnell, 1994).
- Strategically using Re-Covery Mash™ for horses that are poor drinkers. The mash can be made into a soupy drink so the horses drink the fluid from the top before enjoying the banana flavoured mash. It can be fed as and when needed without disruption to the horse's normal feed routine.
- Add 1-2 table spoons of salt to their daily feed or provide access to a salt lick. This will help to replenish any electrolytes lost through sweating, as well as stimulating a normal thirst response.
- Briefly soaking forage or using haylage not only helps with hydration but can also reduce dust and allergens, making it a valuable practice during winter when horses might be stabled for longer or susceptible to dust related coughs.
TOP TIP
Regularly check your horse for dehydration by performing a skin pinch test on their neck or shoulder. In a well-hydrated horse, the skin should return to its normal position within a second. Monitor their mucous membranes too - they should be moist and pink, not dry or pale.
6. BEATING THE JANUARY BLUES : INCREASED TIME IN THE STABLE
Knee deep in mud, water logged or frozen fields can lead to reduced turnout and an increased amount of time spent stables. Providing plenty of exercise and enrichment for your horses during this period is key to both their physical and psychological wellbeing. The best thing about enrichment is that it doesn’t need to be costly in terms of money or time.
Stable enrichment can be really easy and simple. Simply placing their forage in multiple haynets around the stable, or introducing an alternative forage source (if appropriate) can help to mimic their natural browsing behaviour and keep them occupied for longer. Treat balls with Super Fibre Cubes or grass pellets in are also an excellent way of encouraging ‘grazing’ behaviour and will help to keep your horse both busy and mentally stimulated.
Other ideas for the stable include hanging ‘treats’ such as carrot or vegetable kebabs or providing a stable lick. Even hiding small handfuls of fibre cubes in each corner of your horse’s stable will encourage them to move around and find them. Picking safe weeds such as cow parsley, nettle, dandelion or other hedgerow herbs and bringing them into the stable will allow your horse to use their natural browsing instinct.
Enrichment can come in many forms and even something as simple as hand grazing or giving your horse a nice groom can be the perfect ‘pick me up’.
7. New Year: Body Goals for the Good Doer
Now is the perfect time to reassess your horses’ fitness routine to prepare them for spring, as well as getting them fit and healthy for the work required for the season ahead.
Did you know?
When looking at the body fat score of a horse, each number on the 1-9 fat scoring chart equates to approximately 23kg of bodyweight. If your horse has a body condition score of 7 and you are looking to get them to an ‘optimum’ score of 5, this will mean losing approximately 46kg!
As horse owners we are proven to regularly overestimate our horses' workload and consequently select feeds which over exceed their energy requirements. Of a survey of 1,207 horses, 75% of horse owners considered their horses to be in medium work when guidelines in fact classified them as being in light work. Being realistic with your horses work load is key to selecting a suitable feed regime for their overall health, body condition and temperament.
Facing Facts
Research investigating the impact on Body Condition Score (BCS) found a number of links between BCS and performance. A study looked at the amount of force showjumpers experienced when landing after a fence. For every increase in BCS, it was found to significantly increase the degree of vertical force (VN) that was recorded within the hoof plate. For example, a 500kg horse with a Body Condition Score of 7 was found to experience an additional 722 Newtons of force on their landing limb (Clayton and Hobbs, 2019). This is comparable to lifting 73.7kg, or nearly 4 bags of your favourite Saracen Horse Feed!
Short for time?
Reduction in daylight (and let's face it, enthusiasm!) can mean that exercise becomes more of a challenge during the winter months. However, just 25 minutes of light exercise 5 times per week can support weight loss. One study looked at the effect of a light exercise programme over the course of 12 weeks. Alongside an appropriate restriction of forage, an exercise regime consisting of 5 minutes of walking, 15 minutes of trotting and a ‘cool down’ of 5 minutes walking decreased overall body condition score and adipose fat when compared to the control group.
Horses in regular work usually have strong abdominal muscles that hold their belly up, but horses that have been out of work will lose these muscles which can cause the belly to 'droop'. In addition, a horse who has been out of work and has lost some topline will also appear bottom (or rather belly!) heavy. Be sure not to restrict calories if lack of muscle tone is the real culprit!
Remember!
- Always ensure a minimum of 1.5% of forage on a dry matter basis.
- Set realistic goals for weight, muscle tone, and fitness.
- Consider light lunging, groundwork, or a brisk hack to keep them active without overexertion in the cold.
Keep track of your horse’s fitness regime by downloading our free exercise tracker HERE
8. REVIEW, IMPROVE, Repeat
Monitoring your horse's BCS, workload, routine and temperament can help to make small adjustments in your horse's management before greater issues arise.
- Daily Assessment: Monitor for changes in droppings, appetite or water intake.
- Weekly checks: Assess weight and adjust feeding as necessary.
- Vet and nutritionist input: If you have any concerns about your horse's health or nutrition, it is best to consult with professionals such as your vet or an equine nutritionist to discuss their individual requirements.