Improving Body Condition During Fall
Fall has arrived, bringing with it crisper weather, shorter days, and the imminent approach of winter. This season can be particularly challenging for horse owners, especially those with “hard keepers”—horses that struggle to gain and maintain weight. Nevertheless, the onset of fall, typically from mid-August to early September, presents the perfect opportunity for horse owners to prepare their horses for the winter months, helping them achieve their ideal condition and alleviate the challenges that come with the colder season.
Fall Feeding Management Plan to Bulk Up
Like other mammals preparing for winter, horses also need to increase their caloric intake to build and maintain their “winter reserves.” Before making any changes to your horse’s diet, it’s essential to consult with your veterinarian and/ or an equine nutrition specialist. Avoid making abrupt adjustments to your horse’s grain or forage intake, as sudden dietary changes can lead to serious gastrointestinal and metabolic issues, such as colic or insulin resistance.
Additionally, you and your veterinarian or nutrition specialist should assess your horse’s current body condition score (BCS) before implementing any changes. The BCS estimates body fat and should be evaluated year-round, especially in the fall. The scoring system ranges from 1 to 9, with 5 representing the ideal condition. Always keep a record of your horse’s BCS to monitor weight gain or loss over time. Once you understand your horse’s BCS and your weight management goals, you can develop a suitable feeding plan.
Moreover, consider not just the quantity of food, but how your horse receives it. Group feeding can be beneficial for large herds, but it often creates a “pecking order” during feeding times. Dominant horses may steal grain or hay from more submissive ones, leading to rapid weight loss in the latter. If you observe this behavior, rearrange or separate your turnout groups to ensure that all horses receive their full rations.
Forage
When feeding hay, provide multiple hay racks or round bale feeders, and avoid feeding directly on the ground to minimize waste. Ensure that these feeders are located under covered structures to protect them from moisture.
When adjusting a horse’s diet—whether it’s grain, hay, or increasing pasture time—it’s crucial to implement these changes gradually over several days or weeks. A sudden increase in any dietary component can pose significant risks to the horse’s gastrointestinal health due to an overload of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC). It’s essential to remember that horses should consume approximately 1-2% of their body weight (BW) in forage each day. However, as winter approaches, this amount may need to increase to about 2.5-3% of their BW.
The first place to start is to slowly increase your horse’s hay and/or pasture turn out timeframe. Dr. Jennifer Ivey, UT Knoxville State Equine Extension Specialist, and Sawyer Main, MS, Extension Assistant in Department of Animal Science says, “When it comes to increasing caloric intake for horses, we commonly use the phrase ‘Feed Forage First.’ A good quality forage can often meet or exceed the nutritional requirements of horses even in the winter months. It’s very important to know the nutritive value of your forage which can be determined with a Forage Test from the UT Soil, Plant, and Pest Center. The NRC has a fantastic online tool where horse owners can enter information about their horse along with nutritive values from their forage test and determine if the forage is meeting that animal’s nutrient requirements. Feeding a little extra hay will also help keep your horses warm during those colder months due to increased fermentation in the hindgut”.
How you increase your horse’s forage intake depends on how they access forage. Beforehand, please determine your forage quality (hay and pastures) with a chemical analysis. A chemical analysis is the only way to determine the nutrient content of forages and to estimate it digestibility. To do a chemical analysis, please contact your county’s Extension office. Once you know these values, adjustments can be made to maximize the nutrition your horse receives from forage.
Many horses naturally prefer fresh, lush pasture grass, making it the more natural choice since forage forms the foundation of a horse’s diet. When turning out horses into pasture, gradually increase their turnout time by 15 minutes each day to prevent overloading on non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) from cool-season grasses that flourish during the fall. However, pasture availability can be seasonal or influenced by environmental factors, which is where hay supplementation becomes valuable.
To ensure proper nutrition, slowly increase the number of flakes of hay your horse receives during feeding, whether they are in stalls or using a hay feeder. For large groups, large round bales are a more practical option. Grass hay is ideal for horses at maintenance or in moderate work, as it meets their protein and energy needs. For horses requiring higher caloric intake, consider adding legume hay, such as alfalfa, which provides additional calories and protein to support weight gain.
If your horse needs to transition to a new type of hay, do so gradually—about 25% every other day—to allow their digestive system to adjust to the new hay.
Grain
Grain can be beneficial when grass hay and pasture alone do not provide enough nutrition for your horse to gain and maintain the desired weight. However, high-starch and high-grain diets can lead to various health issues, such as acidosis and laminitis, particularly in horses with Equine Metabolic Syndrome.
If you need to increase your horse’s grain intake, do so gradually over 7 to 10 days to allow their digestive system to adjust. Raise the grain ration by 0.25 to 0.5 pounds every other day, and try to limit feedings to no more than five pounds per meal. When switching to a different grain, make the transition slowly over the same 7 to 10 days. Begin by replacing a portion of the old grain with the new one, starting with about 0.25 pounds of the new feed for the first few days, then gradually increasing the amount every other day.
Others Types of Feeds and Fat Supplementation
To enhance your horse’s weight, consider incorporating the following types of feed alongside the standard grain:
Beet Pulp: Contains lower non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) levels. Soak in warm water briefly before feeding.
Soy Hulls: A highly digestible source of fiber that can also be soaked to enhance palatability.
Wheat Bran: An energy-rich, high-protein option that is very palatable. However, avoid feeding it to horses with metabolic syndrome.
Oils: Calorie-dense and easily digestible. Plant-based oils such as canola, rice bran, and ground flax are excellent choices. Limit intake to no more than 1 ml per kg of body weight per day. Introduce oils gradually to prevent loose feces, and store them in a temperature-controlled environment.
There are multiple ways you can help your horse bulk up during the fall but please always consult your veterinarian, equine nutrition specialist, and/or your county’s Extension office. Improper feeding managements will also cause more of those “winter blues” and it will be more of an uphill battle.
Kyla Szemplinski, MS is an Extension Agent I and 4-H Agricenter Youth Development for UT TSU Shelby County Extension. She serves Shelby County, Tennessee equine community, and can be contacted at the Shelby County office at 901-752-1207 during normal business hours Monday-Friday 8am-4:30pm CST.
