For a guaranteed delivery before Christmas please order by 5pm on Friday 15th December.
Our office and warehouse will be closed on the following dates:
Orders can be placed on our website (www.simplesystem.co.uk) throughout the festive period.
When the temperature decreases horses need more calories to keep warm so it is important to ensure our horses have enough food to sustain them. For good doers this may be as simple as placing hay out in the field, but poorer doer’s may need extra support.
Forage feeding is ideal for all horses all year round, but it really comes into it’s own in colder weather. The fibre in quality forage is broken down by microbes in the hindgut. This fermentation process generates heat, providing our horses with their own in-built central heating! Cereals and low-quality fibre, such as that obtained from straw, cannot be utilised in the same way. So when it comes to keeping warm, ensuring you provide plenty of quality forage, such as hay or buckets of soaked HayCare, is essential for horses when it is cold and grazing is in short supply.
Itchiness can be caused by a variety of factors; some within our control such as those affected by diet or management and some beyond our control i.e. environmental factors such as the weather or pollens. Soaps, sprays and detergents can also irritate sensitive skin and some horses do appear a lot more sensitive than others!
Itchy cobs may have underlying conditions such as Mallenders or Chronic Progressive Lymphoedema (CPL) whilst native breeds can often be prone to conditions such as sweet-itch.
There is little scientific evidence for 'best practise' but it is usually important to keep sugar and starch levels low and remove common irritants such as cereals and their by-products, also soya, molasses and artificial additives or bulkers.
In winter it can be hard to strike a balance between horse ownership and day-to-day life; less daylight means many horses spend an increasing amount of time indoors and may also have less interaction with their owners who are dashing back home to thaw out!
Some horse’s enjoy their “home comforts” - a deep bed, a pile of hay and a warm mash of soaked Lucie Nuts, but for others, spending more time stabled can be stressful and take some getting used to. Similar to changing their feed, management changes should also be introduced gradually, so if you know your yard restricts turn out from 1st December for example, start stabling them for short periods now.
If your horse doesn’t cope well with being stabled for longer, there are lots of things you can do to help:
Winter can be a challenging time for our poor doers; grass quality declines offering much less nutritional value than in the warmer seasons and the cold weather makes use of energy stores for generating heat and staying warm, on top of daily maintenance requirements and fuelling any work.
Over winter, the majority of the diet may be made up of hay or haylage which can be of varying quality and some horses may struggle to consume enough calories through hay alone. Some owners turn to high calorie cereal mixes, but with a high cereal inclusion comes a high starch level and when undigested starch passes into the hindgut, it causes a rapid drop in pH. This can lead to a disruption in the sensitive microbiome and digestive discomfort. Starchy feeds can also cause “hot” or reactive behaviour. This is why feeding large, starchy feeds, can be counterproductive for weight gain or cause secondary problems. If we make use of higher nutrition, forage-based feeds we can feed generously but keep starch levels at a minimum to support good gut health.
"How much linseed can I feed?" is a question we are often asked. Start with 20g per 100kg of the horse's ideal weight, for example 100g for a 500kg horse. If needed you can increase up to five times this amount. Build up gradually, taking up to 4 weeks to increase to this level.
Instant Linseed is nature's finest source of plant derived, essential omega 3. It is high quality with 42% oil compared with 38% in other sources of linseed. It is always a great addition to the feed, but especially with hay or haylage, as omega 3 is lost in these. During the autumn moult, additional Instant Linseed aids and hastens moulting, ensuring a healthy, shiny coat. As a natural anti-inflammatory, it is helpful in any inflammatory condition.
