( ADVICE FROM THE VET )
FEEDING YOUR HORSE IN THE WINTER
By Line Kjær, Veterinary Surgeon at Avonvale Equine Practice, Banbury, Oxfordshire
W
inter is now well under way and autumn might already have
turned your lush green fields into muddy waterholes. The early nights and colder temperatures change the daily routine for your horse, including their diet. But how do you ensure that your horse is getting everything they needs during the winter?
The Good Doer Certain types of horses such as
native ponies and draſt horses don’t seem to need much food to get by. Oſten it seems that keeping them on an “air-only” diet is plenty. If you have a horse that’s a “good doer” and you are struggling keeping the weight off it during the summer, winter might give you a helping hand shedding that extra weight. The best way to ensure weight
loss is to restrict calorie intake and increase exercise. This can only be 100% controlled if the horse is on strict box rest or only turned out in a school or a woodchip-based paddock. This is obviously not ideal and not a possible solution for all horse owners. The alternative is to calculate your horse’s daily ration of food and then subtracting a certain percentage dependent on the amount of time the horse is turned out. Do be aware that even though you think your paddock is bare and hardly has any grass, there might be more nutrition in the grass than you think. This especially applies to native ponies who are bred to live off waste land and will be absorbing all the nutrients given to them. For weight loss we recommend feeding the horse 1.25% of its bodyweight in forage over a 24 hour period. This is equivalent to a 250 kg pony having a daily ration of 3.5 kg hay or 4.5 kg dry haylage. For a 500 kg horse this would be 6.9 kg hay or 8.9 kg dry haylage. It is important to notice that this amount is the only food the horse should be fed in a 24 hour period. If your horse goes out in a field during the day the ration should be cut down further, even if
you think that there isn’t a lot of grass in the field. Horses being turned out all day might not need hay at all.
The following is our recommendation for feeding your horse forage.
• 24 hour stable - 100% daily forage allowance • 4–8 hour pasture - 50–75% daily forage allowance • 8–12 hour pasture - 25–50% daily forage allowance
• 24 hour pasture - 0–25% daily 16 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
forage allowance Please notice that forage, whilst it may provide sufficient calories, does not cover your horse’s need for vitamins and minerals. We recommend feeding your horse a supplement or a balancer to make sure it’s getting its vitamins and minerals. Go for a non-conditioning balancer made for horses needing to lose weight. It will say on the package that they are suitable for horses in light work or for horses with laminitis. If you go for one with more calories, remember that
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