By utilizing a heated bucket or deicer, you can avoid ice and keep your horse’s water flowing freely. Be sure that you inspect the heater daily to verify that it is functioning properly and safely. Learn more about the importance of water during the winter on our blog post, Bottoms Up! Encouraging Water Consumption in Cold Temperatures. Meal Planning Jennifer Roberts-Keating Your horse’s nutritional requirements will change as the mercury drops. Many t is natural to wonder how you senior horses already have a decrease can keep your senior horse comfortable in their digestive efficiency, so they with a forecast of snow, sleet, wind, and require more calories than their youngsub-zero temperatures. As our friends er counterparts. According to Marsha age and enter their golden years, there Hathaway, Ph.D., Professor Muscle are additional health considerations Growth Biology and Equine Nutrition that must be made. Generally, a senior at the University of Minnesota, horses horse is considered a horse over 15 years require an additional 1% of energy for of age, since this tends to be the point each degree below 18° Fahrenheit. To at which changes in their metabolism provide these calories, she explains and immune system can be noticed. that it is beneficial to provide more hay We have compiled some quick tips to since “there is the heat generated from help you keep your senior horse content microbial fermentation of forages that and cozy in the frigid weather. Hopefully occurs in the hindgut during digestion.” knowing that your horse is at ease will When the temperatures drop to an make it easier for you to enjoy another exception, but it may be harder to keep extreme level, it is suggested that you winter season in New England. your horse drinking consistently. Horses provide your horse with free choice hay who do not have adequate water intake so that they can eat as much as they Drink Up! Water is an essential part of keeping are at an increased risk for impaction want. If your senior horse has trouble your senior horse healthy, whatever the colic, dehydration, and decreased body chewing their long-stem hay, consider weather may be. Winter is certainly no condition and bodily functions. a chopped hay product or hay cubes to
Caring for Your Senior Horse During the Cold Weather
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20 4 Legs & a Tail
Winter 2021
