Cold weather and metabolism

[Scribbler]

I’m looking after 2 easy keeper mares, never clipped, in self board stalls with runouts. One furs up nicely and has lived on fields year round. The other gets little winter coat and can shiver piteously in winter rain when other horses are fine.

Fuzzy Mare has let me know she appreciates a blanket when it’s about 2 or 3 celsius and sleet, but at 10 C she hates a blanket.

I had them both blanketed most of last winter. They put on soft weight over the winter.

This year I held off on blanketing and here we are at minus 5 celsius and 2 feet of snow and they are fine. But also I like something about their bodies. They feel harder. I can feel ribs. They look fitter.

I follow a British “Equine Biome” group on SM that ranges from common sense to crackpot. One thing they said in the fall was that letting British native ponies go out in the cold unblanketed could help “reset their metabolism” and ward off obesity and founder (I do not have British native ponies!).

This caught my eye because I went on a low carb diet a few years back because of being pre diabetic and I do feel like my metabolism has changed back to what it was earlier. I don’t know if the EB group meant really change how the horses use sugar and insulin or just lose weight.

But I thought I’d postpone blankets this year until I got a clear indication we needed them. We may reach that point in January, who knows. But for now I like their body condition.

Obviously if they were hard keepers I’d be worried if they lost weight. But for easy keepers it’s doing something good for their bodies right now.

[moonlitoaksranch]

How sheltered are the stalls and runouts? I’m asking because our animals are in their first northern US winter and I haven’t blanketed it all to get them acclimated. However, they’re in stalls with turnout. The turnout has no shelter from the wind, so I can’t leave them out if the windchill is too low.

[greywithchrome]

I was just about to link a facebook post here … and then I realized I think it is the same one you are speaking about, where they reference a “metabolic reset”.

I’ve always blanketed my easy keeper mare but this year so far I’ve held off. She will show me if she gets cold and she hasn’t yet. She is measuring smaller around the girth so I do believe it’s affecting her shoulder fat pads in a positive manner but her belly is huge. Maybe because she is eating so much hay to stay warm haha.

[Texarkana]

Is it truly a change in the body or is it a combination of the dramatic fluffing of the coat for warmth plus weight loss?

[Weezer]

I think you’re right about hay bellies on easy keepers in the winter. In my experience, easy keepers tend to eat less if they’re warm, so I keep blanketing them, as long as they just “not cold” rather than too warm.

[Scribbler]

@moonlitoaksranch

How sheltered are the stalls and runouts? I’m asking because our animals are in their first northern US winter and I haven’t blanketed it all to get them acclimated. However, they’re in stalls with turnout. The turnout has no shelter from the wind, so I can’t leave them out if the windchill is too low.

Ah we are lucky to be in a pocket of suburbs without much wind, protected by hills. When we do get windstorms they tend to be South West winds off the Pacific often associated with torrential rain and even remnant disturbances of tropical storms.

I took lessons for a while at a barn 45 miles inland, in a farming community that takes the full brunt of the artic outflow winds, and it could be brutal in winter. They had a good closed in Barn and then all day paddock turnout with shelters and hay, a good decent well kept setup. One midmorning I saw that an older mare even in her good turnout blanket was shivering in her paddock, so the trainer brought her inside and piled on the fleeces to warm her up. I might manage things differently there than at my current barn.

Actually since it’s going down past minus 10 Celsius tonight (it was minus 11 on my car thermometer at 7 pm just now), we are locking the horses inside tonight to save the plumbing. We have heater tapes and leave taps dripping but we have an extremely generous plumbing system. There is a tap and a drain for every 2 stalls, plus a proper full bathroom or 2 in each barn, very civilized purpose built self board club barn, but way more spigots than most barns!!

I was feeling like my mares were looking better just being unblanketed around the freezing mark. Not trying to say they should suffer in crazy windchill factors! And because this barn has all the stalls open most of the time, there’s not much windbreak. But shut up its much warmer, hovers around freezing.

[punchy]

@Texarkana

Is it truly a change in the body or is it a combination of the dramatic fluffing of the coat for warmth plus weight loss?

This. I’d wait to be excited about any miracle cold weather may be performing on un blanketed horses until the weather warms up and their hair matts down and tufts in places that accentuate ribs, hips, spines, and they look terrible. Remedy—a 20 degree temperature drop and viola I’ve got gorgeous fit horses again.

I don’t blanket in the winter. But I feed extra and make sure they eat it, and suffer through the ugly early spring stage where they look worse than they are and their hair tufts and sheds. They lose some weight in the winter but nothing drastic, and fatten up again when the grass comes.

[carman_liz]

Can you post the link so we can read it plz? I think it would be interesting for us to read! Tia!

