While people deal with the cold weather by wearing additional clothing, horses must use more energy to maintain body temperature in colder weather. The majority of people can generally meet their own cold weather needs. Our horses depend on their owners to give them proper nutrition and protection from the weather.

Energy for Body Warmth

The temperature below which a particular horse needs to use additional energy for maintain its body warmth varies. Several factors influencing this include the horse’s amount of body fat,  thickness of its winter coat, and  how well the individual horse adjusts to the colder climate. A horse with short hair, exposed to wet, cold weather, will likely need significantly more energy when the temperature gets below 50° F (10° C). A thick coated, horse that has acclimatized to cold weather, and has more body fat, may not expend much more energy until the temperature drops below 30° F (-1° C).

A 1% increase in the energy is typically required, for a horse to stay sufficiently warm,  to replace the energy lost for each degree the temperature falls below the horse’s critical temperature.

Feeding Considerations

A general formula of energy needs for  a horse  is to supply roughly two pounds more feed for each 10 degrees Fahrenheit below the critical temperature per day. However,this situation is not practical because it is not healthy to suddenlyincrease a horse’s grain ration whenever the temperature dips.  Abrupt changes in grain composition and amounts will increase the prevalence of colic and founder.

Therefore the answer is to prepare forthe cold weather by condiditoning the horse prior to start of winter weather. Horses need to be preconditioned for cold weather by increasing fat thickness and body condition before the onset of winter.  The grain should be gradually increased over a period of several days, especially if  for horses already are eating a large a amount of grain.

Feeding large amounts of grass hay to horses without a source of  forage is also recommended. Free-choice hay helps horses exposed to cold weather, Some body heat is generated by digestion and hay is a continual supply of nutrients for the horse as well. Feeding oil  or weight supplements can help meet a horse’s extra energy needs.

Shelter for Horses

Providing some form of shelter from wind, rain, and cold is another way to decrease the stress on horses from inclement weather exposure. Some pastures provide some natural protectionbut usually manmade shelters are advisable.

In addition to or in absence of  barns, other shelters such as windbreaks or sheds can be helpful.

Always consider horse instincts and herd pecking orders when designing and building windbreaks or sheds. Think about what horses are compatible with one another prior to supplying an enclosed shed with three or four sides. Consider stall size of  10 feet by 10 feet  a minimum for each horse to be sheltered.

Three or four sided structures will not work well with large numbers of horses, or groups of horses with large ranges in horse dominance orders. More enclosed structures may increase the chance of  injury to horses on the low end of the herd dominance order by the more dominant horses. The dominant horses will also keep others from having access to enclosed shelter.

A  single-sided windbreak with a top cover can work with herds with both dominant and passive horses. Having two or three of these structures spread about the large area will work better than a one long, continuous structure which lends itself to being  easily guarded by the dominant horses.