TheHorse.com has a great article on the dangerous of cold weather on livestock, including horses.  It is critical that when the temperature drops that you feed more hay.  When hay is digested horses produce more heat to keep their bodies warm.  Their bodies require more energy when the temperature drops, especially below 40 F.  Couple this with wind chill and rain/snow and they require even more.

You should feed about 50% more hay to each horse.  If you horse goes through half a bale of hay a day, you should be feeding approximately 1 bale per day in extremely cold days.  Being stingy on hay during extremely cold days will cause your horse to lose weight.  If their body cannot produce enough heat, they will start to shiver.  When they begin to shiver, their body will begin using even more energy.  Hence, it is best not to get to that point.

Keeping horses warm by using blankets and keeping them inside during nighttime hours when the temperatures drop well below freezing will not only make for happier horses but may also save you hay and keep your horses from dropping weight over the winter months.  When you blanket is up to you (there have been dozens of studies done in that area), but a good rule of thumb for healthy adult horses is when the temperature drops below 15F but not when it is above 30F.  If left on when the temperature rises, horses can become hot and sweat.  Also, blanketing too early in the season can stunt winter hair growth and lead to you having to blanket more throughout the winter.  Your decision must be based upon your horse.  If your horse is shivering, s/he probably needs a blanket at that temperature.

Having run in shelters for horses left outside during windy rainy/snowy days is a must.  If you do not have a run in, then your only other alternative is to bring them in the barn.  If the weather is bad for several days, consider turning out during the afternoon/early evening for a couple hours before you go to bed.  This way they can get out to stretch their legs yet not have to stay out all night during the frigid windy weather.

Another point to remember is water.  Horses drink less in the winter.  Encourage them to drink by changing and/or cleaning their water troughs and/or buckets often, using trough heaters and/or heated buckets, and providing salt blocks in their stalls and near water troughs outside.

From my point of view:

I personally do not use blankets outside because our horses tear them up.  If the weather drops below 15 F and it is windy, I keep the horses inside.  Below 10 F I blanket our horses.  We typically will remove the blankets in the morning since our barn warms up from the sunlight.  We blanket them again before we go to bed, unless it is extremely cold, in which case we may leave the blankets on all day.  I never turnout in freezing rain, but will turn them out during the day during dry snow.  If inside for several days, we will turn them out for a couple hours.  If they are inside too long, they can store up energy and injure themselves as they want to run around in the extremely slick pasture.

For two horses on a regular day, we go through approximately 1 bale (~50 pound) of good quality hay a day.  During the winter months, we increase that to 1.5 bales.  When the temperature is below 20 F, we increase that to 2 bales a day.  We have found that by providing extra hay at the right times we can keep the horses warm and happy all winter long.

Your management will depend on your horses’ age, size, your facilities, and amount of hay that you have on hand.  The important take home point is do not be stingy on hay.  If you are getting low, consider a hay stretcher or hay pellets or cubes.  The fiber in hay is essential to keeping your horses warm.  As always, send us your questions or comments!

HorseTalk did a great review on Equine Emergency Rescue – a horse owner’s guide to large animal rescue.  You can purchase the book from the author’s website.  The author, Australian MaryAnne Leighton, worked together with US expert Michelle Staples, and wrote the book.  The book is a guide to the methods and tools necessary to successfully extricate a horse or other large animal from entrapment.  It demonstrates how to use simple nylon webbing straps, ropes and slings to secure, lift, shift or assist a mobile or immobile horse and how to evacuate horses from stable fires and floodwater. It shows how to safely use the large surface area and skeletal strength of the horse’s torso to reduce tissue damage and trauma to his delicate structures, thus increasing the chance of a successful rescue.

Last year West Virginia Equine Association had the opportunity to bring in Days End Rescue from Maryland to put on a Large Animal Rescue Training clinic.  The clinic was a wealth of knowledge for those that attended.  The book above may give you a good overview of some of the techniques used for LART.

On a side note, would anyone be interested in WVEA bringing another LART clinic in the state?  If so leave us a comment or send us an e-mail at info@wvequineassoc.org.  Thanks!

The National Weather Service is calling for bad weather this weekend into next week.  As if we haven’t seen enough of it, right?  Here was my latest post to Facebook on my personal page:

From NWS, rain Saturday (lose ground), snow Sunday (slippery), high winds Monday (trees down), and super cold Mon/Tues night, 9F, -6F windchill.  Perfect weather for a power outage.  Get ready!!!

