Winter imposes significantly elevated energy demands on horses. Understanding and meeting these requirements through appropriate feeding prevents condition loss, immune suppression, and welfare problems during cold months.
Winter nutrition failure is a common and preventable cause of equine suffering. Horses that lose condition over winter face increased disease susceptibility, impaired immune function, reduced thermoregulation capacity, and in severe cases, starvation. The suffering is insidious because horses maintain normal behavior until significant weight has been lost. Owners who rely on visual assessment without body condition scoring regularly miss gradual condition loss obscured by thick winter coats. Regular weighing, appropriate forage provision, and additional concentrate feeding for high-demand horses (lactating mares, working horses, elderly horses) prevent this entirely avoidable welfare problem.