Hopefully she doesn’t have ulcers and we will be doing another round of deworming soon on the upcoming vet visit.
Please excuse my lack of knowledge with asking this question, how do you determine the quality of the hay? Meaning, of course the person selling it to you is going to tell you it’s “great quality.” Are there visual cues? The greener the better? How would you explain this to a complete layperson?
I am just trying to learn so I can get the best quality possible for these babes. Thanks in advance everyone.
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I would loveeeee to get Bonnie looking like your second horse, the 19 year old TB…thats my goal. BEAUTIFUL!
I will certainly take your advice. Putting in at night sounds like something we can easily do right away. I never thought about how it uses up calories just to stay warm when out at night…DUH!
On that subject…hypothetical question…our barn is not terribly big…its 30x40. No power except solar right now that mainly runs light and a drink fridge. Would it be wise to install a wood burning stove to be able to fire up for the horses and donkeys on crazy cold spells? Even if it just made it a little more comfortable.
I wasn’t sure if it is better to let their bodies adjust to the cold naturally or…me thinking like a silly human, it sure is nice to be able to wait out the next bit of coming sunshine in a warmer space. The problem would be the temperature fluctuations from when I had the wood stove going and then didn’t. Just looking for advice.
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I know your questions are coming from the right place, but please don’t set a fire in your barn 
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This is def a fair point.
NO to a wood stove in a barn.
Besides CO2, the chance of fire
Is too great.
Do you have doors to close up the barn?
Hay. You learn a lot from the horses telling you what they like or don’t like.
Visual- does it look and smell fresh? Or moldy or dusty (pre-moldy)?
Smell it. Some hay has preservatives sprayed on it. May look great but my horses will not eat it. Can’t always smell that stuff but the horses can.
So much also depends if it’s 1st,2nd, or 3rd cut. Here 2nd cut
Is considered the best. Fewer weeds. Less stemmy so more is eaten.
Right now I pay $24.-27. for small 2 string grass or alfalfa bales. But it’s all edible, good hay.
Buying good hay is a crap shoot.
It takes experience and an honest seller to get good hay.
Some sellers test their hay for
Nutritional quality and moisture content.
I’m sure others will chime in.
PS/ here in Fl. Round bales are
Mostly coastal Bermuda grass, good for cows but not for horses.
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Absolutely not, fire and barns, combustables like hay and shavings and cobwebs are a never, ever, ever.
Not a cigarette, not a match, not glass shining on a scrap of hay in the sunlight. Ever.
Barn fires are a number one horseman’s nightmare.
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Equianalytical/Dairy One is a great place to test their hay. Their reports are easy to interpret once you get the hang of it, and they are fast in their reporting.
Here’s their website with all the basics-they are also great to talk to if you have more questions.
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I don’t know the temps where you are, and maybe you’re already doing this, but definitely she should have a rain sheet and a light-weight blanket, or if it gets cold enough, a mid-weight or heavy-weight blanket. In the mid-Atlantic area, the barns I’ve boarded at would blanket according to the weather while the horses were out during the day in winter and take them off when the horses came in to their stalls for the night. It’s generally above 20* most of the winter, so my horse used a mid-weight blanket and on the few days it was colder than that, I had a wool cooler that I could layer underneath the waterproof outer mid-weight blanket.
In summer, horses stayed in during the day to avoid the sun/heat and flies (fans and fly-spray system in the barn), and out at night to graze in the cooler temps. Reversed in winter to be out during the day and in at night, about 12 hours each for both summer and winter.
An elderly horse or a horse that needs to gain/keep weight needs more blanketing than one who has extra poundage or is younger. Some horses grow more coat or may be more sensitive to cold weather. Your horse shouldn’t be sweating much (a little when being active is understandable) when blanketed and just grazing. But I don’t want my horse shivering with ice-cold ears either.
Wet (rain/sleet/drizzle, especially if windy) under 50*/55* and I’ll put a rain sheet on the horse. Under 40-ish and I’ll put a mid-weight blanket on. Under 20*-ish and I’ll put the wool cooler on with the mid-weight over it. If it’s under 15* with an elderly or underweight horse, I might keep the wool cooler on at night while stalled.
It is also important to take whatever blanketing you have on the horse off frequently, preferably daily, to check for rubs, injuries, and to keep an eye on weight loss or gain.
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Forgive me if this has already been addressed. Have your horses teeth been looked at/floated? Do they drop grain or quid their hay ? Round bales vary in quality. Many in my area are really not suitable for horses or not conducive to weight gain. The quality is low, stemmy and the nutrition is lacking. What type of roundbales are they? What is the approximate weight and cost?
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Ps I do believe you are really trying to learn and take good care of your horses. So this is said with kindness and concern. The one horse in particular is quite skinny. And lacking muscle.
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…and lacking muscle.
At her age I’d ask your vet to check for PPID (Cushing’s).
