COLD WEATHER FEEDING
NOTE: This article originally appeared in a Canadian horse magazine, so all temperatures are given in Celsius. Despite the fact that many of us do not ride our horses much during the winter, we often need to provide them with something extra in the grocery department when the mercury takes a nose dive. However, determining just how much we should feed them and when they really need it is often a bit of a mystery. During cold, wet and windy weather, horses require more energy to maintain their internal body temperature. Just how much energy an individual horse needs depends in part on the environmental conditions, but it is also affected by the horse’s overall body condition and the state of his winter coat. For example, a horse with an insulating layer of fat and a thick coat will conserve energy better than a thin horse with a short coat. Whil...