Winter creates specific welfare challenges for horses including maintaining warmth, managing heavy ground conditions, and ensuring adequate nutrition. Proactive management prevents common problems.
Winter welfare management for horses requires balancing multiple competing needs. Adequate forage must be provided as the primary source of warmth through fermentation, not just nutrition. Rugging decisions require matching rug weight to temperature and the individual horse's coat and condition to avoid both hypothermia and overheating. Wet and poached ground conditions cause mud fever, joint stress, and difficulty for horses to move normally. Older horses with dental disease cannot ferment forage efficiently and require additional nutritional support. Regular body condition scoring and weight tape monitoring through winter prevents undetected weight loss.