Reasons why horses loose weight in winter.

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Ziggy_

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I was just about to make a post, asking what time of year your horses normally start to drop weight as we go in winter, as I've already stocked up on winter feed and was getting a little impatient to start using it
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Then I thought again, and realised - my mare is on poor grazing with ad lib hay, not clipped - none of this is going to change, only that she will be rugged according to the weather when the temperature drops. So the reasons I could think of for weight loss - namely, the goodness going from the grass, insufficient forage and possibly getting too warm/cold by incorrect rugging - don't apply to her. Is there any reason for her to drop weight going into winter?

I'll be gutted if I bought all my Winergy Condition and don't get a chance to use it - has anyone tried their low energy one? Maybe they'll let me swap
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My horses generally dont lose weight in winter, in fact my pony tends to put weight on
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I think its the haylage that makes her fat. In fact none of the horses on my yard tend to lose wight in the winter.
 
mine don't lose weight in the winter.
if horses do, i think it's often because they're using energy to keep warm, and just not getting enough.
with the superior turnout rugs we all have now, that should become a thing of the past...
 
Mo's dropped a bit of weight over the last week as it is getting colder and she is out still. (Rugged but she's the type to drop a bit when the temp drops)She did the same last year. Once shes in she usually puts a bit on then stays the same till spring.
 
Mine don't lose wieght either but I hope they do. We have no grass at the moment so they have hay and look huge.
 
oh my girl losses weight quickly going into winter....she's already started to drop weight being older and double rugged (waffle cooler and l/w stable) and not clipped...she feels the cold and is in a barn that gets chilly, i've already stuck her on winter feeding programme in the sense that I can beat her dropping anymore weight, she tends to be better on sugarbeet, cooked barley and chaff...she's also fed haylage atm...to try and bulk her up nothing fizzes her anyway...
 
Im bloomin' hoping mine doesn't drop any! Ive spent a considerable amount of effort getting her to look fat and have upped rugs, feed and hay in last few weeks so will be mightily peeved if she drops weight now. Ive only ever had one horse drop weight over winter and that was because he got very stressed being kept in overnight, he spent so much time eating a mouthful of feed/hay and racing to the door, racing back to manger/hay/racing to door/walking box when manger/haynet was empty/pacing the field when turned out that he got ribby. I will be very disappointed if P drops weight.
 
Very limited weight loss for my horse during the winter too and ditto as others - due to rugs and being on haylage when in at night. The only time I do see a weeny difference is just before the horses come off their winter pasture and go to the summer fields - a few weeks in April then of looking vaguely trim (and that's a generous description from me) and then we go back to our balloon impersonation for the rest of the summer! He gets plenty exercise all year round.
 
Mine have just moved to better grazing that I have saved all summer so are huge! I hope they will loose a bit but that will be from exercise rather than being cold or hungry. I still have plenty of grass and still one rested field to go. Once they finally run out of grass I put hay out in the field during the day. They are in at night with hay and rugged appropriately as clipped. If they do drop any weight I give them a bucket of speedibeet and hi-fi as well as their hay at night and that does the trick!
 
I aim for them to drop weight a little, as they get a little too heavy over the summer! At least it is easier to control their weight when the grass stops - and mine are out on poor grazing at the best of times.
 
its a calories in versus calories out equation. work, temperature, temperament and feed and weather. and what type of turnout they are on, whether in at night or not, stressy types, box walkers etc loose weight due to stressing being inside? hay/ hayleage. the key i think is ad lib quality fibre and a good base feed and oil!
 
Mine loses condition as soon as the goodness out of the grass goes.

Hay and hard feed just doesn't seem to do it for her, only summer grass.

It's really tricky because she won't actually eat that much hard feed.

She keeps her condition much better living out.
 
madhossy - exactly the same for my girl. Picky feeder, only good grass gets her fat - just will not eat enough hard feed/hay.

My vet reckons most horses he sees could do with losing weight in winter
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My one loses weight just by looking at a cold leaf over the stable door. It is really rather annoying!

