Winter is an inherently challenging season when it comes to feeding and taking care of your horse. There are unique nutritional concerns, extra energy needs that can make this time of year especially tricky. As a horse owner and lover, you want the best for your equine companion – so how do you know their additional needs during cold temperatures?

“Commercially prepared, bagged, horse feed requires a feed tag. It’s the law, no exceptions. The purpose of feed tags is to protect customers and honest merchants from deception and confusion. Initially, feed tags were created to standardize weights and measures listed on feeds. Imagine the confusion if every bag of feed listed the amount contained in that bag in different units. Some would list bushels, others would list pounds and still others may list grams. Current feed tags go further in that they assure the feed meets certain standards such as guarantees of nutrient content. These guarantees provide the customer with a basis in which they can begin to compare feed products. “

Horses, like all animals, require both sodium and chloride in their diets. Together these two minerals form the common dietary ingredient – salt. When horses don’t receive enough dietary salt they can experience dehydration, impaction colic, muscle weakness, decreased blood volume and ultimately become intolerant to exercise

All horse owners want their horses to be healthy, look good, and be physically fit athletes. Nutritional management is a simple yet cost-effective tool that we can apply to ensure, improved performance and health in our horses. Body condition scoring serves as an effective tool to determine the nutritional needs of your horse. Using a numeric scoring system from 1 to 9, we can estimate the horse’s body energy reserves.

Performance horses require certain nutritional support to maintain energy levels, support muscle development and performance capacity, and reduce the risk of injury. Billy Allen Feeds are specially formulated to support competitive equine athletes in barrel racing, roping, cutting, and reining, among other disciplines in the western industry.

The nutritional management of the senior horse is challenging as there are no set criteria that define “old age” or the “senior” horse. The nutrient requirements of senior horses differ from other classes of horses because of the changes in metabolic and digestive efficiency that accompany the aging process.

Metabolic issues have become widespread in the modern horse, causing obesity, insulin resistance, and laminitis in horses and ponies. Proper nutritional balance can reduce the effects of metabolic issues in our equine partners.