Management of Horses During Winter

Management of Horses During Winter

Sheikh Uzma Farooq¹, Aditya Sharma²

¹Department of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, Khalsa College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Amritsar

²Department of Veterinary Pathology, Khalsa College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Amritsar

Introduction:-

Basic horse care includes proper nutrition, a planned health maintenance schedule, adequate facilities (housing and space) and a hoof care routine. Other considerations include exercise programs, training programs and proper riding equipment. However environmental changes also must be considered. Although there is no control over seasonal changes, they have an effect on horses that must be recognized. Extreme variances in temperature require adjusting your management programs for the benefit of the horse. Cold and wet weather can cause problems with hooves, colic, stable vises such as cribbing, and increase the horse’s nutritional needs. As the weather gets cold, horses expend more energy staying warm. Horsemen should normally increase the feed by one or two pounds during cold weather to provide adequate energy to assist the horse in maintaining his body temperature. It is also critical to provide adequate roughage for the horse to avoid cribbing and other stable vices associated with a lack of roughage. Horsemen should also provide hay free choice to satisfy the needs and avoid potential cribbing problems.

Natural defences in horses body:-

• The horse has two natural defenses against cold, a long hair coat and a layer of fat beneath the skin. Both provide an excellent means of insulation against the cold.
• The long winter hair coat serves as insulation by reducing the loss of body heat and provides the first line of defense against the cold. Its insulating value is lost when the horse becomes wet and/or is covered with mud. This is why it is important to provide a dry sheltered area in cold wet weather and regular grooming.
• In damp weather, be alert for rain rot and other skin problems. If unchecked, rain rot can result in hair loss and irritation to the horse.
• It is very important to keep the horse from losing its hair coat and body weight and approaching an energy deficient state (the horse must be properly fed).

Management practices for horses:-

1. Shelter:-

• Horse must have shelter where it can dry off each day and be out of the wind. If the horse has proper shelter, its winter hair coat will generally keep it warm enough.
• The hairs grow downward to make an insulating layer of air. When the horse gets cold, special muscles make the hair stand up, which increases the air layer and the insulation.
• A horse produces more body oils in the winter, which help the coat shed water. So, if the horse is dry and out of the wind, it can stand subfreezing temperatures easily.
• But when the horse gets wet, its hair flattens, and the insulating air layer is lost. Wet hair also conducts heat away from the horse’s body faster than dry hair, which may cause the horse to get cold.
• If horse is shivering, has a tense body or clamped tail, or its ears feel cold, it is probably too cold. Wind also affects the insulating air layer in a horse’s coat by blowing the hairs apart. This greatly increases the loss of body heat.
• Wind is often more of a problem than rain. A horse can stand being in the rain for awhile as long as the wind is not blowing.

2.      Stable Yards:-

• Stables should be well ventilated, but not draughty.
• Bedding should be dry, clean and dust-free to minimise the chance of the horse picking up respiratory disorders. A good, deep bed will also help to keep out draughts.
• Consider using a stable disinfectant regularly to reduce ammonia levels.
• Hay and haylage should be dust-free to minimise the risk of coughs and allergies. As stated earlier, always ensure a supply of clean, fresh water and in sub-zero temperatures, check that automatic waterers are not frozen.
• Remove hose pipes from taps and fill buckets of water to be kept in the tack room so that you have a supply in the morning if taps freeze overnight.
• Finally, keep a supply of salt and/or grit to spread on the yard when conditions are icy to prevent the horse and its handler from slipping.

3. Feeding:-

• In cold weather, a horse needs more energy to keep warm, so its nutritional needs increase. Feeding the horse properly during winter not only prevents weight loss and loss of conditioning, but helps prevent colic and laminitis.
• A general rule of thumb is to increase the feed ration 10 percent for each 10°F below freezing.
• A common mistake is to increase the amount of grain, but a horse needs more forage in cold weather, not more grain.
• The fermentation of forage during digestion produces more and longer-lasting heat than that produced from the digestion of grain. Therefore, giving horse more hay will help it keep warm, but feeding it extra grain will not.
• Horses often are not worked as hard in the winter, so they do not use as much energy. Since grains are generally high in carbohydrates (the source of most energy), you must decrease the amount fed or the horse may become too energetic and less manageable.

