Providing for horses during winter requires attention to shelter, forage, water access, and social needs, with welfare problems arising from both under-provision and inappropriate over-restriction.
Winter horse welfare requires balancing protection from genuine cold stress against the risk of over-management that impairs natural behavioral thermoregulation. Horses in appropriate body condition with shelter from wind and rain and ad-lib forage access can tolerate very cold temperatures without welfare compromise. The most common winter welfare failures are not insufficient rugging but inadequate water provision (horses drink 15-25 liters daily even in cold weather), insufficient forage causing weight loss, and failure to provide shelter from the wind and driving rain that actually create cold stress. Welfare-aware winter management begins with body condition scoring and adjusting individual management accordingly.