It's bad enough that horse caretakers must limit horse-related activities by necessity during the winter months. Less daylight plus inclement weather during the winter season tend to cause horse owners to spend less quality time with their horses. But it's important that horse owners address specific winter horse health challenges as well to ensure that horses stay safe, comfortable and healthy.
Horse walking near a pond in winter pasture
Less daylight plus inclement weather during the winter season tend to cause horse owners to spend less quality time with their horses.
© 2018 by Pierre Auger Observatory New window.
Making sure dehydration does not affect horse health
Dehydration with heat and summer. But making sure that our horses' water intake is adequate can be quite a challenge during the winter months as well. Dehydration can contribute to serious health problems for your horse like increased risk of colic.
Horses tend to reduce their water intake when temperatures fall. This also comes at a time when more dry forage is included in the diet, making intake of water very important to prevent impaction and colic. Water should be maintained between 45 and 65 degrees F and any ice removed. Horses should continue to drink 8 to 12 gallons a day, depending on activity level.
If you live in an area where freezing temperatures threaten your horse's water supply, insulate water hydrants and exposed pipes. Insulating tape can be purchased at most local hardware stores and is an inexpensive way to avoid frozen water supplies. Tank heaters for outdoor water troughs are also available at local farm supply stores. Purchase a heater designed for livestock tanks. Some heaters are only designed to bring water to a boil.
Prevent conditions that contribute to respiratory problems
As with us humans, the cold wet winter months see increased incidence of respiratory issues for horses. Weakened immune systems, damp moldy hay, increased time spent in a dusty barn with limited ventilation, can all be contributing factors for an increased risk of developing upper respiratory infections or aggravate pre-existing chronic respiratory conditions like asthma or COPD.
Taking some simple steps like providing additional supplementation to support your horse's immune system, checking your hay regularly and making sure your barn has adequate ventilation can go a long way in nipping potential problems in the bud.
Maintain conditions that prevent stiffness and joint pain
Cold, damp conditions can also help contribute to joint stiffness and pain that may be due to chronic conditions like arthritis or an old injury. A decrease in physical activity during winter weather can also cause horses to stiffen up.
Movement helps to create heat within the body plus keep joints healthy and the body flexible. Whenever possible, limit the amount of time that your horse must remain in a confined space. This is particularly important for the geriatric horse, where once the mobility is lost, it is much harder to get back.
If your horse is prone to stiffness or has an old injury that may be aggravated by the cold weather, adding a joint supplement to their diet may be beneficial. Your horse may also appreciate a massage and/or application of a natural linament to help sooth those cramped muscles and stiff joints.
Maintaining horse hoof health
Unfortunately, hoof health is one of the things that tends to get neglected in winter. It can be quite a challenge to keep a horse's hooves cleaned out and dry when you have melting snow, ice and generally wet, muddy conditions. These conditions can lead to increased risk of problems like thrush or white line disease.
It can also be quite a challenge to get the hoof care professional out as often as you may need if weather causes dangerous road conditions, making it difficult for travel or just not ideal to work in. Coating your horse's hooves as much as possible with antibacterial/antifungal hoof treatments may help reduce the risk of at least some of these common hoof problems.
And having an area of "high ground" or a dry barn that your horse can have access to when conditions become extreme may help, although may not be an option for some.
Make sure to maintain weight
Believe it or not, just the simple act of staying warm in cold weather burns a LOT of calories. Therefore, it is important that horses increase their caloric intake during cold weather or risk losing weight. This can be especially challenging for the geriatric horse whose digestive system and dental health may be compromised and not functioning at peak.
The very act of digesting hay actually helps to generate heat within the horse's body, helping them keep warm. So ensuring adequate supplies of free choice clean, dry hay is very important. But additional easily digestible calories may be necessary for some horses through the addition of something like a good quality senior feed, beet pulp, soaked alfalfa pellets and/or high quality top dress oil.
Have your horse's teeth evaluated by a qualified equine dentist at least once or twice a year to help identify and address problems early.
So, while it is inevitable that horse owners will cut back on horse time during the winter, steps can be taken to help keep horses a bit more comfortable during the "down time" and improve the chances that they will be ready to go full swing when warmer days reappear.