Coping with Christmas
we adjust horses’ diets to address this, generally temporary, increase in workload? A horse’s requirements for nutrients, like protein, vitamins and minerals, all go up with increased workload, just as those for calories do too. The alterations to the diet, necessary to meet these needs, will depend on the horse’s existing diet and calorie requirements, so let’s take a look at some possible options.
F
or horse owners, time off work or school at Christmas generally means more riding. So how should
balancer. This could take the form of soaked beet pulp, alfalfa chaff, a high oil supplement or reduced amounts of a low energy mix or cube, alongside the balancer. The beauty of this arrangement is that the daily amount of balancer can stay the same, to ensure the diet is balanced and the horse’s vitamin and mineral requirements are met, while the level of additional calories can be varied according to work done.
Moderate Calorie Requirements Good-Doers
If your horse is naturally a good-doer and generally maintains condition all winter long on grass and hay or haylage, the best thing to feed alongside this is a low-calorie balancer. This provides all the nutrients likely to be lacking from a forage-only diet but without the calories associated with a “conventional” mix or cube, and will help maintain muscle tone, healthy hooves and general well-being, without adding to the horse’s waistline.
This can be fed all year round and is safe to feed whether your horse is working or not. When the horse is doing more work, through the holidays, simply increase the amount of balancer fed, according to the manufacturer’s guidelines, which is likely to mean an additional cup or two, depending on the size of the horse and workload. If the horse is actually a little overweight, take the opportunity to encourage some weight loss by only increasing the balancer and not adding extra calories, when the work goes up.
If your horse is likely to lose some condition when the work increases, as the calories provided by his forage are no longer sufficient, you need to provide an additional energy source alongside his
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If your horse or pony is normally fed the recommended amount of a low energy high fibre mix or cube through the winter, even when he’s not doing a lot of work, check the back of the bag and increase the amount you feed to match his increased workload. Watch that his meals aren’t bigger than around 4lb (1.8kg) each and, if you can’t divide the daily recommended amount of feed into sufficient small meals, consider changing to a higher energy feed, which provides more energy and nutrients per kilo. As a guide low energy feeds would deliver 8 – 10 MJ/kg of Digestible Energy (DE), medium energy feeds, 10 – 12 MJ/kg and high energy feeds, 12 – 14 MJ/kg. Their vitamin, mineral and protein levels are also different to match the workloads for which they are designed. Always follow the feeding recommendations on the sack to ensure your horse is receiving a fully balanced diet with all the nutrients he needs, alongside forage. Under feeding a mix or cube, to control calorie intake, may mean the horse misses out on essential nutrients so adding a balancer is a good idea to bring levels of essential nutrients up, without unwanted calories.
High Calorie Requirements
Hunting can be a seriously demanding activity and, hopefully, you will have prepared your horse, in anticipation of some extra days, by raising his fitness levels and adjusting his feed accordingly. This could mean slowly adding small amounts of a higher energy conditioning or competition feed to his existing diet, or making the change from a low or medium energy feed to the higher energy feed as you do more work.
Keep an eye on body condition as this can drop off rapidly, after the excitement of a day’s hunting, and be prepared to increase feed accordingly. It’s not always necessary to cut the feed right back, the day after hunting, especially if the horse is going to spend the day in the field. Feeding the normal ration will allow the body to recover and replenish internal nutrient reserves, while using a balancer alongside reduced amounts of mix or cube may be good for those who don’t need the full calorie levels on a day off.
Rehydration
Electrolytes are often overlooked during the winter months but giving them in water or wet sloppy feed, every time the horse sweats, will aid rehydration and recovery. This can be of particular importance when work levels are fluctuating to give the horse every chance to cope with the unexpected.
www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk info@baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk
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