Horse Welfare | 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.

Bit-Related Injuries In Harness Racehorses

Selecting and fitting a bit to an individual horse and then using it skillfully and sympathetically serve as hallmarks of nuanced horsemanship, no matter the discipline. When mouth injuries directly related to bitting occur, even the most conscientious of horsemen are often baffled by their appearance. Researchers attempted to pinpoint the root cause of these injuries in a recent study of harness racehorses.^* Should the blame be assigned to specific bits, other pieces of common equipment, or race performance?

Researchers examined the mouths of 261 trotters, including 151 Standardbreds, 78 Finnhorses (a native lightweight draft), and 32 ponies, for bruises and wounds immediately following a race. They looked at specific bit-contact areas: the inner and outer corners of the lips, bars of the lower jaw, cheek tissue near the second premolar tooth, tongue, and roof of the mouth.

The researchers then collected information about the type of bit used for each horse, making special note of the thickness and composition of the mouthpiece. Details of other equipment were taken, when applicable, including the use of an overcheck, jaw strap, or tongue-tie. Past racing history was mined from a reliable online database.

Injuries were observed in 84 percent of the horses in the study, regardless of the type of bit worn, and half of those were classified as moderate or severe. Five horses (2 percent) had visual blood outside of the mouth from the wounds.

Compared with horses wearing a single-jointed, half-cheek snaffle, trotters that wore a Crescendo bit, Mullen-mouth regulator bit, or a straight plastic bit had a greater likelihood of moderate or severe injury to the mouth. Bar lesions were more common in horses outfitted with unjointed bits. Other tack and race performance did not factor into risk for oral lesions, according to the researchers.

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“While this study serves to highlight the physical injuries caused by bits among specific high-performance horses, it is important to note that lesions may be severe enough to hinder comfortable chewing of forages, especially if hay or chaff is stemmy,” said Catherine Whitehouse, a nutritionist with Kentucky Equine Research. This in turn could affect forage consumption, leading to diminished body condition, onset of gastric ulcers, and loss of performance.

Further, mouth pain can be a source of worry or stress for horses, even while resting. “Racehorses have a high incidence of gastric ulceration, the effects of which can be assuaged by conscientious management, which may include the use of research-proven digestive supplements,” Whitehouse said.

^*Tuomola, K., N. Mäki-Kihniä, A. Valros, and A. Mykkänen. 2021. Risk factors for bit-related lesions in Finnish trotting horses. Equine Veterinary Journal 53:1132-1140.

UC Davis Equine Vet Program Expands With Donation Of Templeton Farms

The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine's Center for Equine Health is pleased to announce the expansion of our equine facilities to Templeton Farms on California's Central Coast thanks to the donation of the 52-acre property by dedicated equestrian Gina Bornino-Miller.

UC Davis alumnus Bornino-Miller and her late husband William J. Miller opened Templeton Farms for business in 2011 as a world-class sport horse training, sales, and breeding facility near Paso Robles. Templeton Farms has been home to generations of carefully and lovingly bred performance horses, as well as a thriving boarding program.

“I am thrilled to donate Templeton Farms to my alma mater,” said Bornino-Miller. “It was our dream to build a world-class facility and I look forward to seeing it develop further to advance equine health and veterinary education for years to come.”

This generous donation will support the Center for Equine Health's mission to advance the health, welfare, performance and veterinary care of horses through research, education and public service. The additional location will provide new opportunities to bring veterinary students, residents, researchers, and veterinarians together to tackle important problems affecting horse health.

“We are incredibly grateful to Gina for this extraordinary donation that supports the future of equine veterinary medicine,” said Dr. Carrie Finno, director of the Center for Equine Health. “Templeton Farms is a spectacular property with a reputation for excellence and we are committed to providing top-quality care to boarders while enhancing our research and educational efforts to improve horse health and performance.”

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The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine serves the people of California by providing educational, research, clinical service, and public service programs of the highest quality to advance the health and care of animals, the health of the environment, and public health, and to contribute to the economy.

“UC Davis is known as a leader in equine health,” said Dr. Mark Stetter, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine. “Gina's trust in us with the farm that she and William founded will give us new opportunities to fulfill our mission to California and to serve the equine community.”

Shave And a Haircut: An Equine Welfare Issue?

On July 1, the Fédération Equestre Internationale banned competitors from trimming the hairs around their horse's eyes and muzzle, citing their removal as an equine welfare issue. These hairs, called vibrissae, are deeply embedded in the skin and help a horse sense the environment around him.

Dr. Andrew McLean of Melbourne University Equine Hospital in Australia and CEO of Equitation Science International, says that whiskers around the eyes and muzzle are unique, specialized structures that are larger than other hair follicles. Each whisker has its own blood capsule and nerves, and even the smallest whisker movement is perceptible and the information is relayed straight to the brain, reports the Chronicle of the Horse.

Whiskers help horses do everything from feel the ground while grazing to investigate objects, food, and other horses. Whiskers around the eyes help the horse feel what is nearby to avoid eye injuries.

Specific research on whiskers in other species has been done, but concrete evidence of whisker role in horses is lacking. In other species, whiskers do everything from help the animal maintain balance to assist with spatial awareness in water.

The FEI passed the rule unanimously in 2020. Horses with shaved or clipped sensory hairs are not permitted to compete unless the whiskers have been removed by a veterinarian to provide treatment. Germany banned eye and muzzle whisker removal in 1998, followed by Switzerland and France. Thus far, the U.S. Equestrian Federation, which governs horse sport in the United States, has not banned the trimming of sensory hairs for national-level competition horses, though the organization does encourage riders to consult with their veterinarian.

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McLean notes that it's imperative for organizations involved with horse sport to remain aware of how they are perceived by the public as it is the public, not necessarily the equine experts or the riders, who will determine the fate of equine sport. Called the “social license to operate,” McLean reiterates that regulating horse sport to ensure the welfare of the animal is key to positive community interactions.