Horse Sense and Cents

Seven tips for making winter weather a great time to get horsey

There’s so much to do at the farm on any given day, but when footing or blustery conditions cause us to choose to stay out of the saddle, there’s still an opportunity to spend time with horse scents and activities that allow us to connect with our companions (and get excited about the coming of spring). As you start to get frustrated about the weather and grumpy because you can’t seem to figure out how to replace the spiritual energy that comes from the equine connection, here are some ideas to get your mind right and your time well spent:

1. Spend quiet time with your horse. Even if it’s simply watching them enjoy time in the paddock and/or observing how they spend time with other equines, hanging out in the stall or catching up on grooming or handling activities that you may have neglected a bit in active months, you can use this time to learn and bond.
2. If you don’t already have one, buy a calendar or planner that records and tracks all care and issues with your horse. Include records and schedules for vaccinations, the blacksmith, worming, medical surprises and results, mare cycles and findings if you’re breeding, training schedules or objectives – whatever is important for you and your horse to ensure continued health, happiness and success.
3. Start a journal. Really watch your horse and strive to learn from him. You might be amazed at how seemingly little observations can reveal patterns and teach you more about you and your horse.  Horses are great teachers when we let ourselves see what they try to say. There’s also a great opportunity to grow in quietness. Winter provides a time to watch, reflect and connect.
4. Go through all your tack, brushes, equipment, supplies and tools.  Clean it, check it, fix it, discard it and replace or repair the damaged. Think about creating a good first aid kit and having it handy (see http://horsesenseandcents.com/blog/2009/09/page/2/ for some ideas to include).
5. Devote extra time to giving your horse attention he enjoys. This is a great time to learn what he really likes and grow in your knowledge by watching how he responds to you as a result. Use this time to try to better understand how horses communicate and find ways you can develop a language your equine can more easily understand.
6. Explore new ideas for learning more about horses. This could include forum participation, books, conversations with trainers, finding blogs that appeal to you, going to equine conferences or demonstrations or even really listening to what your horse is trying to tell you.
7. Get ready for spring!  Share all your plans and excitement about the coming season with your horse and you may be surprised how quickly he absorbs your enthusiasm.

Some mares are more obvious than others, but if you’re trying to get a clear read on cycling for breeding, it helps to get to know your mare so you can time ultrasounds and/or better schedule live breeding to save money in this challenging economy.

1. If you’re seeing pink snow in the paddocks, at least one of your mares is likely already cycling.
2. Mares often begin to mimic the herd with their rhythms. If you can catch a heat with one mare, it’s likely that others on the property are close in their cycle, particularly as the season progresses.
3. If you don’t have stallions on the property, often a gelding is sufficient to tease a mare (and with some, anything on four legs). The easiest and safest way is to leave the gelding in a stall and bring the mare to him on the lead. If she winks and squats, she’s probably in heat.
4. Get to know your mare. Some are more obvious than others, but all tend to follow patterns. We have one mare who will tease heartily but when she’s really getting ready to ovulate, she stops and winks just about every stride on the way out to the paddocks with no horses in sight.
5. Keep copious records of your mare’s heat dates and follicle sizes/tone (if you’re using ultrasounds) you have them to see patterns. These will change as the season gets later, but helps for next heats and future years.
6. Get a good reproductive vet on board to help you learn, spot issues and provide the best assistance for your mare that’s possible.

Wednesday Quick Tips

1. Never leave a horse without water in the cold months (or any other time, for that matter). Colic is very prevalent during the winter and this can often be traced to poor access and/or subsequent gulping of water when finally provided. Make sure ice has not blocked access and all horses have ample water always in stalls and/or pastures.
2. Provide shelter. While this can be more important in the summer (bugs and baking sun), it’s critical you provide the option to get out of pelting snow and ice, driving winds and harsh elements. Run-in sheds are OK for most (although it’s best to bring horses into a barn when the weather is severe), but you must make sure all herd members have access (with multiple shelters of adequate size where a number of horses share space). Watch the herd as it’s not uncommon for a single horse to deny access to the rest of the residents.
3. Watch the ice. Horses are usually pretty careful and aware of footing conditions in areas they are familiar with, but don’t expect your equine to stay on his feet as you lead him over frozen water or to be smart about staying sedate if you turn him loose in a glazed-over paddock when he’s fresh. Broken legs usually mean death for a horse.
4. Monitor weight. Horses can drop pounds very quickly as the temperatures plummet. Winter coats can hide ribs as they begin to show. Keep an eye on the horse’s topline, hips and use your hands to feel what’s going on under that thick coat. Adjust feed immediately as you start to see weight loss. Winter’s a tough time to put weight on a horse so you don’t want to be managing the issues that come with a thin horse during these challenging months.
5. Help your horse prepare for the elements. If you’re going to be turning your horse out during the winter months, be kind and let him grow a coat (and don’t clip the poor thing). Blankets (and clipping) may save you grooming time, but interfere with a horse’s natural protection mechanism (hair growth), hurts the horse when wet and can get tangled around legs, necks and other body parts. Older horses and those who do not grow a good winter coat may need some extra protection (and make sure it’s a waterproof blanket with good leg straps to hold it in place that you take off regularly to ensure no rubs, leaks, sores, etc.), but most will do better if you allow their natural coat to protect them.
6. Careful with shoes. If you’re planning on your horse being outside during the winter, whether for riding or turn-out, most shoes are a bad idea. Snow balls up in the hoof effectively putting the horse on stilts, the metal impedes natural traction and most shoes add risk to your’s and your horse’s safety.
7. Increase hay portions and regularity. Horses are designed to be eating about sixteen hours a day. This roughage is especially important in the winter months. Sometimes increasing grain will actually cause a horse to lose weight (depending on what you are feeding and your horse). Instead, seek out a decent quality first cutting timothy hay or orchard grass that you can feed your horse all day long (assuming you don’t have an obese horse). This will help keep him healthier and happier during the tough winter months.

