It is exciting when the temperatures begin to climb higher and the snow melts away. However, there are still many considerations that you need to think about when it comes to helping your horse successfully make the transition to spring. Taking the right steps can go a long way toward preventing substantial issues, both to their comfort and their health. In many situations, the change in temperature will feel rather abrupt. It is important to make changes gradual to protect the health and comfort of your horses. Here are a few tips for helping your horse to make the transition from the cold winter months into warmer spring temperatures.

Take Care of their Coat

One of the biggest changes that a horse will experience during the onset of spring is changes to their coat. During this time, their winter coat will shed as their summer coat develops. Shedding is a huge component during the winter to spring transition. This is a great time to care for the health of their coat. You may want to consider adding a supplement to their nutrition. Many supplements are designed to ensure that their coats, skin, and hooves remain as healthy as possible, even during the winter to spring transition. These supplements can go a long way toward improving the overall health of their coats.

You should also ensure that you spend adequate amounts of time on their grooming. Take the time to both curry and brush their coat thoroughly. Most horse owners agree that you should work up a sweat during a grooming session for your horse. You may also want to consider the use of a shedding tool in order to help thin the coat out. Appropriate clipping and other various techniques can be used in order to help keep the coat healthy and the horse more comfortable. However, thorough consideration should be taken during this time. You don’t want to clip their coats incredibly short only to have a cold snap a week later.

Appropriate Levels of Exercise

It is important to implement an effective exercise routine as the weather begins to grow warmer. Winter tends to prohibit regular exercise, but it is important to slowly get them back to their original strength and health. Start with short rides with plenty of breaks over time in order to avoid overworking them and causing injury. Exercise is good for both their circulation and their health. When you implement a good exercise routine, you can help your horse to adjust to spring weather more comfortably and safely.

Make Slow Dietary Changes

One of the most dramatic changes, in addition to the shedding of their coat, is the horse’s diet during the spring. In the winter, they have been stuck primarily to a dry diet, as grazing isn’t an option. Ensure that you slowly introduce them back to grazing. Wait until the grass is 6 inches high, because it will then be ready for grazing. Begin with letting the horse out to graze for 15 minutes at a time. Increase this period of time by 15 minutes each day. Ensure that you continue to provide their normal winter feed in the beginning stages of introducing them to grazing. This will help them to adjust more gradually to the changes.

It is important to limit their initial consumption while they graze. If they are immediately allowed to graze to their heart’s content, they are likely to overeat. The sudden changes can be shocking for their digestive system and metabolism. This can lead to severe issues with their health. It is incredibly important to take the steps necessary to gradually reintroduce them to grazing when the weather gets warmer.

Keep an Eye on the Temperature

When the temperatures rise significantly, it is important to keep an eye on the temperature. You shouldn’t immediately expose them to hot temperatures. This is due to the fact that horses are just as susceptible to heat stroke as humans. It is similarly important to ensure that they remain hydrated. Dehydration leads to a large array of issues in the horse’s health, including inadequate digestion and the development of colic, which can lead to compounded, dangerous issues.

It is crucial to ensure that your horses always have access to clean, fresh water at a comfortable temperature to encourage them to drink adequate amounts. This can often be accomplished with the use of an automatic watering system, such as the Bar Bar A Horse Drinker. This particular waterer doesn’t use electricity, which helps to further protect your horses from the risk of electrocution. Implementing an automatic watering system can help to ensure that horses always have access to the water that they need to stay healthy.

Your Barn

It is incredibly important to take all the steps to inspect your barn and ensure that it remains in good repair prior to the cold of winter. However, winter is a time that often wreaks havoc on your property. This can negate many of the repairs that you made before the winter. After spring arrives, it will be similarly important to do another thorough inspection of your property. This will help you to make any repairs and keep your property in good repair. These steps go a long way toward protecting your horses and keeping them safe.

Many people overlook the transition from winter to spring, because it seems less important than the transition from fall to winter. However, there are many considerations that will be necessary in order to protect the health of your horse during this transition to spring. One of the most important things to remember throughout the year is that a horse needs to have access to clean water at a comfortable temperature. This means that water needs to be somewhat warmer in the winter months, while it needs to be cooler in the summer months. The way the Horse Drinker works is by storing the water beneath the ground, which ensures that it is at a great temperature for drinking year-round. To learn more about how Bar Bar A’s Horse Drinker can help your horse to stay hydrated, contact our experts today!

