If your horse is living in make sure that you have your hay supply sorted out! If hay ends up being in a short supply like last winter you don't want to get caught out and not only paying more for your hay but also trying to find hay! I use a farmer the same one I have for a few years and he keeps it for me as I can only store 20 bales at a time. Remember that horses need hay or haylage in the winter, grass doesn't have all the essential nutrition in the winter. Hay is the most important part of your horse feeding regime...... the chewing of hay will also keep them warm, so if your horse appears to be cold if you give him some hay this will soon warm him up. Horses are constant grazers and we have to remember that when they are in their stable they DO need hay or haylage or other grass substitute if a horse cannot have hay. Consult your vet or feed supply for more information on how much you should be giving to your horse as a reccomendation if you are not sure.

If your horse is living out all winter he WILL need hay again consult your vet or feed supply for advice if you are not sure.

Living out 

If your horse is living out here are a few bits worth thinking about first, do have have a horse shelter? If not have you got natural shelter? this means your field is surrounded by trees and shrubs....... If not you should be thinking of where is your horse going to shelter from the elements should the weather become very vet or very old windy and snowing.  For me personally I will keep my horses out as long as possible and only use my stables now in bad weather but I DO have natural shelter in my field, also for me I need to know if my horses are ill I can bring them in....... that is something else worth thinking of if you do not have a stabler or field shelter what would you do if your horse was ill or had an accident and needed to be stabled where would you put him? A field shelter could easily be adapted to keep a horse on stable rest but if you haven't got one then you should have a plan in place........ Horses are very unpredictable and can have accidents just like us!

Do you know how to tell if your horse is cold? Well feel the base of his ears are they are cold,  stand back and look at him, do his hairs appear to be raised? Is he shivering? These all tell you that he is more than likely cold, so give him some hay to get him on his way to getting warm. Then either pop a rug on him if he is dry or if he is wet then for me it is back to the old fashioned "wisp" which is straw rolled into a large sausage and rub him all over. When you have done that put a fleece rug on until he is dry once he is dry put his turnout rug on and then turn him back out....... BUT I would also suggest taking his temperature before you turn him out just to make sure that he was cold and not ill!........ see the horses first aid page for what your horses vitals should be.

Oh and remember that our horses need water, even when it is thick snow! mmmmm I heard once someone said that they can eat snow if they can't get to their water because it is frozen!!! eeekkk A horse will drink between 20 to 70 litres of water a day depending on the size of the horse........ now you trying melting snow to get the equivalent to that. Now do you see where I am coming from? Besides that in the winter horses are eating hay which is dry so they need more water, if they do not have a good water supply this can cause colic! If your horses are living out it is so important that you attend to them as often as you would if they were stabled.

While we are on about snow don't forget to pick your horses hooves out or he will be walking on stilts if it is snowing as the snow compacts and builds up, this can leave your horse not only uncomfortable but also unbalanced.

Now then as to your hard feed ....... well this all depends on what you are doing with your horse, if you are feeding good quality hay and regular and not a lot of riding in the winter then depending on the horse hay may be all it needs....... I would strongly advise that you check with your vet or local feed supplier on advice or for me Dodson and Horrell have been great in the past they put you on to a person who is qualified and will discuss your feeding management with you here is the link http://www.dodsonandhorrell.com/

A Stabled Horse

First of all goes without saying really but check your stables this winter, are there any leaks? if you have roof tiles are they in place? Do you have brick built stables? if so are they all pointed and no gaps? Do you have wooden stables? If so check for any wood rot and replace any rotten wood. This is just general repair that we should all be doing before winter sets in. If heavy snow fall should come try and keep your roof clear ( I have learnt from last year!!!) We have now made our own snow clearer for the roofs it  just takes some of the weight of the snow off if we can clear some of it.

Okay now back to your stable kept horse. You will have to think about what bedding are you going to use, there are a few to chose from I use shavings for Dimby and Straw for Caddy........ I did at one time try the shredded paper as I know a few people have used this. Oh if you do go the shredded paper route please read up on it, yes it can be very cheap, but it also has its down falls you have to think about the staples as there must NOT be any in the paper. It has its up sides too one being it is very cheap if you get it from an office for free, it also rots down well. BUT PLEASE DO YOUR REASERCH FIRST. I used this once on Dimby as a try and I didn't like it and neither did Dimby, you need an awful lot of it for it to give that floor coverage. Dimby is a mini as you know and as with all bedding once your bed is down and you do the fork test ( unless you have rubber matting but I will talk about that later) this is where you put your fork into the bedding and if you can feel the floor your bedding isn't thick enough, well I really did need loads of shredded paper for this! So I then tried a mix of shredded paper and shavings......... Just lets say it didn't work for me it wasn't as absorbent as the shavings and for me it was a mess! I like things straight forward lol!  But I do know that if you look on the Internet a few people have used it and stick to it.

Straw bedding....... Caddy has straw bedding and he has rubber matting, now then for any bed you have to have your sides banked. This means like a small wall of straw around the bed about 3ft high and 2ft wide this is to help prevent your horse getting cast . A cast horse is where the horse has either rolled or laid down and has basically got stuck against the wall.  I am not going to advise you on what to do here as I have said it can be a dangerous situation. I would suggest that you read up on it and if you are ever faced with a cast horse and you are on your own, I would not try and free the horse I would contact my vet for advise............ By banking the sides of your bed and as I have said making them quite high and thick then you can reduce the risk of this happening. If you have rubber matting then you will not need as much straw on the floor as the rubber matting is a good insulator from the cold floor :-) if you do not have rubber matting then you will need a bed thick enough to do the fork test, again by placing your fork through the bed if you can feel the floor then it is not thick enough, do this all around your horses bed.