I’d also want to re-check the
Blood regarding the original
Diagnosis of “systemic inflammation”. She may have
Painful arthritis or Insulin resistance.
Just further thoughts to ponder.
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So I have one that we about have to force feed to keep weight on him otherwise his body condition dramatically decreases. We have to convince him to keep eating around the clock or he looks like an ASPCA case–and we have scoped for ulcers etc. He is just big (17.2) and has a massive metabolism from the four years he raced.
What has worked for us has been adding 8 pumps of corn oil right on top of his pellet food. Straight up calories. I wish someone told me that’s what I needed in life.
This is in addition to a bucket of soaked alfalfa cubes and unlimited hay and a treat ball. It’s made a HUGE difference in getting the weight to stay on him. If you’ve ruled out ulcers and teeth (which are what I always check first when I need a horse to eat), look at the corn oil.
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If I may propose an alternative for keeping the critters warm–
Have you looked at doing heated concrete floors? We do this for our barn in the midwest. The actual set up and installation, if you’re handy and like home projects, is not terribly difficult with another set of competent hands. The electric bills in the winter may make you weep. But it regularly keeps our barn a solid 10 degrees warmer in winter–essential when you’re looking at sub 32 degree temps for weeks on end.
Im just reading this thread for the first time now so forgive me if things have already been addressed.
On the topic of rounds vs squares; I have a VERY easy keeper Fjord. One of the barns we were at used rounds and I was very concerned about him having too much access to hay. He LOST weight while being on the rounds and nearly all of the normal/hard keepers started getting into pretty bad shape. All that to say, don’t assume unlimited access will “fatten them up”. Depending on rain/snow/precipitation, if the rounds don’t get eaten down quickly they will mold, and there is also a risk of botulism. Rounds also are the most wasteful form of hay as well, so while they tend to be less expensive overall, the waste is tremendous. It’s also hard to tell how much a horse is consuming off rounds.
In your case having hard keepers, personally I would be weighing out at least 20 lbs of tested hay to ensure they are being offered the pounds they need per day/getting the nutrition they need and keeping the rounds while out in turnout. Then you know they are at least getting the weight they need to be eating and the rounds will keep their stomachs happy while turned out.
On hay quality, you can tell visually and by smell whether or not the hay is moldy…maturity…things like that, but you can’t eyeball the actual nutrients it contains. Some hay that visually looks like its low quality can have a better nutrient profile than a hay that looks great. Until it’s tested you just dont know.
It also doesn’t look like your horses are on grass either which warrants a good quality Vitamin E supplement; Emcelle, Nano-E, and Elevate are all highly recommended. I personally use Emcelle. You will run into health issues if you have a Vit E deficient horse for too long; grass is where they get it from unless you supplement it. I like the suggestion of something like Triple Crown Senior…sweet feed is basically like Lucky Charms…AKA junk.
Good luck! Your daughter looks like she’s having the time of her life 
And HARD NO on a wood stove or any heating element such as that inside the barn.
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Great info. Thx. I appreciate it.
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I understand horses in essence if fed good quality hay/roughage have a built in furnace that keeps them pretty warm as long as they are out of wind and wet (via, shelter and/or turnout sheets) and as long as we are not talking about extreme cold. Unless you are dealing with the far north, heating barns is usually for the human comfort (and to avoid frozen hoses/water buckets!).
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You’ve gotten a lot of very detailed and super information here. It’s a lot to digest. I’ve got some practical thoughts. Others have mentined, but it may have been lost in the details.
If your climate drops below freezing for a time, bring a hose in the house or in your garage. Hoses freeze and then take time to thaw. I owned horses in chilly NH for several winters. Ours did fine with no blankets BUT they were generally a little plump and had shelter from wind and rain. Wind and rain will make them cold. Of course, they grew coats like woolly mammoths. But in the snow and cold, they were just fine.
Of course, this has been said, just always have good quality hay in front of them when temps are bitter.
You guys are doing great!!!
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I think the weighing of hay is such a good recommendation. Depending on the type of hay you may be really surprised by the volume it takes to get to 20-25 lbs of hay.
Lots of good hay, a sheet if it’s raining and below 50, blanket if it’s below freezing or in the low 40s and raining.
Not all vets are great with teeth but ask about a dental and then if they will pull a fecal. The fecal is usually all of $20 and it’ll tell you what types of worms you might be dealing with.
Horses are a rabbit hole of never ending learning but clean water, lots of hay, and making sure their bodies can break down that forage because they can chew it, digest it, and keep the calories are really good fundamentals.
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However, a woolly coat can hide an animals true condition also.
So really it (a thick, dense, long body coat) can fake people out that the horse is in good weight, that they are warm enough, and more importantly (to me) that their calories are going to maintain body condition vs keeping them warm.
Come spring you may get an unwelcome surprise when that winter coat sheds.
