Before Winter Hits: Is Your Horse Ready for the Cold?

Fall is a good time to take a closer look at your horses before winter really settles in.

By the time the temperatures drop, coats get long, pastures dry up, and snow starts flying, it can be surprisingly easy to miss a horse that is slowly losing condition. A thick winter coat can hide quite a bit, and a horse that looked great in September may need a different plan by December.

Getting ahead of those changes now is a lot easier than trying to put weight back on a horse in the middle of winter.

Start With Body Condition, Not the Hair Coat

Run your hands over your horse instead of judging body condition from across the pen.

Can you easily feel the ribs? What does the topline feel like? Is there good coverage around the tailhead, shoulders, and withers?

A horse does not need to go into winter overweight, but you also do not want a horse already struggling to maintain condition before its nutritional needs increase.

Older horses deserve an especially close look. Dental problems, declining ability to utilize forage, and other health issues can make winter harder on a senior horse. If an older horse is already dropping weight in the fall, waiting until January to address it can leave you playing catch up all winter.

Winter Feeding Is Mostly About Forage

When the temperature drops, a lot of people immediately think about adding more grain.

For most horses, the first thing to look at is forage.

Horses produce heat as they digest fiber. That makes good quality hay especially useful when temperatures fall. Penn State Extension notes that fiber fermentation helps horses generate body heat and that horses living outside may require additional forage during colder weather.

That does not mean every horse needs an unlimited pile of rich hay all winter. An easy keeper and a hard keeper are obviously going to need different plans.

But if a horse starts dropping weight when the weather turns cold, simply pouring more grain into a bucket is not always the best answer. Look at how much forage the horse is actually getting, the quality of that forage, whether it is being wasted, and whether the horse can physically chew and utilize it.

The University of Minnesota recommends feeding mature horses roughly 1.5 to 2.5 percent of their body weight in forage per day, with the actual amount adjusted for the individual horse.

That individual part is important. A young growing horse, a retired easy keeper, a horse working every day, and a 25 year old with worn teeth should not automatically be on the same feeding plan.

Do Not Forget About Water Just Because It Is Cold

Water intake can become one of the easier things to overlook during winter.

In the summer, horses may get some moisture from growing grass. Once they are eating mostly dry hay, that disappears. Frozen tanks, iced over buckets, extremely cold water, or malfunctioning heaters can all reduce how much a horse drinks.

Penn State points out that reduced water consumption during winter can increase concern for impaction colic.

Check tanks regularly, not just from the truck.

Make sure the heater is working, make sure the water itself is accessible, and pay attention if a horse suddenly seems to be drinking less than normal.

AAEP guidance recommends that horses always have access to fresh water and notes that horses in cold climates may prefer warmer water.

Take a Look at Teeth Before Winter

If a horse is going to depend heavily on hay for the next several months, it needs to be able to chew it.

A horse dropping wads of partially chewed hay, taking an unusually long time to finish, losing weight despite eating, or struggling with coarse forage deserves a closer look.

Routine dental care is part of good nutritional management, and the University of Minnesota includes regular dental care among its basic recommendations for feeding mature horses.

For horses with significant dental problems, chopped forage, hay pellets, cubes, or a complete senior feed may become part of the winter plan under the guidance of a veterinarian or equine nutritionist.

A Winter Coat Does a Pretty Good Job

Healthy horses are remarkably good at handling cold weather when they are acclimated to it, have adequate nutrition, remain dry, and have protection from severe conditions.

Not every horse automatically needs a blanket the first time temperatures dip below freezing.

A full winter coat traps air and provides insulation. But once a horse becomes wet, clipped, thin, old, sick, or unable to get out of severe wind and precipitation, the situation changes.

Blanketing should fit the horse in front of you rather than following one temperature rule for every horse in the barn.

If you do blanket, take it off regularly and actually look underneath it. Blankets can hide weight loss, rubs, skin problems, and changes in condition just as easily as a heavy hair coat can.

Shelter Does Not Have to Mean a Stall

Horses living outside do not necessarily need to be locked in a barn every time the weather gets bad, but they should have some way to get out of severe weather.

Depending on where they live, that might be a run in shed, barn access, trees, terrain, or a good windbreak.

Protection from wind can make a huge difference during a cold storm, especially for young, old, thin, or compromised horses. AAEP welfare guidance specifically calls for horses to be protected from injurious cold and severe weather conditions.

Fall Is the Time to Make Adjustments

One of the best things you can do for a horse going into winter is simply pay attention before there is a problem.

Know what your horse looks and feels like right now.

Know what hay you have available.

Make sure the horse is drinking well.

Check teeth if they are due.

Think about whether your senior horses, young horses, or hard keepers are going to need something different when temperatures drop.

And keep checking throughout the winter.

Cold weather by itself is not necessarily hard on a healthy horse. Trouble usually starts when cold weather is combined with inadequate calories, poor quality forage, limited water, wet conditions, dental problems, or a horse that was already having trouble maintaining weight.

A little preparation in the fall can make for a much easier winter.