20 / Sport and Trail Magazine
Winter Tips
Forage, forage and more forage. Your horse should have access to continuous forage 24/7. Remember horses burn calories to stay warm, hay/forage helps support an increase in body temperature far greater than grain. 1-2% of horse’s body weight should be feed in forage.
Don’t shock the digestive with feed changes, introduce a probiotic for all feed changes- grass to hay, hay to grass.
Winter pasture and dried hay will be lacking in essential fatty acids and vitamin E, so adding these to your winter feeding programme should be a must: some wholefood sources of EFA include chia seeds 1-2oz daily per horse. EFA are vital for the immune system to function correctly. Wholefoods sources of vitamin E are wheatgrass fodder, whole soaked/sprouted oats, whole soaked almonds.
During the winter months most horses have a decrease of antioxidants and live enzymes in their diet. By incorporating sprouted seeds you can cheaply & easily keep antioxidants and enzymes toped up. For more information on sprouting for your horse go to my blog at www.equineherbalist.ie.
Free choice salt can be left in a dry area for horses to consume what they need not what you think they need. This will help stimulate a drinking response and keep your horse hydrated over the winter. Personally I like to use celery which I chop & add to the daily feed.
Before reaching for the oil as a fat source, remember most oils, including soya, canola, and corn, are cheap GMO sludge extracted with hexane (neurotoxin) and high in inflammatory factors so quality matters. Good sources of fat include grass, seeds, soaked nuts, coconut meal and cold pressed oils like hemp.
Try to maintain exercise over the winter which is good for circulation & joints. If exercise is limited you can add wholefoods and herbs for circulation.
Rachel Kelly is a qualified master medical herbalist, equine herbalist and vitalist nutritionist. Rachel places huge emphasis on the importance of a natural diet and uses "food as medicine" with sprouted seeds being one of the important building blocks in this process. Rachel's horses are feed a raw sprouted seed diet which is rich in antioxidants and live enzymes. Rachel lives in Kildare, Ireland with her family and two horses.
Warming food include ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, turmeric, yeasts, soaked almonds and spirulina. For joint health over the winter use chia seeds, turmeric, msm, nettle powder or tea, rosehips, plenty of options for herbal pain relief if needed.
Winter Tonic
Recipe- raw apple cider vinegar, large glass jar with lid to this you can add herbs of your choice but try to include at least two herbs from my list into your mix:
Rosehips- immune boost
Thyme- antiviral, excellent for coughs
Garlic- antibacterial, antiviral, immune boost
Ginger- circulation, digestive
Peppermint-digestive
Honeysuckle-immune boost
Make a mineral rich winter tonic containing many different antioxidants offered by each herb. These herbs are only a few that can help with boosting the immune system. They are specific for issues related to winter coughs, colds, lack of circulation.
Steep for 6-8 weeks then strain the herbs from the liquid, bottle the liquid & label it use 10 ml at onset of symptoms.