body condition score | Horse Racing Free Tips

Winter Feeding: Keeping Horses In Good Weight

Shivering helps horses maintain their core body temperature in winter, yet the metabolic price is high, considering temperature regulation requires significant calories. Additional calories will likely be needed to maintain an appropriate body condition score (BCS) during cold snaps. Exactly how much more feed does your horse need to consume when the mercury drops?

According to Dr. Kathleen Crandell, a nutritionist for Kentucky Equine Research, some horses won't require any additional calories, whereas others may need to consume up to 25 percent more calories each day to maintain condition.

For example, if a horse typically consumes approximately 2 percent of its body weight in forage per day (equivalent to 20 pounds of dry forage for an average 1,000-pound horse), then this horse could require almost 30 pounds of dry forage per day in cold weather. Rather than simply feeding more of the same forage to offer additional calories, horses can be fed concentrates, fat (either as oil or high-fat supplements such as rice bran), or energy-dense forages such as alfalfa or clover mixed with their regular hay.

“Healthy horses living in regions that typically have milder winters, are maintained indoors, or are blanketed when outdoors for limited periods of time can be fed a diet similar to that fed in warmer months,” Crandell advised. Horses that may require additional feed to maintain an appropriate BCS include:

Horses that fall into the senior classification,
Horses with an underlying disease;
Horses asked to perform their regular work throughout the cold season;
Horses that reside primarily outdoors in regions with harsher winters; or
Horses that are not routinely blanketed but do have access to shelter.

Horses maintain their core body temperatures by diverting blood flow from the skin to their internal organs, shivering, growing a thick coat, altering metabolic pathways to produce heat, and fermenting forage.

One of the key factors in determining whether or not your horse requires more feed involves frequent and precise assessment of BCS. While some owners may struggle with this process on the best of days, often underestimating their horse's true condition and therefore overfeeding, the longer, thicker coats and use of blankets can make estimating BCS even more challenging. Nonetheless, this skill is imperative to ensure a healthy horse.

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“Be certain to use your hands to feel for fat cover rather than simply glancing at these regions to assess BCS,” advised Crandell.

Looking for a specific product to maintain an appropriate BCS in the winter? Kentucky Equine Research's feed manufacturing partners offer high-calorie concentrates that will suit your horse's dietary needs.

Ten Tips To Improve Your Adult Horse’s Diet

The University of Minnesota's Dr. Marcia Hathaway, retired professor, provided this ten-step guide to feeding the adult horse through the UMN Equine Extension program. Consult your veterinarian or nutritionist to tailor advice to your horse's specific needs and medical considerations.

Always provide unlimited access to clean, fresh water. Water is the most important nutrient your horse needs. Most 1,000-pound horses will drink 10 to 12 gallons of water daily. Horse will need more water when temperature, humidity, or activity increase. Keeping water between 45 and 65 F tends to encourage horse to drink.
Maximize the amount of forage a horse eats. Fresh (pasture) or harvested (hay) forages are the ideal energy source for horses. Most mature horses should consume 1.5 to 2.5% of their body weight in forages daily.
Minimize the amount of concentrate a horse eats. Owners frequently feed cereal grains when horses need more energy than forages can provide. To reduce the chance of colic and gastric upset, do not feed mature horses more than 0.3 to 0.4% of their body weight in cereal grains per feeding.
Meet a horse's mineral needs. If feeding a commercial grain product according to manufacturer directions, the horse is most likely receiving the correct amount of these minerals. Ration balancers are great ways to ensure horses not being fed a commercial grain product are meeting their mineral requirements. Always provide free choice salt as horses will regulate their intake of salt.
Meet a horse's vitamin needs. Horses may receive enough vitamins through natural feedstuffs, their own production, and microbial production in the gut. However, most horses should receive a vitamin supplement unless they are being fed a commercial grain product according to manufacturer directions.
Establish a balanced ration for horse: energy, protein, minerals, and vitamins. Owners and managers are strongly encouraged to work with an equine nutritionist or purchase a prepared commercial feed that is professionally balanced to meet the horse's needs. There are numerous products on the market that are tailored to specific classes of horses, including but not limited to, growing, working, idle, or pregnant horses.
Monitor a horse's body weight and body condition score (BCS). When deciding a horse's nutritional needs, it is necessary to know their body weight and body condition score. Body weight can be determined by weighing on a scale or estimated using the Healthy Horse App, weight tapes, or mathematical equations. Body condition scoring determines the amount of fat deposit under the horse's skin in certain areas and a BCS between 4 to 6 is ideal. Body weight and BCS should be tracked monthly.
Routinely care for horse's teeth. Horse's teeth continually erupt and are simultaneously ground down as they chews feedstuffs, especially forages. Sharp points occur on the teeth requiring routine filing down or “floating.”
Change feeds gradually. Replace only 20 to 25% of a horse's current feed every other day when changing hay or grain types. This will allow for a complete change over a week or more. A gradual change from one feed to another provides enough time for microbes to adapt in your horse's gut.
Feed each horse as an individual. All horses have common nutritional needs including water, energy, protein, minerals and vitamins. However, how much of each will vary with age, activity level, and physiological condition.

For more information on feeding the adult horse, visit our website.

The post Ten Tips To Improve Your Adult Horse’s Diet appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Study: Does Hierarchy Affect Foraging Behavior?

Horses that live outside in a herd rapidly establish a hierarchy that affects everything they do, including eat; dominant horses tend to shoo others away from the tastiest grass or hay. A team of researchers wanted to investigate if this meant that horses lower in the pecking order eat less or if they have to spend more time grazing to make up for mealtime shortages.

Drs. Sarah Giles, Pat Harris, Sean Rands and Christine Nicol created a study to investigate the association between social dominance, interruptions to foraging behavior and body condition. The research team used 116 horses from 20 herds, and completed the study during the winter, when pasture was limited and there was competition for food.

The team began by giving each horse a body condition score between 4 and 8.5. They also measured social dominance and observed foraging behavior, tracking the duration and frequency of grazing, as well as the number of interruptions.

The study team found that foraging success of individuals may be partly influenced by their social status, but the relationship between her behavior, dominance and body condition wasn't fully established from the study. They concluded that for horses, the benefits of group living outweigh the costs; individual horses learn to follow behavioral rules that allow them to function as a social unit.

These scientists reviewed over 120 hours of herd monitoring and found that the total time spent foraging wasn't influenced by body condition or social dominance. Horses that had higher social standing also had higher body condition scores, but the main factor behind this was foraging efficiency. The horses that raised their heads more and were hyper-aware of their surroundings, had lower body condition scores. This vigilance was not associated with social status and seems to be an inherited trait.

The study also found that subordinate horses or those with lower body condition scores did not forage more. This suggests that the difference in body condition can be seen when subordinate horses are in the presence of dominant horses and reduce forage intake, they report.

Lower-ranking horse were unlikely to continue to forage when their companions were not, which supports the idea that social factors may result in body-condition score difference in horses living in a herd.

Read the study here.