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When winter is upon us we must take keener consideration in the feeding of our horses.
The growth period for the grasses and pastures has diminished dramatically due to shorter daylight hours and the pasture we did have has been burnt off due to frosting.
This means the nutritional values in the grass has diminished to the extent that in effect, their grazing is providing very little nutrition and we must therefore supplement their daily dietary intake to ensure they maintain their body weight and not begin to delve into their own fat stores to provide the necessary energy to sustain life.

I am not saying you need to go out and feed these horses until their eyeballs pop out, but simply enough to let them maintain their current bodyweight and not deteriorate to the point of beginning to live off their reserves of body fat.
Quite simply, feed extra hay. It need not be bright fresh green Lucerne hay, although, late pregnant broodmares and yearlings will do quite well on this type of legume hay, older or mature horses don't have a great requirement for it and will do quite nicely on shedded Lucerne or shedded Lucerne grass mix, or even simply good quality grass hay.
Hay is getting quite difficult to come by even at this early stage of winter due to the preceding drought and major water restrictions throughout the SE corner of our state, therefore if you happen upon a good source it may pay to stock up for the coming months. As we all know, August has proven to be the month where hay prices skyrocket. Maybe consideration should be given to purchasing a round bale or two of Rhodes grass hay and let your horses feed on this ad lib.
No matter what you may happen to feed as a further supplement to hay, take care the horse is also receiving its daily requirement of a good quality mineral/vitamin supplement as the further deteriorated the pasture or longer the hay has been shedded, the lower the mineral/vitamin content of the feed, so it is important to supplement.
We must also make sure our horses are receiving plenty of water. As conditions become drier the moisture in the pasture or grasses also diminish, the air dries out further, and you will find the water requirement and intake will increase markedly, this is why it is important to keep up a constant supply.
Keep the horse wormed, teeth attended to by a qualified equine dentist, and their hooves trimmed and well oiled on the sole and around the coronary band area in order to maintain suppleness and to prevent drying out

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