With winter approaching in North America, our routines start to changeĀ in the barn. Do you alter your feeding during the cold weather months? I've been lucky to have easy keepers (nutrition wise anyway) and only needed to make minor adjustments to keep a healthy weight on. Most of my horses have been on 24/7 turnout with shelters and have done well on unlimited hay and a quality vitamin supplement that complemented the hay. The older guy that I had would have the addition of beet pulp (sans molasses) with salt added to encourage drinking (something he didn't like to do over the winter months). Oh, and way too many frozen carrots to count added to everybody's diet.
How does your routine change over the winter?
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Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. - John Wayne
I don't change the feeding by much, with the exception of feeding quite a lot more hay. My schedule changes, as in spring/summer/fall the horses are on grass during the day, supplemented with hay. They're in the barn at night, but that's between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., and they get their concentrates (what little they get) when they come in at 8 p.m.
In the winter the schedule changes significantly. They're turned out between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. with a minimum of 4 good-sized flakes of hay each for breakfast, another 1 - 3 flakes each for lunch, 2 more flakes plus their concentrates in their stalls when I bring them into the barn at 4 p.m., and another 1 - 2 flakes at 8 p.m., when I top up the water buckets and skip the stalls.
In summer they might eat as little as 2 - 3 flakes of hay per day, whatever it takes to maintain their condition when they're on grass.
We put out round bales for all the horses so they have all the hay they can eat. The hay is mostly grass hay. We also grain any horses that have trouble holding their weight during the winter.
At my boarding barn, they serve quality hay and a mixture of mostly oats and some corn (little). However, my boy is 3 and still has 10% more growing to do (acccording to xrays). I like giving soaked beet pulp after a ride to increase water intake and to add a little salt to encourage drinking. My question is what I should give him after a ride to give back the calories, so he keeps his body weight. Should I be also adding a vitamin suppliment?