How to keep weight on your horse in the winter

Summary:

·         Hay. Lots of hay, never not have hay available  

·         Weigh your grain you feed to your horse (not by the scoop)

  Add vitamin E

add a liquid oil supplement if you need more calories in your horse

·         Worm your horse

·         Offer shelter

   This can be a stall, a run in shed, a blanket, a good groove of trees. This varies by your horse personality type and metabolism. A big ole fat cob may be perfectly fine coatless out in the field but I heavily blanket my thoroughbred mare to keep the weight on her.

And yes, this varies greatly from horse to horse the level of each item listed. Some senior horses with teeth issues can’t probably chew hay so they need soaked mush and/or chopped hay. A metabolic horse or easier keeper horse may need hay nets so they don’t just get obese with unfettered access to hay.

My mare is a hard keeper and a high shedder. For my horses I always worm everyone in the spring and in the fall after the first hard frost and for my mare I worm her every few months.

my mare in one of her lightweight blankets at the square bale station

This year I also got 18 round bales so it’s less worry , work and money for me. I still throw out square bales to supplement and treat but it’s not a have to do thing twice a day.

yes they also like to nap in the round bales as they get eaten down

Horses should eat 1.5-2.5% of their weight every day in food (this is combo grain pounds and hay pounds). An average 1000-pound horse should be eating about 20 lbs of food a day. So say 6 lbs of grain and then 14 pounds of hay/grass. For 3 horses, I use about a round bale a week.

I also don’t use any sort of hay net for my round bales.

I do like to minimally take off blankets 1x/week to assess body scores of the horses and adjust up or down the feed I am giving. I have heard time and time again through really cold winters horse owners take the blanket off and are shocked at how thin their horse got.

With grain, I add in a omega 3 fat supplement for a few reasons. Its good for the horses skin/coat, it provides an easy source of calories that doesn’t add much weight AND it helps mix in my powder supplements.

The most important supplement in the winter is vitamin E. When horses have access to green pastures they get their vitamin E in without any supplementation. In hay, the vitamin E levels are significantly lower. You can get a liquid vitamin E or powder.

Low vitamin E can cause weight loss and can exacerbate neurological symptoms (say for EPM).

For me personally, I use grain for weight and Vermont blend or California trace as a horse multivitamin. It depends on your level in the country whether you should use Vermont blend or Cal trace. Take a look though (In the summer this can also help your horse hold their color better!)

me showing the grain I use personally . I like it also because it also has the highest calories per pound I could find at Tractor supply

I’ll be so excited to one day have a nice barn to use but for now this is how I manage my horses and their weight in the winter.

Thanks for reading!

-A