In many ways, fall means a change for our horses. The days get shorter, it gets rainy and cold outside, unless we can talk about a golden autumn.
For horses, fall is much more than just another season. With the decrease in day length and the cooler temperatures comes the change of coat. Autumn is also the time for worming. The end of the grazing season is slowly approaching and so for many horses the start of the paddock season begins.
In many stables, the horses now only come out for hours at a time and are often kept in small and often muddy paddocks. Is it any wonder that the horse hardly moves and often becomes a little firework under the saddle? If the horses are not in small groups of two to four horses, they are often in large groups in the paddock, the herd pressure increases and low-ranking horses or stress-prone horses in particular lose out. The result of this stress is too much food in the stomach.
For many horses, the end of the grazing season also marks the end of sufficient intake of roughage, i.e. crude fiber. In most cases, roughage, i.e. hay or haylage, is only fed twice a day and unfortunately (often for reasons of cost, organization and effort) not freely. The result is that the horses do not chew enough and therefore do not produce enough saliva or bicarbonate to buffer the excess stomach acid.
All these changes mean stress for the horses and sensitive horses in particular, which react negatively to changes, can quickly be affected by this stress. It is therefore not uncommon at this time of year to hear and read more calls for help from horse owners whose four-legged friends are struggling with stomach problems such as gastric mucosal irritation or stomach ulcers.
For sensitive horses in particular, it is therefore very important to minimize stress-inducing factors and support the horse as much as possible in autumn. The increased nutrient requirements during the change of coat should be covered by targeted supplementary feeding to prevent a nutrient deficit.
Also, if possible, the groups in the paddocks should not be too large in order to avoid stress within the groups. Hay racks in the paddocks are readily accepted by the horses, but it is important here that there is sufficient space and feeding opportunities for all horses to prevent stress and unrest at the rack.
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