Top Tips to Beat the Freeze from HorseHage & Mollichaff!

Top Tips to Beat the Freeze from HorseHage & Mollichaff!

With truly wintry conditions throughout most of the UK, freezing temperatures and snow on the ground, here are some top tips on how to help keep your equine friends as happy and comfortable as possible, despite the ‘Beast From The East’ and Storm Emma doing their best to wreak havoc in many areas.

Beat the stable blues!

With many horses restricted to their box due to ice and snow preventing turnout or exercise, there are lots of things you can do to help keep your horse or pony from going stir crazy.

• The first thing to adjust is your horse’s energy intake to reflect his decreased exercise. This can be done by reducing your horse’s concentrate ration and increasing the fibre part of his diet. This will not only help keep him calmer, but will help keep him warm from within as his digestive system will be kept moving. You could consider using a complete fibre feed such as Mollichaff Calmer Complete, which ensures that your horse’s nutritional requirements will continue to be met, but providing low energy levels from fibre and oil sources.
• With freezing weather it can become virtually impossible to soak your hay. Don’t risk your horse’s respiratory health! Instead, try a good quality bagged forage – preferably a brand which clearly states the nutritional content, and select one that is higher in fibre. High Fibre HorseHage would be an ideal product as it is suitable for most horses and ponies including those prone to laminitis.
• To prolong eating time, try using more than one haynet (one inside the other) or purchase one with smaller mesh. This will help slow down your horse’s eating, allowing him to trickle feed like he would when grazing. It will provide mental and physical stimulation, resulting in reduced stable boredom.
• Water intake can be massively reduced when it is freezing, especially in older or fussy horses. When cold, horses are less keen to drink from a freezing water bucket. As water is the most essential component in the horse’s diet, it is vital you do all you can to ensure your horse’s consumption is sufficient. Try adding warm water to your horse’s feed and also add some to your horse’s cold water bucket. Make sure it’s not too warm though – just enough to take the chill off.

• If you keep your horse away from home, make sure you have his nutritional routine written down and kept at the yard. This will ensure that should you be unable to make it to the yard yourself, someone else can make sure your horse gets the right feed whilst you’re not there!

Extra help for those turned out

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• Provide extra forage if grazing is covered by snow. Your horse’s body will provide heat through digestion so plenty of forage is great for horses and ponies whether in or out and will help them to keep warm.
• Consider an extra rug if the weather is really cold or windy and ideally some form of shelter for those turned out 24/7. Remove rugs daily and check for any rubbing or irritation and if your horse is turned out, check his legs too, as they may not dry off properly in deep snow and this can cause skin problems.
• Horses can slip very easily so spread some sand or grit on icy concrete paths where your horse has to walk.
• Be aware that the weight of heavy snow lying on rickety fencing, electric fencing tapes and even branches on trees can cause them to snap and break.
• We don’t advise riding in the snow but if you have to, take extra care as hazards such as holes, stones, branches, etc may be hidden under the snow. Smear the inside of your horse’s hooves with Vaseline/petroleum jelly to help avoid snow packing inside them and take a hoofpick with you. Also a freezing cold bit can be very uncomfortable in your horse’s mouth so warm it up in your hands first to take the chill off.

For more information on feeding your horse or pony please call the HorseHage Helpline on 01803 527257 or visit www.horsehage.co.uk