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ditto, i keep my tb extra warm which works the best and ad lib haylage, he was on chaff and solid gold balancer last year, was think of putting him on the winergy conditioning but dont know if it actually works? i have used the low energy before and havnt really noticed anything different if im honest
 
My horse was on the trial for winegy condition and had 3 feeds of 2kg per day - didn't put on a pound. Good job it was free as one sack lasted 2 1/2 days! Wouldn't even consider it worthy of my compost heap.
 
I know everyone thinks that shetties are good doers but my shettie x fallabella loses weight in the winter unless he as a bit of build up in his bucket over winter he is a timid lad a section of hay lasts him 24 hours so what happens is the nf youngster eats it all before The Bug gets his fill. This is why he has two small buckets to the others one.
 
I am gobsmacked as my Horse is on Winergy Condition and he has put on loads of condition and has a beautiful shiny coat.
He has turnout on very poor grazing and haylage in at night and the only thing in his diet that changed was the move from Cubes to winergy condition and the change is amazing and he gets 1.5kg times 2.
 
My horse looses weight when you mention the word "work"
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Never really looses that much in winter, usually only looses it when he starts to come back into work!
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he is out 24/7 now and still gets a half scoop cool mix once a day!

saying that hes not hard to keep weight on, but he tends to get very "run up" when in hard work.
 
My horse gained so much weight on Winergy Condition I dropped her from 3kg a day to 1kg a day and my feed from the trial lasted three months - she continued to gain weight on this and looked and felt bl00dy amazing. I love the stuff and have been wanting an excuse to feed it again, she seems to do so well on it.

Ah well, will perhaps try the low energy instead. If anyone is wondering why I'm so determined to feed a horse who doesn't need it, I'm trying to get a joint supplement down her and she's not too keen, a handful of chaff won't cut it so she needs a 'proper' dinner to persuade her to eat it.
 
Well, the 1st/second winter my girl lost a bit of weight, and i expect I just wasn't rugging up enough, and feeding enough. However last winter she held her own, we upped hay and feed earlier and rugged up earlier and she was fine. (also changed her feed from pasture mix to baileys no.4, and from basic chaff to AA oil) and perhaps "overrugged" in some people's opinions, but it worked for her.
Doing the same this year, have upped hay and feeds, and started rugging up already.
 
I really need mine to loose some weight over winter, but I'm somewhat doubtful it's going to happen, just a sniff of hay and she seems to put on 10Kg! And that's with being worked 6 days a week sometimes twice a day!
 
I think the main reason horses drop weight in winter is the change of nutrition levels coming from the grazing. Even if grazing looks poor in the summer it is still growing, it is just the fact that the horses keep nibbling it down makes us think they can be getting nothing from it ! Once temperatures drop enough to stop the grass growing then the drop in their daily calorie levels needs to be made up with hay, haylage or bucket feed.

Some horses are particularly problematic as they won't eat as much hay as they do grass. This can sometimes be due to dental problems or just that they find juicy grass much more tempting than dry hay! Alternative forms of forage can sometimes help here such as haylage or dried grass products.
 
ok unless they drop a lot of weight aren't horses designed to lose condition in the winter, i use this to shrink mine before the spring grass, if they came out of the winter the weight they are now then i and they would have real problems in the spring
 
I'm stressing about the Dizzwizz
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Despite ad lib hay, Blue Chip Pro, sugar beet, and Outshine, she lost tons of weight last year
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. I'm thinking a lot of it was due to her pelvis and the trip away to the vet, but I'm still wondering how she'll do this winter... She gets warm easily so is a pain to balance on the rugging front. I wanted to clip next month, but given the chances of us both fit and well at the same time...

Ah well. Will figure something out!
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I'm actively trying to encourage my three to lose weight - by not rugging up now the weather has cooled down and the grass growth has slowed down - I'm hoping they'll be able to burn off a bit of their fat coverage!
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Kate x
 
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