This newsletter
is a personal letter from me to you,
a fellow horse owner and enthusiast.
My goal is to answer some of your questions and send you interesting stories
and helpful tips for your
horse care, training, and riding.
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Winter Exercise
Winter Feed and Water
Pigeon Fever Update
Christmas Book Sets
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Winter Exercise
Dear
Cherry,
How much exercise should I give my horse
during the winter months, taking into account I'm at work all day and it'll soon
be dark when I get home. My horse is a Danish warmblood. Five years old. Am at
the moment schooling and hacking out on the forest. I ride him just about every
day for no more than an hour. I'm aiming to do dressage and a little eventing.
Many thanks, Suzy.
Dear Cherry,
Do
you have specific tips for the horse to stay fit during the winter months?
Amy
Dear Suzy and Amy,
Bravo
to you both for aiming to continue your horse's training and exercise program
through the winter. Actually in many ways, winter is my favorite time to ride
- no bugs, invigorating for both me and my horse, and is a great break from the
longer hours I tend to be indoors during the winter.
But
winter riding can pose its problems - like Suzy points out, it gets dark pretty
early, so if you don't have a lighted indoor arena to ride in after work, that
can be limiting. Also, I hesitate to saddle up much after 3 PM (we're at 7000
feet in the Colorado Rockies) unless I am just going for a moseying kind of walk
because the temperature really plummets about 4 PM and makes cooling out properly
more difficult.
If you are
going to keep your horses in active work, consider a combination of body clipping
and blanketing. Clipping will reduce sweating during a vigorous work out and will
allow you to cool your horses out more quickly and safely. Be sure to use a cooler
on your horse as soon as you return after a work session.
Consider using a quarter sheet when you ride.
Read
about Quarter
Sheets.
Also
winter riding might require specialized shoes for your horse. Read about winter
shoe options.
Read more about Winter
Exercise.
Maybe I'll see you on the trail this winter!
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Winter Feed and Water
Dear Cherry,
I recently read your article
on feeding in the winter. I keep my horse at a boarding facility and I do not
agree with their feeding schedule at all. My horse is a 16 h, 3yr old warmblood
and right now, his ribs are showing really bad. He receives approx 9 flakes of
hay a day (only at 8am and 6pm) When he is outside between these hours he gets
NO hay and NO water. The owners of the barn feel that this is appropriate feeding
habits. I asked to increase the hay amount and they said, "no, to gain weight
on a horse, you have to increase grain". Could you please do me the favour
of e-mailing them your article or just a brief message on how horses should be
fed. If you can do this, I would much appreciate it, since it seems impossible
for me to get through to them, maybe they will listen to a professional. Thank
you very much for your time.
Liz
Hi Liz,
Is your horse on a regular deworming program? In
a boarding facility, this would mean deworming the horse every 2 months or keeping
him on a daily dewormer. Read my article on deworming at https://www.horsekeeping.com/horse_health_care/horse_dewormers.htm
and confer with your veterinarian to determine the best plan for your horse. If
you and your vet agree that your horse has been on an appropriate deworming program,
then perhaps you should have a fecal test done (you would collect a fecal sample
for your vet to examine under a microscope) on your horse to see if the deworming
program is being effective or not. Your horse could have tapeworms.
Once you are satisfied that all is well with parasite
prevention, let's talk about hay. You don't mention how much the "9 flakes
of hay per day" weigh. Nor do you mention the quality and type of hay being
fed. Here at my place, 9 flakes of the grass/alfalfa hay I feed would weigh 36
pounds and if I fed my 16 hand horses that much hay every day, they would be butterballs
in no time!
However, if the
9 flakes per day are light, wispy, poor quality grass flakes weighing 18 pounds,
then your horse is not being fed enough.
As a thumbrule,
I feed about 2 pounds of hay per day for every 100 pounds of a horse's body weight.