4. Watering:-

• Wintertime watering can be a challenge. A cold horse does not like to drink cold water and may drink very little if the water is icy. Though they are not losing water from sweating, horses still need plenty of water.
• Two common results of a horse’s not drinking enough are dehydration and impaction colic. Make sure your horse gets enough to drink by providing clean, fresh water free of ice.
• Ensure that horse has access to a good supply of clean, fresh water at all times – if minus temperatures are forecast, fill up water buckets and keep them in the tack or feed room overnight so you don’t have to worry immediately about frozen taps and pipes in the morning.
• Check regularly that automatic waterers in stables are in good working order and are not frozen.
• Putting a ball in the field water trough can prevent it from freezing solid.

5. Blanketing:-

• Most horses do not need to be blanketed. One of the main concerns with blankets is overheating. If the horse gets too warm, it sweats under the blanket and becomes wet. This can lead to chills and illness.
• If you choose to blanket, change blanket weight with changes in temperature, both from day to night and from day to day. It is always better that a blanket be too light than too heavy.
• Check for overheating by feeling for sweat under the blanket near the girth and the flank. Often people blanket their horse more as a convenience to them than as a help to the horse. Make sure to have a good reason for keeping the horse blanketed all winter.

 When deciding whether or not to blanket the horse in winter, take the following into account:

1. Horse’s condition. A healthy, conditioned horse is less likely to need blanketing. An older horse, an underweight horse, or a horse with a health problem may require blanketing.
2. Horse’s activity level. If the horse is not being ridden much during the winter, don’t blanket it. If you are riding daily or showing, you may want to clip the horse, in which case you must blanket it.
3. If horse has adequate shelter, it probably doesn’t need a blanket. The more exposure your horse has to wind and rain, the more likely it will need a blanket.
4. Blankets are expensive. To blanket horse properly, you will need several blankets of different weights.
5. Your time commitment. Keeping the horse blanketed takes a lot of work. Because blankets flatten the horse’s hair, you should groom the horse daily to stir the hair back up. You should remove and readjust blankets at least once each day to check for areas of rubbing, hair loss, or sores. Replace wet turnout blankets with dry ones. Never stall a horse in a wet blanket. Check blankets for damage daily, and clean them several times a year. All of these things take time. If you cannot commit to changing your horse’s blanket at least once a day, you should not blanket at all.
6. Exercise:-

• Even in winter, daily exercise is important. Horses often are turned out and ridden less in winter. This makes them very energetic when they are turned out, especially if their grain ration has not been reduced.
• Horses can hurt themselves if they are too rambunctious, pulling muscles and tendons. Make sure your horse gets some exercise each day. Warm it up slowly to loosen muscles.
• The colder the weather, the longer it takes to warm up adequately. Even more important than the warm-up time is properly cooling the horse down after the workout.
• In winter, a horse needs to be cooled down gradually and completely to avoid the risk of chills. If the horse is sweaty, rub its coat with a towel to fluff the hair. Keep the horse moving until its hair is dry and its body temperature has returned to normal.
• If the blood vessels narrow too rapidly, cramps can develop. On the average, during the winter, half of your workout time should be spent cooling the horse down.
• If you are riding outside during the winter, remember that footing is often slippery. Frozen ground is hard and can cause bruises to the horse’s sole.
• Abscesses are more common in the winter mud. Snow can pack in shoes, causing lameness.

Conclusion:-

The management and care for horses should be based on the principles of thermoregulation and mechanisms of heat loss and gain. Management of horses should aim to help horses to cope with changing weather conditions by providing them a freedom of choice. This should include space for movement, protection from sunshine, precipitation and wind, dry bedding, and appropriate feeding management. When horses are kept in a group, social dynamics must be considered, so that all individuals get sufficient access to the resources.

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