[greywithchrome]

Affluent Malnutrition-EMS/obesity/laminitis

[NancyM]

There’s “dry cold” weather, and “wet cold” weather. Horses get cold in higher humidity cold weather. Dry cold does not effect them at all. Wet cold weather will chill horses to the bone even above freezing temperatures. Dry cold weather… well… mine are out grazing our hayfields through the snow at -30 C today, and no issues at all. The snow on their backs is insulation, and the fact that it does not melt means that their bodies are not losing heat. With room to run to warm up as necessary, and it all works pretty well. In very cold weather, the coldest place for a horse to be is standing in a stall.

[Scribbler]

@Texarkana

Is it truly a change in the body or is it a combination of the dramatic fluffing of the coat for warmth plus weight loss?

I don’t know, that’s actually my question. We have very minor weight loss, when last winter which was colder but I blanketed, we had weight gain that we didn’t shed in the summer. Minor weight loss is good for these mares, otherwise we just get slow continual weight gain season over season. It’s very subtle and no muscle less. I’ve seen other people’s horses come in from a winter on a field looking quite sad, with muscle loss, don’t want that.

[Texarkana]

From a physiology standpoint, I don’t know how cold exposure could reset a horse’s metabolism.

But as you noted above, weight loss can reverse a lot of metabolic problems.

I think what probably happens is the ponies burn off enough calories to drop a lot of weight quickly.

That winter “fluff” hides a lot so it may not even be evident how much weight a fat pony lost.

[Scribbler]

@Texarkana

From a physiology standpoint, I don’t know how cold exposure could reset a horse’s metabolism.

But as you noted above, weight loss can reverse a lot of metabolic problems.

I think what probably happens is the ponies burn off enough calories to drop a lot of weight quickly.

That winter “fluff” hides a lot so it may not even be evident how much weight a fat pony lost.

Though perhaps just weight loss can help reset insulin resistance. Though insulin resistance makes it hard to lose weight.

I have hands on these horses every day. I would say they have dropped to a true Henneke 5/10 from more like a 5.5. They get multiple hay feedings 4 or 5 times a day and are not vacuuming their stalls so I think reasonably sated. I’d be noticing if they started to fall towards a 4/10 which is still perfectly healthy but would be unprecedented for these 2.

Main mare taped at 1295 this fall, 25 lbs over what I thought of as her normal weight and about 45 lbs over her weight after a winter outside a few years back. This cannot continue. She is 19 in 2023 (where did time go?).

[candyappy]

I never blanket. I feed ample hay and all 3 of mine are easy keepers. They have good fuzzy coats and I can easily feel through all that hair and they may lose a bit of their summer weight ( a good thing) due to burning more calories to stay warm but they never have a problem staying warm or staying at a healthy weight.

They are 20, 18 and 4.

I think many horses will shiver when it is colder and you have rain @Scribbler . It doesn’t mean they need blanketing, they just need to be out of the rain. Mine are fed under a lean to year round and that makes a huge difference.

[Scribbler]

@candyappy

I never blanket. I feed ample hay and all 3 of mine are easy keepers. They have good fuzzy coats and I can easily feel through all that hair and they may lose a bit of their summer weight ( a good thing) due to burning more calories to stay warm but they never have a problem staying warm or staying at a healthy weight.

They are 20, 18 and 4.

I think many horses will shiver when it is colder and you have rain @Scribbler . It doesn’t mean they need blanketing, they just need to be out of the rain. Mine are fed under a lean to year round and that makes a huge difference.

The Special Petunia mare shivered when she was in cold winter rain without effective shelter. On a field with just a lean to, hay outside or a paddock with shed but fed outside (she got a good waterproof turnout after that and was fine). She has never shivered in her current setup because her hay drops in the stall and she can just choose to stay inside when it rains.

[carman_liz]

Mine is a butthole, low 40s and rain, his fatbutt is shivering without a sheet on. Hay in his stall and he would rather shiver and be miserable picking at the field even when it is all but dead.

[Posting_Trot]

I know that my small animal vet has always said that it’s important that dogs (healthy dogs) get a chance to be cold and shiver because shivering is good for the metabolism.

I’m wondering if this applies to horses as well.

The other possibly related issue is “brown fat” which is something that has been studied in mice, and to a lesser extent in people. Apparently, brown fat is different from white fat and most younger mice have more brown fat than older ones do. Anyway, brown fat is important in the metabolic processes of mice and helps to keep them leaner, while white fat is what we usually think of as fat.

Here’s a story on brown fat in humans: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-brown-fat-improves-metabolism

[candyappy]

@carman_liz

Mine is a butthole, low 40s and rain, his fatbutt is shivering without a sheet on. Hay in his stall and he would rather shiver and be miserable picking at the field even when it is all but dead.

I know . One of my previous mares was out in the rain 40’s ( her choice) and visibly shaking. I threw some hay inside and she came in, started eating and a little while later no shaking. I used to blanket and would again if I had one who needed it.

[carman_liz]

My pony got mad at earlier when I brought him his brunch mash because he was not getting turned out in the big field…really buddy?? You hid from the wind an hour ago and now you want to be out in it???

He is currently pouting and hiding in his stalll while eating his leftover brunch that I just defrosted with more warm water for him . Silly pony…