Horses receive the bulk of their nutrition from forage. On average horses eat 1-2% of their bodyweight in forage every day. That's around 8-10kg per day for a horse that is 500kg.
As the seasons change, so do your horse's nutritional needs. Properly adjusting your horse's diet to the qualities of the pasture throughout the year can help maintain their health and performance. Here is some sound advice on feeding your horses in different seasons.
Winter
During winter, grasses go into dormancy and stop growing. Horses simultaneously receive less nutrition from the pasture, and need extra calories to maintain body temperature.
Even if they have access to ample pasture, there will be less nutrient content. But if your horse is in a smaller paddock, it can become a dry-lot quickly. If they are not getting 1-2% of their bodyweight in pasture, you will need to supply it in hay.
Horses are often rugged in winter. Make sure you take the rug off reguarly and monitor body condition, as weightloss can occur quickly, particularly for old horses or hard-doers like thoroughbreds.
We encourage horse owners to take pictures of their horse so you can monitor their condition over time.
Horse owners frequently contact us during August, alarmed that their horse's condition is becoming poor. While we never want a horse to be thin, they will predictably gain weight rapidly in spring (assuming there are no other problems) as the weather warms up.
Spring
During spring, horses shed their winter coats and increase activity levels. Grasses come out of dormancy and start growing quickly. This is when grasses supply the most nutritional content, and so this is usually when horses look their best.
Weight gain can also come on swiftly. It's important to monitor hoof heat and pulses to nip laminitis in the bud. Even skinny horses can suffer from laminitis.
Depending on the size of your paddock, you should be able to reduce additional hay, or perhaps even stop feeding hay altogether.
Conversely, if your horse is prone to laminitis, or other metabolic disorder, this is the time of year you may need to bring your horse in and feed hay exclusively.
Summer
In the heat of summer, ensure your horse stays hydrated and replenish salt lost through sweat. They will need more salt in summer than at other times of year. Here is more information on salt.
Grasses may brown-off. It's also often the time we are riding the most, and so additional nutritional content will need to be supplied in hay and hard feed.
Autumn
As temperatures cool down, we recommend close attention to paddock rotation. Horses will naturally select the tastiest grasses. If they graze off all the nicest pasture across the whole property in autumn, that will leave nothing but the stalkiest, most unpalatable grasses over winter, when grass is not growing. They will need more supplementary feeding at the time when hay is the most expensive. If you rotate your pastures, the most desirable grasses have will have an opportunity to recover, and last longer through the season.
Autumn is a good time to stockpile hay, as it is generally cheaper in autumn than in winter.
What is Missing from Pasture?
Irrespective of the season, you will need to supply what is missing from pasture. As discussed above, sometimes that's calories.
But throughout the year, what is generally missing from pasture are adequate amounts of the minerals copper, zinc and iodine.
Supplementing these minerals year-round is easy with our Sound Advice Trace Mixes. 3kg is 100 days supply. On average, that's one bag for each season.
Comments