Horse's Feed Sources

Wintertime equine nutrition. While impressively stout yet entirely fragile horses require a great level of care, especially as it relates to their nutrition over the winter. Many horse owners may not realize they actually need to feed horses differently in the wintertime than they do in the summertime, Jymi Nichols, Ph.D., director of nutrition at Stryde Animal Health, shared in an interview. Here to tell us more is Valley Vet Supply spokesperson Amy Robinson. Speaker2: A really interesting aspect about the horse's nutritional needs is that their feed sources will help them maintain warmth in addition to weights. That's something really important that we need to consider as horse owners going into these cold months. It's important to understand metabolic heat production as it relates to increasing a horse's feed during these cold temperatures. Dr. Nichols said it best when she said think of a horse's digestive system or their hind, but rather as a furnace. The more the microbes in the horse's behind gut are able to digest and ferment, especially fibers like our hay, the more heat that can be generated for that horse. And that's part of what goes into keeping them warm during the cold months of the year. Speaker1: Dr. Nichols says that your horse may struggle a little bit more to retain heat or to try to get rid of it, depending on whether you're going to a colder climate or a hotter climate.