Horse Health Tips: Winter Care 2021 | Horse Haarlem Oil
Although horses are known to conform to cold temperature easily, it may be tough for them at times. So, to ease the transition from summer to winter, you may refer to these horse health tips.
Blanketing
To reduce the effects of cold weather, provide your horses with proper blanketing. Moreover, this is more necessary if the following conditions exist:
- The temperature drops below 5°F, or the wind chill is below 5°F and there’s no shelter available during turnout periods.
- Your horse is too old or too young.
- Your horse has not been acclimated to the cold condition. For example, it has been recently relocated from a southern climate.
Cooling down
This is a part of the post-riding care. Cool down your horse properly after the ride. You must brush off snow away from its body. Try doing this outside and never indoors for it can melt and become slippery, causing possible accidents.
Also, your horse’s ears should be cool, not cold, nor hot. If his ears are hot, walk him around a bit. Take note, cold ears mean a cold horse and this might be bad sign.
Winter Feeding
During winters, as the need to maintain core body temperature increases, the horse’s energy requirement rises too. Energy needs for a horse to maintain increase about 1% for every degree below 18 ° F.
Moreover, heavy hair coats can often hide weight loss during these winter months. If your horse starts losing body condition, increase in feed is highly recommended and if it starts having excessive body condition, reducing the feed is also vital.
Possible Winter Ills
- Just like humans, horses are prone to acquiring different diseases during winter like pneumonia. The ammonia build-up, mold, and dust inside shelters can bring hazard to the horse’s respiratory health. You can prevent this by assuring enough ventilation. Also, you can provide outdoor opportunities for your horse to breathe in fresh and clean air. Read more. Click here!
