Horse Care Tips

Horse care tips for winter, like it or not it is here. How will your horse fare this freezing season? Hollywood images of wild mustangs make them look healthy. But the truth is, animals in the wild are often lame, unhealthy, and die younger than animals under human care. Think mustangs attacked by mountain lions versus a pleasure horse that lives in your horse barn. Don’t panic. We’ve put together a few horse care tips to help with your equestrian care needs for winter.

Shelter.

Although horses thrive being outside, they also benefit from a shelter. A prefabricated horse barn is useful because it not only houses your horse, but stores hay, feed and tack as well. Alternatively, pastured horses benefit from a run-in shelter. If you have several horses, you might need more than one shed because they don’t all like sharing space. Think pecking order with chickens, except much bigger.

Food.

Horses need to eat 2% of their body weight every day. But honestly, who is going to weigh sweet feed and hay, much less a horse? No one. Assuming your horse is a “Regular Joe” and doesn’t need a special diet, give him all the hay he wants and maybe a gallon (twice daily) of sweet feed. Easy keepers don’t need that much grain. Still feel a need to weigh something? Alright, give him 25 or 30 pounds of hay daily. You can weigh it with a bathroom scale, but we don’t know why you’d bother. Just feed the horse because it’s digestion of hay that will keep him warm.

With all that dry hay and grain, your horse will need fresh (not frozen) water throughout the day. A creek, water bucket heater or carrying water to him twice daily are good options. Figure 10 gallons daily per horse.

Mud and Ice.

In our area, we have a lot more mud than ice, but both need to be addressed for equine care. To prevent fungal and bacterial infections, clean your horse’s legs and feet regularly (daily if possible). Ice can build up on hooves, so they should be picked out daily Consider removing shoes until spring.

These simple care tips should help keep your horse healthy this winter. By addressing mud/ ice and food/water needs, you’ll have the basics covered. When it comes to horse barns or run-in shelters for equestrian care, look no farther than Carolina Storage Solutions. We’ve delivered more prefabricated horse barns to the Asheville and Hendersonville, NC area than anyone else. Give us a call today for more information!