You don't say how much your horse weighs, but a 1000# horse would get 20 pounds
split into two 10 pound feedings. That's why I always recommend feeding hay by
weight not flakes.
Two flakes
of dense alfalfa hay could weigh as much as 14 pounds while two flakes of fluffy,
loose grass might only weigh 4 pounds!
Speaking of alfalfa,
although there is a minor amount (10-15%) of alfalfa in the grass/alfalfa mix
hay that I feed, if I wanted to put weight on a horse, I'd increase the amount
of alfalfa hay in his ration GRADUALLY, paying attention to that particular horse's
ability to tolerate alfalfa without him developing excess gas or his manure becoming
sloppy.
Make all changes to
the new hay gradual. In this case, feed 90% old hay and 10% new hay for several
days; then 80% old hay and 20% new hay for a few more days; then 70% old hay and
30% new hay for a few more days and so on until you find the grass to alfalfa
ratio that works best for your horse.
Now,
during the winter, for every ten degrees Fahrenheit below freezing, the hay ration
should be increased 10%. So, when it is twelve degrees above zero Fahrenheit (twenty
degrees below freezing), the grass-alfalfa hay ration of a 1200 pound horse may
be increased from 24 pounds per day (the usual recommendation of about 2% of the
body weight) to 28.8 pounds per day (a 20% increase). Horses fed less than is
necessary to combat cold and wind will burn fat and muscle tissue by shivering
to keep warm and will lose weight.
Horses
will gain weight on grain, but I always make sure all of the above is being taken
care of before I would consider adding grain to a horse's ration. Grain increases
a horse's energy level so I generally only increase grain during the months when
I am working the horse hard. (I'm talking about a mature horse here, not a growing
horse or a broodmare, both of which would have different grain requirements.)
In closing, I'd like to say that in a perfect world,
your horse should be fed his hay ration individually according to his weight in
the morning, then he should be turned out for the day with access to water and
trace mineral salt and, if possible, a little bit of "busy hay" such
as grass. When he comes in for the night, he should again be fed his hay ration
individually according to his weight.
If
you show this information to your boarding farm manager, please show them my complete
reply.
Best of luck,
For more information on winter feed and water, read the article here:
Fresh_Water
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Pigeon Fever Update
There has been an unusual rise in cases of pigeon fever in Colorado and Wyoming.
To read more about this disease (also called Dryland Distemper) go to the updated
Pigeon
Fever page.
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Christmas
Book Sets
Books make a great Christmas gift for
members of your family, your many horse friends (or friends that are considering
getting a horse) or for yourself ! We've put together four Christmas book sets
to save you some money. Scroll through the book
list page and look for the orange boxes which highlight the book sets.
The Longeing Book Set includes
Longeing and Long Lining
the English and Western Horse, The Total Program - hard bound text
101 Longeing
and Long Lining Exercises, English and Western - spiral bound exercise book
The
Making Not Breaking Set includes
Making Not Breaking, the First Year
Under Saddle - hard bound text
Making Not Breaking - 90 minute audio tape
Western
Pocket Guide Set includes
Beginning Western Exercises
Intermediate
Western Exercises
Advanced Western Exercises
English
Pocket Guide Set includes
Beginning English Exercises
Intermediate
English Exercises
Advanced English Exercises
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That's
it for this month. Happy Holidays to each of you and to all of your families and
friends. Don't forget, when you take a ride, keep your mind in the middle and
a leg on each side.
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Before you copy, forward or post anything from this newsletter or Cherry
Hill's Horse Information Roundup, be sure you read this article! https://www.horsekeeping.com/copyright_information.htm
Don't forget to regularly check the Horse Information Roundup at
https://www.horsekeeping.com/horse-training-care-info.htm
to find information on training, horse care, grooming, health care, hoof care,
facilities and more.
Take the time to browse the complete Cherry Hill Horse Book Library at
https://www.horsekeeping.com/horse_books/book_list.htm
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