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**I am not a vet nor have I played one on TV. These are tips that have worked for me, or for others, but are not intended to be diagnostic in nature, or to replace or override what you have been told by your equine professionals.
If your horse's well-being is important to you, then you should be talking to us.
WINTER TIPS
Blanketing
Whether you blanket or you don't is a personal decision. But if you DO, it's extremely important to remove the blanket to check your horse's condition. It's easy for a horse to drop weight quicky, especially in the cold, and if you don't look UNDER the blanket at least every couple of days, you can have a nasty surprise once you do. Also, horses like cold weather and are safer being too cold than being too hot. If the day warms up and your horse perspires under that blanket, you can end up with one sick pony. And, of course, if the blanket becomes wet, it needs to be taken off and dried before it's put back on.
Icy water troughs
Horses need water during the cold winter months as much as they do during the heat of the summer. I have found it helpful to remove the ice that forms across the top of the trough. It provides my horses with easy access to the water and helps to keep the water from refreezing easily. And I'm sure it must help keep the temperature of the water warmer than it would be with the ice floating in it.
After years of getting soaked and frigid hands, it occurred to me that I could use some help to remove the ice. I bought a swimming pool skimmer to get the ice out of the trough. So, first, if the ice isn't too thick, I lift the trough and let it drop back on the ground. If that doesn't do the trick, I use a tool my husband made for me . Once the ice has broken, I use the skimmer to scoop it up and toss it on the ground. Much easier on my hands!
Micki T. of Waxhaw NC adds: if the ice is too heavy for the skimmer, I put on a pair of large dishwashing gloves over my regular gloves, then just lift the ice out by hand. The cuffs on the gloves are long enough to protect the edges of my sleeves, and the gloves are grippy and waterproof. Thank you, Micki!
Even if you are lucky enough to have hot water access for your pails and troughs, it's helpful to remove the ice before warming the water.
Icy water buckets in the barn
I have found it a lot easier to have two sets of water buckets for my horses' stalls - whether in a barn or in a run-in shed. In the cold of winter, I bring one set - about 3/4 full - into my storage room where I've got an oil plug-in heater set low enough to keep the room above freezing. That way, in the morning when I go to feed, I swap out the frozen buckets in the stalls for the ones that have overnighted in the storage room. My horses appreciate it, but more important, having fresh clean water keeps them hydrated - and keeps colic away!
Free-Choice Hay
Horses should be given 1-1/2% to 2% of their body weight in forage and feed each day. For the average 1000 pound horse, that's 15 - 20 pounds - the majority of which should be forage. If you are feeding a couple of flakes a day, you're probably not feeding enough. Keep your horse's gut healthy with free-choice hay.
FEEDING TIPS
Weight versus Volume
Many of the horsekeepers I meet refer to how many scoops or cups or coffee cans of grain they feed each day. But what does this mean? After all, a scoop of oats doesn't weigh the same as a scoop of pelleted food which doesn't weigh the same as "sweet feed." And to take it a step further, Brand X's pellets may not weigh the same as Brand Y's. So how do you know if your horse is getting the right amount - nutritionally, that is?
Weighing the food has several benefits: (1) it's a more accurate measure because you can compare various foods in a common way. One pound of Brand X compared to one pound of Brand Y provides equivalent amounts of eating material; (2) because every food bag has the total weight on it, you can know exactly how fast you will go through your grain - e.g. a 50 lb bag fed at a rate of 3 lbs per day will last 16.66 days. Try that with a cup or a scoop; (3) in the event that you change from one food to another, using weight provides an equivalency for the transition.
Of course you can use scoops and cups and coffee cans for your daily feeding regimen, but if you first weigh out how much food any of these containers holds, you'll get the benefits of using weight with the ease of your preferred container.
By the way, the same holds true with hay. How accurate are you in knowing how much a flake weighs? If you don't feed free choice hay, this can be an important question since horses should get about 2 percent of their body weight in forage every day. In my barn, a flake of fescue can be 2 lbs or 5 lbs, and the timothy is sometimes even heavier. Are you sure your horses are getting enough hay?
What's in your horse's hay?
If you purchase large supplies of hay that you will be feeding for a month or more, and you don't currently do so, you might think about having a forage analysis performed on that supply. I do this because I like to know what my horses are eating. I can see what the protein levels, sugar levels, calcium/phosphorus ratios and the like are in the horses' primary food source, and allows me to augment just what is needed.