Straw is still quite reasonable to buy and for me I do like to see a nice good straw bed :-) 

Here is a video that I did a few years ago and that is no on "You Tube" on how to put a straw bed down

  http://www.youtube.com/user/Tonettestockton#p/u/16/cAxQ-oKw_6E

Here is a video on how to muck out a stable that uses straw

http://www.youtube.com/user/Tonettestockton#p/u/0/H-HYD9eswn4

Shavings Bedding...... Dimby has a shavings bed as he allergic to grass and mould spores and straw can have grass in it as well as mould spores so he has shavings. Also with shavings you can get the poo out during the week, this is called skipping out and then at weekends you just get the wet out! so it can be a lot easier than  mucking out every day. Down side with shavings is it takes a lot longer to rot on your muck heap and also if you are wanting a farmer or allotment to take it away, they can be reluctant to do so because of this.

Here is a video on  on how to put a shavings bed down

http://www.youtube.com/user/Tonettestockton#p/u/4/FIziwprBEV0

Here is a video on how to muck a stable out that uses shavings

http://www.youtube.com/user/Tonettestockton#p/u/2/9Erc-QxGoZI

Rubber Matting............ I love rubber matting!!!!! Okay the plus side of this is : It it acts as an insulator so for older horses like mine this is ideal, you do not use as much bedding as the wet goes between the matting and drains away so your bedding is not very wet at all :-) my matting has like 2inch stumps under the matting so the wet does not stay under the matting, because it is rubber your horse will not slip in his stable.......... Down side, it is expensive but when you work out how much money you will save in the long run it pays for its self

Hay or Haylage? This really is entirely up to you, but I will point out a couple of things that is worth thinking about when you are thinking of which one to have.

Hay ........Dimby is prone to laminitis so he has hay and we soak it to get rid of any sugars, so if you have a horse that is prone to laminitis then this might be something that you may need to think about. If your horse is a good doer and keeps his weight on or puts weight on too easily then hay may be the one for you.  Hay is generally cheaper than haylage.

Haylage .........  I love the smell of haylage!  If you have a horse that has respiratory problems then haylage might be best for you as it  does not contain dust spores, Hasylage also has more calories therefore I would say more suited to horses that are not good doers 

Here is a link to Dodson and Horrel  explaining the difference between Hay and Haylage

http://www.dodsonandhorrell.com/help-advice/faqs/hay-or-haylage.html 

Water...... always make sure that your horse has plenty of clean water to drink, don't forget horses drink more when they are eating hay as it is dry! make sure that your buckets are always kept clean

Feeding..........AAAHHHH I am not going to go into this as there are so many products out there now days :-)  One thing I will say what you feed regarding hard feed depends on what horse you have and what activities you do. I would strongly suggest speaking to your feed merchant or you can always speak to Dodson and Horrell just click on the link above and go to their contact, they have qualified people that you can talk to............. Oh and I do not get paid or anything from them for recommending them, I recommend them because I have spoke to them a few times myself and they have always been very helpful :-) 

I know that if you are or are thinking about going on to a livery yard that the turn out could be limited, in fact some places only offer a few hours a day or non at all. If your horse is or will be spending most of his time in his stable then it would be a good idea to try and minimize his boredom of when he is on his own. There are a few ways of doing this , there are boredom breaker toys available at all good tack shops and riding shops now days the picture here is of a hexagon type thick plastic ball that you put treats in and the horse has to roll it around to get the treats out.......... my 2 boys have these and they do not roll them about they smash them about!!!!! if any one was near by they would think some one was attacking my horses  

The other product is what is called a Boredom Breaker liket this is where you place a liket on to the boredom breaker and the horses tries to lick it

Or you could also have a Acrylic mirror in your horses stable, these are NOT glass but plastic

All of the above could help prevent your horse becoming bored, and help prevent weaving and wind sucking 

What about stable rugs? Well some horses will not need any at all, it all depends on the type of horse and what his winter coat is like. If a horse is clipped then he will need a stable rug. Dimby and Caddy both wear stable rugs in the winter when they are in. Caddy, because he doesn't get a very thick coat and he is 21 next May. Dimby is clipped so he has a stable rug too. There are some reasonable priced ones around so shop around........ make sure that you measure your horse correctly though or you will end up with a rug that is too big or too small!

How to measure for a rug......... measure your horse from the centre of his chest horizontally along his side, finishing at the point of his tail. If your horse is between sizes you are better to go up a size than down......... not sure if this is for other countries but it is for uk 

Well I think I have just about covered all the basic things, just try and spend as much time with your horse even when you aren't riding. Riding is limited if you are working or at school in the winter but our horses still enjoy having us around :-) 

Oh and DON'T forget to be seen when riding  WEAR YOUR HI-VIZ be a responsible rider, you are not only protecting your self but your horse as well as other vehicles and members of the public 

Wrap up warm, wear good wellies and I hope you have enjoyed reading this.......... if you do watch my videos I do talk a lot   but I hope that you enjoyed them, even if they did make you laugh.

For some reason if you email me of the email link it doesn't work so if you want to email me, email me  at tonette777@gmail.com