1. Make sure your foal is ready – just because the calendar says it’s time doesn’t mean the mind is prepared. Know your baby well enough to recognize when he is independent enough to be able to handle separation.
2. If you’re nursing mare is in foal (again), sometimes you need to step up the timeline to keep her healthy. Make sure you spend ample time with the foal from the onset to prepare him for an early separation. Pairing him with foals that are more independent and using them to help encourage behavior can help.
3. Weaning foals on the same property where mares reside can be challenging, but this is often most easily done in the pastures (vs. stall confinement). If you have enough land, put the mares where the foals can’t see or hear them. The buddy system makes this a lot easier (often foals will bond with another – keep them together when you wean).
4. If stall separating is your only option, sometimes it’s easier to put the foal in a stall adjacent to the mare. Make sure the walls are tall enough (this may require building them to the ceiling) so the baby cannot jump into the adjacent stall (or get hung up trying). With other foals (you should have a good read on their temperament by now), it’s necessary to get the mare as far away as possible from the foal. Sometimes, putting foals together in a stall can help all through the process for a couple of days.
5. Keep an eye on the mare and watch her bag. Some absorb the milk quickly, others may have challenges. It’s important to give the mare ample daily exercise to ensure mastitis doesn’t set in.
6. Teach babies to lead, accept human handling and get familiar with their intended new herd prior to weaning. The more familiar and comfortable they are with what will be required of them next (and don’t rule out the need for a possible vet visit from resulting injuries as a result of the weaning process), the easier it will be for both you and your foal.
7. Ensure your foals trust, like and look to your for guidance and confidence. This can go a long way toward helping them make this tough transition.
8. Start separate foal graining rations early. There are a number of feeds designed for foals (and this does not include mare & foal labelled products – look for those that include a milk supplement) to ensure your foal gets the nutrition he needs early. Mare’s milk starts deteriorating between months two and three and you should start addressing this with special and separate feed for your youngster at this time.  Suddenly throwing grain at them when weaned produces growth spurts that aren’t healthy.
9. Check recently weaned foals daily for injuries and issues.
10. Give your foals the trust, lead and confidence to see you as a  guide through this difficult transition. This needs to start early, but the benefits that result from your time and attention will pay considerable dividends in making this process easier for all.

Editors Note: Friday’s Opinion appeared on Wednesday of this week due the timely (and scary) nature of the issue addressed. So, this week’s usual Wed. quick tips feature is a bit delayed.

Whether you are housing horses in a stall 24/7 (a tough life for a horse unless injury layup is an excuse), offering limited daily time in a paddock, giving horses ample pasture time during the day or night (depending on the season) or operating with a primary turnout situation that has horses in stalls only during severe weather, vet appearances, blacksmith visits, foaling times or training preparation activities, you need stalls. These quick tips assume your horse spends daily time in the stall, but could also apply to those who don’t (and run in sheds).

