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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.

Obese Horses More Likely To Move Unevenly

In an effort to determine how added weight affects equine fitness and performance, Dr. Anna Jansson and a research team from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Hólar University published a study in Physiological Reports in which horses were fed controlled diets to add or restrict weight gain. The scientists used nine Icelandic horses that they split into two groups. Changes in body weight and fat were induced in the group being fed a high-energy diet for 36 days.

During the last seven days of the study period, researchers recorded body condition score and weight, and percentage of body fat was estimated with an ultrasound. Each horse was then given an exercise test on a treadmill and a field test that mimicked a competition, which was scored by judges. Blood samples were taken, as well as heart rate, temperature and respiratory rate.

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On the treadmill test, the horses that had gained weight had a higher heart rate and temperature, and heavier respiration. Blood tests showed that heavier horses had lower physiological fitness.

The team also found that overweight horses showed a marked gait asymmetry compared with leaner horses, as was shown both by sensors placed on the horses while they moved. The heavier horses moved most asymmetrically on the day after their field test.

Judges overseeing the field test also scored heavier horses lower than their leaner counterparts, suggesting that weight affects performance.

The authors conclude that higher body fat and body weight lowers equine performance, made horses move more unevenly, and delayed their recovery from exercise.

Read the full study here.

Study Shows Possible Link Between Equine Obesity And Asthma

It's been proven that carrying extra pounds can cause humans to develop asthma, and researchers are now attempting to find a link between obesity and breathing issues in horses.

Texas A&M and the Morris Animal Foundation are funding research on the debilitating condition. Currently, the main treatment option for asthmatic horses is the use of corticosteroids, which can cause laminitis in overweight equines.

Texas A&M researcher Dr. Michelle Coleman intends to use 60 horses brought to the University's veterinary teaching hospital for the study. The research team will assess each horse's body condition, identify if they have insulin issues, and determine their asthmatic state by listening to their lungs and taking fluid samples from their lower airways. The horses will be divided into four groups of 15: Obese and asthmatic, non-obese and asthmatic, obese and healthy, and non-obese and healthy.

Each group will be examined for inflammation markers, including cytokine levels. The cytokine levels in humans differ between obese asthmatic people and non-obese asthmatic people. The study will also look at each horse's lung microbiota to see if there is a difference in obese asthmatic horses and non-obese asthmatic horses.

Researchers hope the results from the study will allow horse owners and veterinarians to identify horses at higher asthmatic risk and assist in preventing asthma or intervening in such situations earlier.

Equine Metabolic Syndrome: A Horse Health Enigma

Similar to other companion animals, obesity in horses is common—it's estimated that between 20 and 70 percent of horses are overweight. Ponies have the highest risk of becoming overweight, followed by cob-type horses.

Obesity is also one of the most prevalent health conditions in humans.; it's associated with premature mortality, metabolic dysfunction and a myriad of health conditions. In horses, obesity-induced conditions include laminitis. Because of this, obesity is important to both human and equine medicine.

Drs. Natalie Wallis and Eleanor Raffan note that obesity regulation can be disrupted by both genetic and environmental factors. The heritability of obesity is high in humans and lab animals, with evidence showing the same in companion animals.

Laminitis is of significant concern as it is such a devastating disease. The risk factors that link obesity and laminitis are collectively called equine metabolic syndrome (EMS). EMS is defined as insulin dysregulation. Insulin resistance is common in EMS, but it's rare for horses and ponies to actually become diabetic.

Add to that discovery that not all overweight equines develop EMS, and EMS doesn't always cause laminitis. Last but not least, not all horses that have EMS are overweight. These paradoxes exist across breeds and between individuals, similar to humans, where there is variability between individuals and between ethnic groups.

The scientists concluded that obesity is a health concern of both humans and horses, and more research is needed on the molecular basis of obesity and associated metabolic conditions. They also note that veterinarians have much to learn about obesity from human genetics and laboratory animal models. They hope that by using both of these, animal studies will be fast tracked

Read the review here.