A horse’s winter coat requires substantially more work to ensure that they remain comfortable. It is important to keep in mind that the horse’s winter coat is designed to keep them warm throughout the colder temperatures, so clipping their coat too short can lead to them becoming cold far more easily than is safe. Here are a few ways that you can help to keep your horse and their winter coat in good condition throughout the cold months.

Common Issues with a Winter Coat

When your horse develops a thick, winter coat, it can be rather difficult to manage effectively. Their coat is intended to retain heat and keep them warmer throughout the winter. Though this helps to keep them comfortable, it does mean that it will take longer for them to cool down after exercise. In addition, the longer coat can be difficult to keep clean. Winter temperatures often mean that it is too cold to wash them with the use of water and it will take them longer to dry after they’ve been washed. Each horse will have a different winter coat depending on their genetics, breed, and much more. Understanding the differences can help you to take the best approach to keeping their winter coat healthy and ensuring that they are comfortable throughout the winter. Their coat is likely to be much thicker and longer than their summer coat.

Use the Right Tools

There are many tools that are designed specifically to help with your horse’s winter coat. Obtaining these tools can go a long way toward ensuring that you can keep your horse clean, despite the longer coat. To ensure the best possible grooming for your horse’s winter coat, you should obtain a winter curry comb, a shedding blade, and a brush with coarse bristles. These tools are designed to penetrate through the length of a thick coat in order to remove dander, dirt, and dried sweat from the horse’s coat. It is often better to avoid using these tools on the bony areas of your horse to prevent discomfort and irritation. In addition, a shedding blade helps to expedite the removal of the horse’s winter coat in the spring.

Groom Before and After Exercise

It is important to put a little extra effort into keeping your horse groomed throughout the winter. This means that you will need to ensure that your horse is groomed both before and after exercise. In fact, cleaning prior to exercise often makes it much easier to clean them after they have exercised. It will likely take more time to clean, but it is vital to do so thoroughly to prevent the issues that come with the accumulation of grime on your horse’s coat. You will need to pay special attention to the areas under the jaw, behind their elbows, around their ears, along their girth, and the saddle area.

Take your Time

A thicker coat ultimately means that it will be far more difficult to keep clean. This means that it will take more time to ensure that your horse has been cleaned thoroughly. It is incredibly important to invest the time necessary to remove sweat, dirt, and grime from your horse’s coat, both before and after they have been exercised.

Use Clean Equipment

It can certainly be more difficult to keep the horse’s coat clean throughout the winter. This means that it is exceptionally important to keep their tack clean. Not only will this make it easier to clean their coat, but it will also prevent irritation from occurring, which helps minimize issues and ensure that they remain comfortable.

Your Winter Coat Goals

Ultimately, you will want to focus on keeping your horse’s winter coat as clean as possible, while simultaneously trying to use as little water as possible to prevent them from getting too cold. It is possible to use sponges to sponge off relatively sweaty areas, but you will need to ensure that you dry them very thoroughly afterwards. A longer coat will lead to more water retention, which can cause them to get cold.

Clipping

Clipping can be used to help thin out the winter coat, especially when the weather starts to get warmer. However, it is important to be careful whenever you decide to clip your horse’s coat. Weather can certainly fluctuate and get colder again, so it is important to not clip off too much of their winter coat before it sheds naturally.

Diet and Exercise

Ensuring that you feed them a nutritious diet can go a long way toward improving the quality of their coat. Exercising can similarly help to improve circulation and ensure that nutrients are distributed throughout their body. Implementing healthy fats can help to ensure that the new coat remains healthy and beautiful. It is similarly important to ensure that your horse obtains appropriate levels of hydration and is drinking plenty of water. This can be more difficult in the winter months, as a horse will be less likely to drink cold water in the cold winter temperatures. A waterer, such as Bar-Bar-A, can help to keep water at a comfortable temperature and ensure that it is appealing for a horse to drink throughout the year.

Weight loss is often a problem with horses in the winter. It is important to take all of the steps to keep your horse healthy in the colder winter temperatures. From ensuring that they are on a healthy diet to taking care of their winter coat, there are many things that you can do to keep your horse comfortable in the winter. Hydration is one of the most important factors when it comes to a horse’s health. When a horse becomes dehydrated, they can quickly develop life-threatening medical issues. An automatic waterer can go a long way toward ensuring that your horse has access to adequate water levels that meet their needs year round. To learn more about installing one of our unique automatic waterers to your home, contact us today!

