Surviving the Winter, Part I

Winter. The time of year where you see what your barn is made of. When buckets freeze straight through to the bottom, the chance of your horse getting an impaction colic nearly doubles, and ice makes a very slippery path from barn to barn. So what is the best way to deal with winter weather (other than ship you and your horse to Florida)?



WATER. Last weekend my horse Darwin had a bad impaction colic. I ended up calling the vet out (twice) and after 20cc of banamine, multiple sedatives, two rectal examines, and two tubings with mineral oil, he pulled through. According to my veterinarian, horses automatically drink 30% less water in the winter. They are simply not as inclined to drink as much as they are in the summer, given the colder temperatures. Also according to my vet, impaction colics double between November and March. And not just because of water intake. Being stalled more than usual, increased grain (to keep weight on), AND lack of water all contribute to colic in the wintertime. But I’ll talk more about that later. Back to the issue of water.

Horses should have fresh, clean water available 24/7. Every good horse person knows this. Heck, even the bad ones do. When the temperature is above freezing, this is simple. The horses have water in their stalls in addition to water outside in their fields in the form of big tanks. But when it drops to 32 degrees water will freeze. Some studies have shown that if the water horses are drinking is not kept at 45 degrees or above, drinking the freezing water is just as bad as not drinking any water at all.

In an ideal world every bucket in the barn would be heated and every water trough would likewise have a heater. In the last barn I managed, this was the case and it was a beautiful thing to see. Lets just say it isn’t like that at the barn I manage now. If you haven’t built your barn yet/are remodeling your barn, please take this to heart. The easiest way to ensure your horse has access to warm water 24/7 in the winter is outlets! Yes, outlets. Every heater needs to plug into something and let’s face it, no one wants extension cords running amuck, especially through snow and ice that is constantly melting and then refreezing. Put an outlet above every stall. Put an outlet at every barn entrance. If you have pastures that are far from the barn, dig underground and put an outlet right next to the tank. It will be costly to start off with, but it will save you SO much time and energy in the long run.

Needless to say, our barn does not have a lot of outlets and the barn owner is (rightfully so) very proactive about barn fires which means extension cords are a big no-no. A few years back “solar” tubs where purchased and put in every field. According to my friend with the PHD they aren’t really solar tubs, but they do seem to work if the temperature stays above 20 degrees. Unfortunately they don’t hold a lot of water, but on the plus side I have the biceps of a weight builder from carrying buckets back and forth to fill them up and I haven’t had to step foot in a gym!

But even those do freeze on occasion (like this morning, when it was a grand total of 3 degrees out) and then what do you do? Yes, you technically could break out the ice with a hammer... but remember! Horses should not (and probably will not) drink ice water. So even though it sucks and you’ll be doing it several times a day, your best option is to simply haul out buckets filled with fresh water. Smaller buckets (as opposed to a tub) will also let you know how much water your horse(s) are drinking which, as we’ve already gone over, is quite important in the winter. Just make sure if you have to go the bucket route you are checking those buckets at least three times a day and refilling when necessary.

So that takes us to when your horse is kept in their stall. Like many barns, our horses come in around 4:00PM and remain inside all night. During the stall cleaning process the buckets are taken outside and all of the ice is removed. Right before the horses are brought in they are refilled. We do keep a hose in the bathroom, but more often than not it is just easier to carry the buckets to and fro from the hydrant. In freezing weather those buckets will ice over in a matter of hours. That’s where night check (usually done between 8:30 and 10:30PM) kicks in. The frozen buckets are dumped and refilled with nice fresh water. Even then, when I come the barn in the morning, the water buckets are frozen solid down to the bottom (see how handy outlets would be just about now?).

I have established a little routine I like to call the “anti-colic route”. Every morning I give the horses their hay. Then, while they are eating, I go around and fill up a water bucket in each stall about halfway. Some of the horses don’t drink the water, but about 95% of them do. The trick is to get it into their systems before you feed grain. If it is a particularly cold morning, like today was, I soak all of the grain in warm water until it is nice and sloppy. The horses get very impatient waiting for their mush (just ask Poppy) but it’s well worth it in the end. I know they are getting more water into their systems and it prevents them from bolting their feed on a dry stomach, which could potentially cause colic. With a horse that is prone to colic (Darwin), or the very old (Espa and Tom), or simply by request of the owner (Vera and Kinkaid), I soak the grain during every feeding, regardless of the temperature.

So far, knock on wood, my system seems to be working (with the exception of Darwin, but then again this is the same horse who managed to pin himself under the fence on Saturday when he being free lounged). Would it be easier to have heated buckets in the stalls and deicers in the water troughs? YES! But you make do with what you have and even if it takes two hours instead of half an hour, you make sure the horses are getting the water they need. In the winter, there isn’t anything that is more important.