Winter preparation....

I know!!!!!! I know
It's the 3rd day of summer, but I want to be ready for cold weather, so I'm looking for senior horse management ideas for the old guy. Worthy, not hubby.....
every winter takes more of a toll on him and I want to start thinking about it now. Ideally, I would be able to divide him from the other clowns, so he has his own shelter and paddock...really, I'm thinking out loud now......hmmmm...but he is such an odd fellow, its really hard to change his routines AT ALL! This is the horse that would not cross the line when we moved a fence years ago....fence was gone, and he wouldn't go across the line until we led him and reassured him it was okay.....maybe I should give him the riding paddock for the winter with another shelter, and he can live there by himself, and that way he will have 24/7 access to his hay.....and still be on full turnout....hmmmm

If you were closer I'd give you a slap for even breathing the W word.. hehehehe.. seriously though sometimes separting might make him upset and he could lose weight which is something you don't want in the winter... unless he's close to the others and can still interact with them. .. Shelter is great if they use it.. lol..

I always fed Major 2nd cut hay. It's much better for keeping the weight on them. I still feed it to my other guys ion the coldest months. To keep costs down you can feed half second cut and half first cut per day. You just have to make sure he's getting his share, so that's where you may have to separate him.

I don't know what his personality if like but I know that none of my guys would want to be seperated from their buddy. They get all worked up about it.

In the winter I feed my "oldies" alfalfa cubes (soaked) and also some flax. It seems to really help keep the weight on them. Plus all the hay they can eat.

beet pulp........a big scoop soaked all day in warm water..............its what keeps abbey going through the winter.......

I don't have a senior, but I do know they can "worry" the weight off very quickly. Its is so important to the over all mental health of a horse to be in a herd, my advice would be not to separate them. Always put out more piles of hay than horses.. at least 2 more.. that way there is always a free one. I have heard that beet pulp is an excellent way of keeping the weight on them. Black Oiled Sunflower Seeds is another way of getting the needed fats on board. He still has good teeth??? So he can eat hay with out a problem.


I wish it was winter already..for the horses... they always look so much happier and healthier... the horse flies are so bad this year, the poor horses hardly get time to rest... It makes me sad to watch them suffer these pests. I know the moose flys will be next, and those tulip black flies and mosquitos are already here too.

I should add that I never had a problem seperating Major (just in the adjacent paddock, not on the other side of the property). I think he actually liked being able to tease the others. He would stand there stuffing his face with his hay and smirk at the others.

Lat year when I had Hubba, I seperated the paddock in a way that Dex and Prince had 1 side and 1/2 access to the round bale feeder, and George and Hubba had the other side. They still all ate from the same feeder and I don't think they realized they were actually seperated.

This is when I first put up the division, later I put actual insulators on the feeder and attached the wire better so I could electrify it. There is more fence that runs from the other side of the feeder to seperate the entire paddock down the middle. It worked well for my guys.



Oh, and what Joan said too...I feed warm beet pulp in the cold months.

Try using a few slow feeders so you know he has hay in front of him all the time and put out mutiple so each horse has their own:

http://paddockparadise.wetpaint.com/page/Slow+Feeders

Also, I've read that slow feeders help with older horses who quid their food. The slow feeders allow them to take smaller mouthfuls so they can handle chewing it better. How are his teeth?

Is haylage an option? I have 2 20 y/o's and they both looked amazing after this winter....a little too good actually and that's with no feed at all. I fed soaked beet pulp a few times this winter when the weather was really bad, but not often. I find if you soak it in the hottest water you can get from the tap for about an hour it fluffs up enough to be ready to feed. Just add LOTS of hot water. My guys go through about 50LBS each/day of haylage in the coldest months! I'd say UP your forage intake as much as you can.

Rice Bran - expensive, but a little goes a long way. I've read good results with soy beans. I don't think I would feed this to my horses but Worthy is in his 30's if I remember correctly so you do what you have to do to keep the weight on.

I think he looks wonderful ... better than he could for his age and still be healthy. His coat looks healthy, and you can not see a bone shining through anywhere.. he looks so much younger than he actual age. ( I sure hope I can age as well..lol) Whatever you are doing for him now is working. Keep doing it! Hahaha you realy can not compare his body type to Arrows..lol Arrow looks wonderful to btw! Your horses are so lucky to be in your care.

We build the 2 cribs that we fill with hay, plus we scatter pile of hay around so they can hunt and graze.. The hay cribs keep the hay from blowing away. When we don't use the cribs, we put out at the very least 5 piles for 3 horses. That gives the slower chewers more time and choice. The fellow we get our hay from, hay the normally long hay chopped, then he bales it. It's hard to explain, but the flakes break apart easier, and the hay is in short chunks. Not as much wasted this way. We get square bales and they are longer than the average..so in the summer, where they have a wee bit of grass they get 2 bales, and in the winter 3 bales a day. The hay varies as well in consistency... some of it reminds me of straw it is so course, while other bales are thin and wispy, and some in between. They love the thin and wispy ones the best.. they have a wee purple flower in them that must be particularly flavorful..lol.

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they have a wee purple flower in them that must be particularly flavorful..lol.

That would be Purple Vetch. Horses go absolutely bonkers for it. It is a vine type plant that grows in clumps in amongst the grass. It's better than clover, to a horse anyways.

Ellie Mae - He is definately going to do better on the finer textured orchard grass if you can get your hands on it. That's why I always feed the second cut - the grass is softer/finer. Second cut is immature grass that doesn't have a chance to flower and go to seed. The nutritional quality of hay can drop by 50% in a very short period of time if it is left to go to seed before cutting (even a week can make that much a difference). As soon as grass flowers and sets seeds it reverses the flow of nutrients. Everything starts to flow back to the roots to build up "food" in preparation for winter dormancy. So, if you can find second cut than you are getting both a fine texture that he will like plus he will be getting much more nutrients out of it. It's fairly easy to find around here with all the dairy farms but I'm not sure what the supply is like on PEI.