After the prolonged wet, muddy conditions the weather is finally taking a colder turn. So this week Scientific Nutritional Products takes a look at winter feeding in our latest blog to give horse owners a helping hand with plenty of tips and advice to get through the colder time and ensure their equines maintain optimum health and wellbeing.
During the winter our horses and ponies require additional specific care, particularly during freezing conditions in order to maintain their health and well-being. It is vitally important that your equine stays both warm and nourished in order to allow him to enjoy the winter months.
Top Tips for Winter Feeding from Scientific Nutritional Products
1.) Provide Ad Lib Forage.
During the winter months grazing is reduced alongside it also becoming depreciated in nutritional value. It is vital to provide sufficient hay or haylage as an alternative to grass not to mention always offering hay or haylage in the field when the ground is covered by frost of snow. Including essential fibre keeps the gut healthy and mobile and as the horse digests fibre the fermentation process of the roughage literally warms him up from the inside out!
2.) Supply a Vitamins and Minerals Supplement.
Due to the decrease of nutritional content in the forage we have to provide to our equines in winter time it can be highly beneficial to supply a Horse Vitamin and Mineral supplement in their diet. Provide essential micronutrients with Horse and Pony Multivitamin Supplement or Competition Horse Supplement from Scientific Nutritional Products.
3.) Keep the weight and the rug on!
Ensure your equine is sufficiently rugged in order to make sure he doesn’t lose energy, calories and weight in order to keep warm. This is especially important if your horse has been clipped, losing his natural defences to cold weather.
4.) Maintain Access to Water.
In cold weather our water tanks and troughs are susceptible to freezing. Upon reaching the yard this should be the first thing horse owners check as the water source may have been inaccessible to equines for a number of hours if there has been a hard frost over night. Break the ice and try adding hot water where possible to your horse’s drinking water before leaving the stables in the evening in order to keep is from freezing.
5.) Keep Joints Healthy
Just like us in cold weather our equine's joints often suffer more during cold weather and our horses and ponies often display an increased level of stiffness in their movement. Joint Right Supreme from Scientific Nutritional Product contains optimum levels of Glucosamine for Horses, Chondroitin, MSM, Green Lipped Mussel and Omega 3 to promote healthy mobile joints!
Find out more about the supplements mentioned in this blog and visit www.horsesupplementsdirect.co.uk today! As well as manufacturing a range of Horse Supplements we can manufature a Dog Joint Supplement, Glucosamine for Dogs, Canine Joint Right.
Don't forget to follow our educational weekly blog too, available from our website and through our Facebook page!
