Body Condition
As spring emerges horses and owners, alike, are thrilled to see the pastures coming alive with fresh green grass. We marvel at the warmth we feel as the sun’s rays’ dance on our skin. With every deep inhale, we can sense winters release. There’s no doubt, spring is a welcomed season. But every season change comes with necessary management adjustments and nutrition tweaks.
Some horses will have gained a little too much weight over winter, while others may have lost too much weight. Carefully evaluating your horse’s body condition is the starting line for all your spring preparations. Depending on where your horse falls, you may need to consider either increasing or decreasing calories in the diet.
Spring Grass Pasture
As horses’ transition from hay and hay alternatives to fresh green pastures, a slow approach is advised. While especially critical for those horses struggling with obesity, metabolic conditions or those prone to laminitis, a slow approach is beneficial even for the average healthy horse to prevent issues from arising. Spring grass tends to be more nutrient rich than during other seasons; this includes a spike in sugar content, as well. Taking measures to prevent horses from gorging on too much grass can be necessary to ease them into the forage base change in their diet.
Muzzles and Dry-Lots
Muzzles and dry-lots can be very helpful and effective management tools to limit forage intake. Muzzles allow horses to graze naturally but can reduce their consumption by up to 30%. If you are dealing with an obese, metabolic or laminitis prone horse, a muzzle may not be enough to keep them safe.
Dry-lots create an environment that allows the horse to be outdoors in a space to freely move about, while also maintaining control of what and how much they consume. Horses are natural grazers so need frequent, small meals to keep the acids in their stomach from creating ulcers and other gastric upset. Whether your management style is to refresh their hay or hay alternatives every 3-4 hours or use of a slow feed hay net; never let the horse go more than 3-4 hours without some sort of forage/high fiber gut-fill.
Key Things to Remember When Using a Dry-Lot
- Provide free-choice, fresh, clean, drinkable water.
- Weeds have just as much, if not more, sugar and starch content as grass.
- Shelter and a wind block are essential to protect horses from the sun and harsh weather elements.
- Horses are herd animals, so be sure to construct your dry-lot in an area that is close to other pasture-mates or provide another dry-lot friend.
- Consider adding mats/flooring/feeders to keep horse from consuming a lot of dirt or sand off the ground; and/or opt to add some sort of sand-clear supplement to the diet if dry-lot horse is eating directly off a dirt or sandy ground.
Rain & Mud
As winter thaws into spring the rain and mud, along with warmer temperatures, create a perfect environment for fungal and bacterial infections. Rain-rot, scratches, thrush and other dermatological issues can run rapid if not managed well and treated properly. While prevention is key, avoidance of all environmental elements is unavoidable. Here are a few tips to prevent and combat fungal and bacterial skin and hoof infections:
-
If horses are still wearing blankets, remove blankets every day.
- Check for skin irritation and address as necessary whether rub sores from blankets or fungal flare-ups (also good to monitor body condition).
- Groom and/or leave blankets off for as long as possible. Oxygen, air circulation and sunlight can do a lot to help ward off skin issues.
- While regular blanket washing is not realistic for many throughout the season, if possible, it can help to cut down on fungal and bacterial skin infections. Just make sure the blankets are completely dry before putting back on the horse.
- When possible to bathe, scrub well and use anti-fungal shampoos and products.
- Provide dry spaces to get out of the mud.
- Wipe down or brush out legs to remove caked on mud and dampness.
- Aim fans at their legs during grooming sessions to help dry out long hair on their legs.
- Trim their legs up or body clip, when appropriate, to reduce the moisture holding hair.
- Clean hooves daily and apply thrush treatment products when necessary.
- Maintain regular farrier work.
Shedding, Grooming & Grooming Tools
Helping horses to shed their heavy winter coats each spring is a love/hate activity for most horse owners. It can be a messy business but is so gratifying once complete. While there are any number of amazing grooming tools on the market to help with shedding; sweat equity and getting down and dirty with the long hair, dust and grime build-up is part of the season. A solid rubber curry, shedding blade and elbow grease will get the job done over time. As a preventative it’s, also, a good idea to disinfect your grooming tools regularly. Make this part of your weekly routine. If you have horses in the barn with fungal or bacterial skin issues, don’t share grooming tools. Bathing can be helpful, too, when going through the shedding process, just make sure to dry the horse well with fans or blowers. Moisture that gets trapped in long heavy winter coats can cause more skin issues.
Parasite & Fly Control
The spring is a great time to check parasite loads. Work with your vet or contact The Mill for instructions on collecting manure samples and dropping them off for Fecal Egg Counting (FEC). Determining which parasites your horse or herd is dealing with and at what levels can help you treat the accurately. FEC allows you to provide targeted deworming without over treating and lending to parasite resistance to deworming products. See the following blog for more FEC details: https://www.themillstores.com/blogs/equine-blog/why-perform-a-fecal-egg-count-for-your-horse.
As the spring approaches, making plans for fly control before the little pests appear can help keep fly populations low all season long. Flies are a bothersome part of life during the warm months in any barn. Consider implementing a feed thru fly control product to your daily feeding regiment. Feed thru fly control products, like Simplifly, contain an insect growth regulator that prevents house fly and stable fly larvae from developing into adults in the manure of treated horses. This simple, palatable, feed additive can drastically reduce the number of flies all season long. For the best results, it is crucial to…
- Start this program BEFORE the flies emerge; in the Mid-Atlantic region, this means starting on March 1st.
- Ensure the feed thru fly control feed additive is fed daily to ALL horses on the property.
Implement these tips for a successful shift into spring and follow The Mill for more helpful advice!
