Winter is upon us here in Western New York. It’s not like we didn’t know it was coming, all the signs were there (and the calendar was reminding us every day), but we’re still never quite prepared for the snow and the cold, or the frozen water buckets or the icy patches of ground between the house and the barn… Perhaps we just try to trick ourselves into believing that this will be the year we’ll experience the extra mild winter and those early morning and late night walks to the barn won’t greet us with biting wind and blowing snow. So far winter has greeted us as it always has, with loads of snow and extra chilly temperatures. For us, that means we’ve buttoned up our barns, put the water tank heaters in, and started packing the Hay Hoarders full to the brim to help get our horses through the blustery days and nights with full bellies and plenty of stored energy to keep them warm and happy.
Winter brings different challenges for all of us. Some of us have limited pasture space during the cold and muddy seasons making turnout difficult, some of us stall our horses more to provide additional time out of the elements, which in turn adds to time spent cleaning, some of us choose to blanket our horses, and some of us change how, when, and what we feed, all requiring a change to our routines. There are countless articles online describing the optimal formula for caring for your horses in the winter. But, there is a common theme among them all. That theme is the increase and continuous availability of forage. The digestive fermentation process is how our horses stay warm and having them eat their forage at a slower rate will help give them the fuel they need to stay warm through the long cold winter season, day and night.
No matter what our personal choices are to help keep our horses healthy and warm through the winter, providing them with access to hay throughout the day and night is vital to keeping them hale and hearty. Choosing the right slow feeding system can help you save time, waste, and offer your horse the opportunity to have forage available for long periods of time. At Hay Hoarder, we’re dedicated to making life easier around the farm and we provide each of our horses a Hay Hoarder slow feed system to help keep them happy and healthy all year round.
Stay warm out there!
Team HH