Quick tips for stall maintenance

1. Know your flooring and address the issues. Wood and mats when wet can be very slippery. Make sure you have enough bedding (sawdust provides better footing on these surfaces than straw) to ensure foals can get up (we bed foaling stalls with straw, but have found that it’s necessary to put a thin layer of sawdust under a bale or two of straw for some less coordinated foals), excited horses don’t fall and periodic accommodations are made to dry these areas out. Wood rots too, so keep an eye on deterioration and fix it before a collapse results in a vet bill. Cement is too hard on horses that spend a lot of time in the stall. Invest in mats if this is your only surface option and bed deep. Dirt encourages digging and urine will produce holes too. We put mats in our dirt stalls (sans one for our mare who has a proclivity for producing slow foals) and pull them out annually to level out the dirt. Still, dirt, although high maintenance, is probably the best solution for your horse. If you’re building from the ground up, put stone down about seven inches for good drainage.
2. Picking stalls saves time and bedding costs. It’s relatively easy to remove manure at feeding times and doing so makes the full stall clean a lot quicker, keeps the stall a lot neater and makes a great impression on visitors. We have a couple of churn machines in our barn and staying on top of the deposits reduces bedding and labor costs dramatically.
3. There are ergonomic tools you can put to the task, but we’ve found a standard plastic pitchfork to be the most durable and easiest tool for the task (even on the straw stalls – so much sold in our area today is so chaffy, standard metal straw pitchforks just don’t work well). We also use a broom in stalls to clear wet spots thoroughly.
4. We’ve found the best stall construction material to be 1” X 6” rough cut oak. It’s tough and affordable. If you screw (vs. nail) the boards in, they’re easy to remove when broken or chewed through. Having cordless power tools (circular saw, drill, etc.) makes it’s simple to render quick repairs and keep your barn in pristine shape.
5. Inspect stalls (and run-in sheds) daily for loose screws/nails, eye-hooks that may have been mangled, boards that are loose, items that may have been pulled in by the resident and other potential injury issues. It’s amazing how some horses are magnets for trouble. Save yourself the heartache and headache of injuries and vet bills by striving to prevent potential mishaps.

Life is about continuous learning. This year we decided to fence in twenty-six acres. We learned a lot about herd dynamics, best practices, time saving (and depleting) practices, the effects of changing the equine routine and the wishes of horses. Whether your methods involve 24/7stall confinement (a tough life for a horse), a combination of turn-out and stall care or full-time pasture life, you can make it easier on both you and your horse by being smarter about how you decide to make this so.

Ten tips for good turnout strategies

1. Give your horses shelter. Surprisingly, this is more critical in the summer months with the bugs and the sun then in the cold, windy and snowy season, but it’s a necessary component for comfort and health year-round.  Run-in sheds can be purchased or built, but know that one horse will likely command the space, so ensure there is an overhang or L-shaped construction so that others can get some protection.
2. Develop a rotation management plan. We had twelve horses on twenty-six acres this year (divided into three herds) and figured such small numbers would make it easy for the acreage to support the grazing demands. We were wrong. It’s important to restrict access and move the herds on a regular basis to ensure good pasture food and maintenance. It was amazing how much the quality of the pasture improved after we took the horses off a particular pasture, mowed the field, and gave it a month or so to regenerate.
3. Provide an ample, clean water supply. We have water piped to some of the paddocks, but truck it into the rest (with a 325 gallop tank on a trailer that hitches to the back of the pickup). In our area, municipal water (3 miles down the road) is inexpensive and saves wear and tear on our pump and water purification system.  Horses can drink a lot and you never want them to be without water.
4. Ensure you provide dry, clean and maintained pastures and shelters. Run-in sheds should be cleaned at least daily, preferably more frequently. If you can get one that is mobile, that’s even better as some herds will urinate in the sheds and this creates a very unhealthy condition for the feet. If you can’t move it, fill it with absorbent bedding that is cleaned at least daily. If areas of the paddock tend to get muddy (this will always be the case by the gate and in front of the shelter) see if you can restrict horses access to these areas and reseed.
5. Stick to a routine. Horses are more comfortable, and stay healthier, if they can plan on a schedule. Try to feed, water, train, bring in and out of the barn, rotate herds, do any doctoring, etc. at the same times each day.
6. Keep an eye on every horse in your care. Check the feet and eyes daily (small issues here can turn into major problems quickly). Give each horse the once over daily to ensure there are no open sores that may lead to infection, swollen areas, leg concerns or other medical issues that may need attention.
7. Watch the weight and the manure of each horse. Forage quality can change quickly and you don’t want to be dealing with founder on a horse that has been allowed to get obese or fighting to put  pounds on a horse as winter sets in.
8. Respect the herd dynamics hierarchy (and make sure you are seen as the leader when among the critters). If you want to move a herd, start with the alpha. Don’t get between horses that can get combative with one another. If you are supplementing with hay, make sure it is set up so that all horses are permitted to eat (multiple locations for placement or an adjustment to the herd groups usually works here).
9. Set a schedule for the blacksmith, shots, worming, etc. and keep good records. Just because a horse is turned out, doesn’t mean he can go without basic care.
10. Give your horses a job.  While it may seem idyllic and beautiful for a horses to be grazing freely day and night, most horses aren’t happy being ignored. Even older retired horses can help teach the babies a thing or two and the youngsters love to be challenged with training. Frankly, we were a bit surprised at how much the horses at the farm happily anticipated being put to work. Those in training were the first to come running to be brought into the barn.