So why the worry?  Because we have horses!!!  Having horses means having to be even more prepared than everyone else.  Horses need water during the winter, and water freezes, especially when there is no electric.  In addition, many of us in West Virginia have well water, which means we need electric to get water.  Having a generator that can supply power to your well, let alone your water trough heaters, is a luxury that many of us can’t afford.  However, there are still ways to survive an extended power outage and not risk your horse’s health.

1. First and foremost, NEVER attempt to heat a barn with any source of heat that involves flame.  The dust floating in the air in a barn is extremely combustible, and coupled with dry hay and bedding is a fire waiting to happen.
2. Keep water for at least 3 days.  3 days * 5 gal of water minimum * # of horses = gallons to keep on hand.  If you have 2 horses, you should keep a minimum of 30 gallons on hand.  You can do this by filling old buckets the day before you know the storm is coming in.  Another way is to keep gallon jugs from milk or bottled water, fill them with water, and store them in your house where it is warm.  If you live more than 10 miles away from somewhere you could get water, then you should probably think about keeping more, such as 5 days.  If you can’t get out, you will have to have this water if your power goes out.
3. Keep hay and grain on hand for at least 2 weeks.  You don’t want to be hauling heavy loads when the roads are bad.  If your supply is below 2 weeks, immediately start looking for feed.  If you can’t find hay, consider using a hay stretcher, hay pellets, or hay cubes.  Hay is essential for horses to keep their bodies warm.
4. If you lose power, try to keep your horses outside if the weather permits, at least during the day.  Having them outside will allow them to have access to your larger water troughs which will save your water for inside the barn.  Also, larger troughs will freeze slower than your buckets inside.  Make sure that you break the ice off the outside troughs three times daily:  Morning when you wake up, before sunset, and before you go to bed.
5. Keep flash lights on hand, especially the lantern type lights.  Lantern type lights can be hung in stalls while you are cleaning stalls on dark nights.  They prevent the movement of the light which startles horses less than normal flash lights that you have to hold.  Use baling twine to quickly tie the light in each stall as you clean the stalls.
6. Keep the barn doors shut.  Only open them to remove manure.  Typically it is a bad idea to seal your barn up all the time because horses need fresh air.  However, your goal is to keep the barn warm until the power comes back on.  To avoid respiratory problems, slow down your stall cleaning so you are not stirring up so much dust, do not sweep and/or rake isles, and avoid tossing hay around.

If you start to run low on water, you need to think about a plan of getting water to your farm.  You will need buckets with covers or jugs.  Buckets from supplements work great for this purpose.  Store them year round in case you need them.

Even for short outages, generators can be extremely handy if you are on well water.  If you purchase a generator, do not run it near the barn.  Any gasoline motor can be hazardous when used around dusty dry areas such as your barn.  If your barn’s electric is fed from your house, it may be possible for you to feed the barn with your generator.  Just remember to minimize the number of lights and water heaters that you use.  Water heaters use a great deal of electricity in most cases and the additional load on the generator can cause wiring to become overloaded and overheat, causing fire.  However, it is possible to safely run heaters on a generator if your wiring and generator are adequate.  As always with any electrical questions and concerns, consult a qualified electrician!

The first couple years at our current residence we experienced power outages that lasted approximately 2 days.  The techniques above kept our horses safe and healthy.  Last year we experienced an outage lasting almost 5 days.  We made it to 3 days with our water supply and had to make a run to town for water.  We used 5 gallon buckets that our supplements came in.

This past winter, after much saving, we finally purchased a generator large enough to run our well and house furnace.  Our barn is fed from the house so we are able to supply our barn power from the generator.  Now when we lose power, we are able to run our furnace, a few lights, the barn lights (low wattage florescent), and two heated buckets (130 watts each).  When we need water, we power everything else off and are able to run the water pump so that it can fill the tank.  Even still, we keep a few days water on hand just in case the generator would have issues.

I hope this information has been helpful to you.  We can keep our fingers crossed that the storm misses, but nonetheless we must be prepared.  Typically we see this sort of weather in January which doesn’t give me much faith for this winter.  With the ground already frozen, it will make it easier to snow and stick when the real winter weather gets here early next year.

Stay warm and safe, and if you have any questions feel free to write us at info@wvequineassoc.org.

ps:  Excuse the grammar and typos.  I will continue to post things as long as I can do it fairly quickly.  If you would like to help us write articles about any subject dealing with equines which can be used on our website and in our newsletter, please contact us!  We would love your help!