There are many labs around including the NC Department of Agriculture and the one that I use: CVAS. I find that a basic test runs about $10-$20, and it can all be done by mail. If you investigate, you may find some testing facilities in your own community. Just a further thought: if you purchase your hay a few bales at a time, it's not really as helpful to do.
For those who have a horse that has foundered, has a metabolic disorder or is insulin resistant, what's in your hay can have a profound impact on his health. If you're feeding a low carbohydrate feed but your hay is high in carbs, you're undermining your efforts by not knowing the nutritional content of your hay. And if you need help understanding the analysis, just contact GreenField Feed NC, and we'll try to answer your questions.
Making sure EVERYONE gets some hay
It may seem obvious to you, but there are a lot of people who don't know how to ensure that all members of the herd get to eat the hay that is put out. As we all know, horses are herd animals, and that means there is a hierarchy out in the field. The top horses get to eat first, drink first, and move everyone else around. To make sure that EVERYONE gets to eat hay, put out more piles than there are horses. Some people will put out one extra pile, so if there are two horses, they put out three piles. That's fine - you can also put out more. But be sure there is at least one "empty" pile, so as the lower-ranking horses are moved off their piles, they still get to eat from an "empty" one.
SUMMER TIPS
Fly Control the Natural Way
One of our clients, Kelly H in Ft. Mill, SC, told us that her farrier suggested adding apple cider vinegar to her horses' food. She reported that once her horse got used to the taste, and after a few weeks, her fly population dropped dramatically! We know that apple cider vinegar has lots of great uses, and here's one we'll add to our list!
Warm water troughs
Proper maintenance of your water troughs in fall, spring & summer is as important as during the winter. Leaves, pollen and even some animals may fall into the troughs and affect the quality of the water your horses need. I use the pool skimmer (see Icy Water Troughs, above) to keep my water fresh between the times I empty them, and I brush off the dirt and grass residue that turns them green in the heat. And if the water turns really warm from the summer sun, your horses may not drink, so it's important to replace it with fresh water. I keep my troughs about 1/2 full so there's less that I waste when I replace it to keep the water cool and clear.
Fly masks
I like to use a fly mask to help protect my Appaloosa's eyes from the sun. Did you know that Appys, as a breed, have a greater chance of developing blindness than any other? Winter, spring, summer and fall - when the sun is out, we keep the fly mask on. For more info, check out www.blindappaloosas.org.
GENERAL HUSBANDRY TIPS
My Medication "Aha"
I recently had a huge "aha' about my horse's behavior. As an appaloosa, his "you're not the boss of me" attitude has always been apparent but manageable. Suddenly one day, he became so oppositional to me that I was sure I had done something wrong, but nothing I did seemed to correct the behavior. A few days later, he stopped getting an NSAID that he'd been on for nearly a month. A week or so after that, my old horse was back with me and I wondered if the meds had caused the problem. I went back to the insert that came with the medicine and re-read the side effects - excitability had been demonstrated in one of the test subjects. So my tip to you is - if your horse is going on any medicine, long- or short-term, make a note somewhere to pay attention to changes in him and tell your vet if you find any. Because my horse had been on the meds for over three weeks and the new behaviors occurred so quickly late into the treatment, I had been lulled into forgetting that a change had been introduced into his daily routine.
Healthy hooves
My farrier suggested that I keep a spray bottle of apple cider vinegar mixed with a small bottle of tea tree oil in my grooming box. Whenever I clean my horse's hooves, I spray the mixture all over the underside of the clean hoof. While it may not be 100% effective, it makes me feel good to do what I can to prevent thrush and other hoof-related ailments.
"Green" Cleaning of Water Troughs
Micki T. of Waxhaw NC suggests "For easy green cleaning of water buckets and troughs, put a generous handful of baking soda in the empty container, then a big splash of white vinegar - it will "boil" for a minute, then you can wipe the inside of the bucket down with a sponge and rinse. Cuts through slime really well, and no bleachy or chemical cleaner odors will linger to put your horse off his water." We think your horses will appreciate it, too!
Horsekeeping Tips**
This page is all about you and your needs. We hope these tips will be helpful, and invite you to share yours with us. Send your comments, ideas or questions to us at GreenFieldFeedNC@gmail.com. This page is always "in progress."
