Some of our clients are finding that their horses have been losing weight over the last 4-6 weeks.
Some tips to ensure your horses stay healthy over the Winter months:
Oral health check prior to winter; ensures they are getting the most energy from their feed.
Shelter: this can be in the form of a physical shelter or a rug
Hay: Ad lib hay is ideal for any equine patient. Ensure each horse has 1.5% of their body weight in quality fiber (10cm long) per day. Please weigh your slabs of hay but often 1 slab of small bale hay is approx. 2KG. CAUTION, some horses will eat more than they need to stay at a safe weight.
Bullying: when feeding more than one horse, please be mindful of how you present them their hay. Some horses can be chased off their share of the hay if their paddock mate is more dominant.
Hard feed: consider using hard feed this winter to increase calories if your horse is losing weight, but do note, winter is the hardest time of year to put weight on horses as the additional calories cannot often be gained from grass. The aim would be to prevent unwanted weight loss.
Gastric Ulceration: this is always something to consider in any horse that is not gaining weight or is a picky eater. Do remember, it is ideal that horses can graze 24/7. BUT CAUTION, we do not want to have to diet overweight horses in the spring. So please monitor for weight gain.