This is a totally random question. My horses live outside 24/7 and their work loads don’t change that much seasonally. But every March (whether it is an early or late spring) it seems like their calorie needs go through the roof. Hay that was being ignored when it was January and bitter cold is being scarfed down at speed on 20-40 degree days. There is no grass yet where I am. Every year this seems to happen, at first I thought it was mental bias on my part (underbuying on hay and worrying about the grass coming in) but I’ve tracked it, and sure enough early March is when it is hardest to keep weight on and when they are hungriest. So do horses’ metabolisms ramp up when they are shedding in the spring?
It would sort of make sense?
I dont know that its the shedding per se, but trainer and I were discussing that the horses always seemed to need more to eat to keep their weight stable in February, which isn’t usually our coldest month, though it has been dreadful this year.
Certainly this year I think they’ve just reached the point where they are just miserable and over it and the snow is deep enough that its hard to move around and keep warm in turnout. And it shows up in their condition unless you fork hay into them like its going out of style. Which we have been doing, at the cost of gold bars per bale.
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Shedding wouldn’t take up any more energy than growing hair, in my opinion. But I wonder if they eat more as the days get longer and sleep more to conserve energy during the darkest months.
I personally haven’t experienced a change like this, although my horses get fed as a herd so maybe one of them is eating more but I can’t tell? None of them are in work.
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Some years ago I read Reiner Klimke’s book about training Ahlerich, and he mentioned several times that he took it easy for a bit, or waited to start intense workouts or training something difficult, because the horse was changing its coat. There was no explanation, and I never remembered to look it up (or ask COTH!), but I wondered if it was about energy needs, or if the horse was just too itchy to concentrate!
Grey
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horses always seemed to need more to eat to keep their weight stable in February,
then every month is February for our miniatures as they always believe they are under fed
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I definitely notice that nutritional needs increase when they’re growing coat, yep. I have one in particular that tends to pop with scratches or cellulitis if her copper & zinc is low…it took me a bit to realize I had to up her dose during that time of the year.
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Changing coats is always stressful and horses do go through more hay during those times ime.
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The spring coat starts growing as soon as the days start getting longer; so by now it’s been happening for the better part of two months. It doesn’t really make sense to me that the nutritional needs would be increased in March because the winter coat is falling out.
Unless, maybe because it’s still cold, the loss of this coat means that they are actually cold. So it’s not that they need calories to shed, but because they have lost the density of their coat they need calories to stay warm?
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This was my thought too.
Edit> We are also putting lighter blankets on as the days get warmer, probably later than we should - which means the horses systems have adapted to being too warm and are in cooling mode rather than heating. The spring sun tends to be very warming as well, and it’s easy to get too warm standing in the sun.
I used to work in a refrigerated environment - think around 0-3C. In the winter I had little trouble staying warm outside, but in the summer I had to put an extra layer on when working to make me too warm in the low temperature. Without forcing my body into cooling mode I found that I overheated too easily in the 30C temperatures outside. In the fall when I took that extra layer off again I’d be cold at work for a couple of weeks until my body adapted and moved into heating mode.
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I think it’s a bit of a combo effect.
I notice nutritional demands change a bit spring and fall when the new coat is growing in, and often it seems like the lose a bit of condition.
But, it also coincides with changes in grazing behavior, forage, and temperature.
In the spring, my horses stop cleaning up their hay around this time of year when shoots of green grass start appearing. But it’s not enough grass to sustain them, so I think (assume) their overall caloric intake decreases slightly as they leave piles of hay behind to go nibble on grass. Plus they lose their “fluff” covering their body so they look more svelt even if they haven’t lost much weight. For harder keepers you may even see some ribs that were well covered by a thick winter coat.
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I’ve always interpreted it this way. Less hair on the body and they’ve eaten the last of the stubby grass, so they vacuum up the hay (and anything else.)
Call me over-reactive.
Hair is made with a lot of protein. When they grow a new coat, in the spring and the fall, I up their protein intake a little bit (1/2 scoop of alfalfa pellets, less with the POA who got an extra handful.)
Another thing I used to up the protein was Hemp Powder (1TBS). I was riding an old Arab mare who did not have much muscle when I started riding her. The hemp powder helped her grow a new coat, the condition of her hooves improved and her hooves grew quicker (I know because I was rasping them down weekly), her muscles grew with sane conditioning work, and the hemp oil within the hemp powder worked against inflammation and helped to make her coat shiny. She ended up with a really nice coat.
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So horses require around 600gm of crude protein per day, one TBS of hemp powder contains around 14gm of protein.
Most horses easily meet their protein requirements from hay alone. The only thing that they might be missing is limiting amino acids. Lysine, methionine and threonine being the three that we usually think of. Hemp is not really a good source of these three amino acids.
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Mine too. They are not minis but they are always desperate to be fed. I don’t have any weight loss over the winter except for a planned diet for the air fern. Shedding doesn’t make them drop weight. I wish it did.
This is an interesting discussion. I live in the northern tier, so life can be quite cold for the horses. Mine always eat significantly more hay when it’s super cold out - it drives their internal furnace. now that it’s “warm” - close to freezing, they have dropped off significantly. Reference: for 4 horses, 4 round bales (big) in a month in cold; now we are averaging roughly 2-3.
if it was hair growth causing the change, wouldn’t they need more protein in the fall than in the spring because there is a lot less hair grown in the spring. And mine always seem to shed twice, once March/april - and then they seem to lose again in June…e
Maybe it is due to the wet, damp conditions that Feb-March tend to be? Bitter cold and dry air of Winter seems easier on mine than the warmer, damp weather of Spring ( or pre Spring).
My guys don’t lose condition though I am backing off on the hay amount with the green that is out there.
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What are you using to supplement copper and zinc, please? I’m dealing with some niggling scratches and have been wondering if this would help.
So many interesting replies! Glad I am not insane! What I find the most interesting about it, is where I am there is no real change in the grass they can nibble. They’ve nibbled it back in December. Now it is me trying to manage nibbling versus mud. I won’t get grass that counts until almost May. But, all of a sudden, the horses are starving. They aren’t of course, but they are thinking it.
I was talking with DH about this, he isn’t a horse person, but a forester, that industry has always referred to this time as the ‘starving time’. The deer eat anything and everything.
@atr I’m using Uckele copper and zinc for my two drafts. I would for the pony too, but she won’t touch it, and it is hard enough to convince her to eat. I think western Connecticut is pretty low in most things!
I use the poly copper & poly zinc from horse tech. Uckele has a similar product, and also offers a pellet. I find it very effective for scratches.
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I’ve always noticed condition loss in the late winter and chalked it up to being near the end of a very stressful season and fat stores are being used up. I don’t much notice it any more since changing to free choice alfalfa and religiously blanket. Hoof and hair quality is much improved since adding in Custom Equine copper/zinc as well. Less thrush, scratches, and abscessing.
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