Finding the superior solution for your horses’ water needs can be difficult. There are many options out there, each of which has their own pros and cons. Fortunately, Bar-Bar-A is capable of providing an excellent automatic waterer to meet the needs of your livestock. These waterers don’t use electricity, but still provide many of the same benefits that electrical waterers do. These systems ensure that fresh, clean water is always available to your livestock, which can help to prevent a multitude of problems. There are many problems that come with electrical waters, so it is important to implement the best solution to protect the health of your livestock.

Water and Electricity

There is a reason that most electrical products caution you to keep the product away from pools of water. Water is a proficient conductor of electricity. When water is exposed to electrical components, it can allow the electrical current to flow throughout it, which is dangerous for anyone that may come into contact with the water. This can cause electrical shocks to your animals whenever they attempt to drink water. These unpleasant experiences can cause your animals to avoid drinking water altogether, which can lead to even further problems. Dehydration is incredibly dangerous for livestock. Even small amounts of water can lead to incredible amounts of damage. Water and electricity in combination can be incredibly dangerous. It is best to avoid using these things in combination with each other.  

Winter Water Considerations

It is unsurprising that livestock are averse to drinking freezing water when the weather outside is cold. In the winter months, they will avoid cool water and will likely prefer room temperature or lukewarm water. In order to meet the water needs of livestock, many people turn to heated buckets. These also help to prevent the water from freezing, which will completely prevent access to the water. However, heating elements often involve electricity. This is true with heated water buckets. If the heating elements sustain damage, they may cause electricity to flow through the water, which will shock animals when they drink the water. This can even occur after the bucket has sustained significant amounts of use.

Our automatic waterer uses water that is located under the surface of the earth. This helps to provide warmer water in the winter and cooler water in the summer, ensuring that the water is always at a temperature that will be appealing to animals. This helps to ensure that animals are likely to maintain adequate hydration, no matter what the temperatures are like outside.

Benefits of Electricity-Free Solutions

Water solutions that use electricity will need to obtain the electricity from somewhere. This will add significantly to your energy bill. When you obtain an electricity-free solution, you will reduce your energy expenses, because electricity won’t be required in order for the waterer to function as intended. Electric waterers can also lead to injury to your livestock, as well as yourself.

When you suspect that there may be an electrical current running through the water, you should never stick your hand in the water to double check. Use a voltmeter to detect any existing electricity in the water. Preventing this damage can be effectively accomplished by using an electricity-free waterer for your livestock’s hydrating needs. These systems can save you money on energy expenses, as well as protect the health and comfort of your livestock. They can minimize the problems and damage that electricity can cause, especially when it is combined with water.

Issues with Standing Water

It is true that water solutions such as troughs generally don’t use electricity. Unfortunately, there can be many additional issues when water is allowed to stand outside. Standing water can easily be contaminated. Common culprits of contamination include bird feces, drowned rodents, and many other possible things. Mold and mildew can form easily in standing water, which can be incredibly hazardous to the health of your livestock. Standing water is also one of the leading things that attract pests, which can be disastrous for your property. In fact, many studies have shown that the likelihood of livestock obtaining West Nile Virus is increased when standing water is present on the property. Most experts agree that a water source needs to have moving water in order to be safe for animal consumption.  

Dangers of Dehydration

Dehydration is incredibly dangerous for livestock. Horses can suffer from deadly consequences within a few days without water. Dehydration can cause colic, which is incredibly serious. Ensuring that your livestock has fresh, clean water is one of the most important aspects of protecting the health of your livestock. Water is incredibly important for horses. They require substantial amounts of water in order to remain in good health. When a waterer results in electrical shocks to an animal, it will cause them to avoid drinking water. This can lead to dehydration in livestock and serious health concerns.

The Superior Water Solution

Due to the dangers of electricity and standing water, it is important to obtain a water solution that doesn’t include either of these components. Our automatic waterer uses a mechanical solution in order to provide livestock with access to fresh, clean water without requiring electricity. This ensures that your livestock will have access to water that stays at a comfortable temperature throughout the year, which will ensure that the water remains appealing to them, no matter what the weather is outside. Livestock can quickly be taught how to obtain water from this automatic waterer whenever they need to.

Here at Bar-Bar-A, we offer multiple solutions to meet the needs of you and your livestock. From horse waterers to waterers designed for sheep and goats, we have the appropriate waterer to meet all of your needs. This waterer is self-cleaning and requires very little maintenance to ensure that it operates effectively. To learn more about how our automatic waterer can protect the health of your livestock and ensure appropriate hydration, contact our experts today!