5 tips for preparing your winter paddocks for the next season
Thinking about winter in summer? Oh no….
A lot of horse owners and stable managers think this way, only to be frustrated at the start of the muddy and frosty season that they didn’t make time to prepare for the up and coming wet season. After all, once the horses are sinking in the mud again, the days are shorter and the weather is foul, you don’t want to start any construction work that would make your life easier.
So now is the right time to think ahead and prepare the ground at the stables.
1) Securing the walkways
Easier said than done. As an owner with a livery yard agreement, you will have little control over adding more drainage to the property, it might also blow the budget as ground work isn’t’ cheap. Nevertheless, you can make life easier throughout the muddy season.
Paddock slabs can be laid on walkways throughout the paddock. Different types of models are available that do not require fixing or securing into the ground, they just needs to be level to some extent – and this is usually quite easy to do in summer with a tractor, car or horse.
The entire paddock does not have to be paved. Horses also like to use footpaths to get through the paddock on dry ground, so the droppings are usually found along these paths and can be easily picked up there.
The creation of trail corridors normally simplifies mucking out, as they ensure that the horses have to walk a long distance, but the droppings are not spread over large, muddy areas, and therefore remain near the walkways and thus close to the paving slabs.
Paving the ground especially around feeding areas is essential, as these spots tend to become exceptionally muddy. In addition to paddock slabs, grass pavers are also suitable, but their holes must be well filled so that ponies and foals don’t get stuck in them. Used football turf is also sometimes available quite cheaply and is ideal, especially on uneven surfaces.
Due to its weight, it also doesn’t need to be secured (except on slopes). With dry standing areas around the feeding troughs and paved walkways, mucking out in winter is also much easier and dirt-related diseases in the leg area such as thrush or mud fever cannot “flair up” as much.
2) Create water drainage
Horses don’t mind walking through the mud from time to time. Especially in very wet winters with temperatures above freezing and a lot of rain, many paddocks are no fun at all.
Not only do our own wellies like to get stuck on the way to the horse, but the wheelbarrow can hardly be moved and getting constantly stuck in the mud and poo ‘mixture’, that is neither healthy for the hooves nor for the skin on the legs of our furry friends.
Those with paddocks on a slight slope are usually in the favourable position that the water largely drains away on its own. All paddocks on the flat usually turn more or less into a swamp, depending on the rainfall.
If you don’t drain the water off at least slightly, then at some point even the beautiful paddock slabs will float away or sink into the mud like Atlantis into the sea.
If you don’t want to start an archaeological excavation for your paddock slabs in spring, you should introduce measures to conquer possible flood of water now, for example by digging ditches or building embankments to divert the water to areas that are not necessarily used by the horses.
The trenches and embankments should run as far as possible outside the areas used by the horses, as horses find nothing more fun than climbing over embankments or rolling around in the trenches. They often ruin the tedious earthworks in a short space of time and level everything out again.
It is worth creating trails and then draining the water into the areas away from the trails. For instance, you can fill in the trail and then reinforce it with paddock slabs in the centre. This allows the water to run off to the side and drain away from there. The horses (and the wheelbarrow) then walk in the centre where it’s dry.
If there is no gradient at all, you can have a pit dug outside the outlet or in the middle of it (but well fenced off!) with a digger and direct the water there. A pump and a long hose can then be used to channel the water further away from the outlet towards a grass area or the next ditch.
Obviously, this is nowhere near as ideal as a paddock with professional drainage and reinforcement, but it’s still better than everyone sinking into the mud in the constant winter rain
3) Keep the drinking trough frost-free
One of the biggest problems at temperatures below zero degrees is the freezing of water troughs. In indoor stables, the problem is usually solved by installing a heated drinking system and keeping windows and doors tightly closed.
Although this keeps the water liquid, the stabled horses usually suffer more or less from respiratory problems due to the permanently poor air circulation in the stable.
The water supply is even more challenging in open stables, as the drinking troughs here naturally take on the temperature of the surroundings.
If you have an anti-freeze water connection in the paddock, you are well provided for with a heated float drinker. Of course, in addition to the water pipe, this also requires a power connection, which not every open stable has or which is not necessarily located where you want to install the drinker.
Anyone who has a well is best advised to use a ball drinker. Ball drinkers usually remain frost-free if you have more than four horses (please note that there are differences between the models, if in doubt ask the retailer or manufacturer for advice). However, some horses tend to “brush their teeth” at the drinker, i.e. they take water into their mouths and then let it flow out again generously.
This allows food residues to enter the trough and can lead to germination growth. It is therefore important to regularly dismantle and clean these drinkers.
If you don’t have a well, less than four horses or don’t have the money for a ball drinker or a fancy heated float trough, then you can get quite good results with a bathtub if you place it in a wooden box that you insulate well with polystyrene or similar insulating material. With this scenario you can lay a heating coil, such as those available in the terrarium sector, around the tub and connect it to the power supply.
Other owners have also successfully installed an aquarium heating rod in the water, but in this case, you should look for a version with a dry fuse that switches off automatically if the rod is no longer in the water. Installations with one (or several for large tanks) 60-watt light bulb under the tank have also been successfully installed, which keep the tank warm enough with their heat production.
If you don’t have electricity at the stables, you can also place candles under the tub to keep the tub warm from below with candles creating the heat. Be cautious, as most insulation materials are flammable! In this case, it’s essential to ensure a safe construction to prevent accidents and maintain a sufficient distance from the insulation to avoid fire hazards.
The ThermoBar from Sweden (and they know a thing or two about frost!) is a system that is frost-proof, not cheap though: https://thermobar.se/de/, with or without a power connection.
For anyone who wants to make their own heated trough: it’s best to do it when the weather is still warm, nobody wants to be lying in the mud under the trough installing heating coils in sub-zero temperatures or in constant rain.
Many horses, especially those with stomach ulcers, appreciate having access to warm water during the winter months. When you arrive at the stable in the evening, it helps these horses if you bring warm water in canisters and let them drink that from buckets. Sometimes 20 litres or more per horse are drunk in one go. These horses can then usually cope with the few sips of cold water throughout the day to avoid an impaction colic or kidney problems.
When it’s -10°C and below, horses should should be offered lukewarm water in the morning and evening from a bucket. They learn very quickly to drink as much as possible at the times when water is offered so that they can get through the rest of the day without water. This is not ideal, but it is better than leaving the horses standing in front of frozen troughs.
4) Shorten distances
In summer, when the weather is nice, it’s fun to take the odd diversions with the wheelbarrow. But when it’s drizzling and muddy, every additional turn becomes an annoyance. It’s worth considering now where and how to optimise the different walkways. Naturally you want to encourage the horses to move and therefore install as many hay feeding stations as possible. However, if you then have to drag nets of hay over muddy walkways, the paddock trail quickly becomes paddock torture.
It is ideal if you can install several covered hay racks, which are then filled with whole bales and secured with a net to prevent the hay from being eaten too quickly.
Regularly topped up with the front loader is the simplest way. But not all stables have their own front loader or have enough horses and the necessary funds to install several racks. As a result, hay nets are often used, which, while effective, require more effort to fill.
Strategically placed small pasture tents or shelters can be equipped with hay bales so that there is a supply close to each hay station. This shortens the distances. Of course, you have to make sure that the paths near by are passable with the front loader even in bad weather, otherwise the farmer won’t be able to put new bales in there when it’s muddy and you don’t want to roll them through the mud.
The hay barns can also be stocked with a week’s supply of filled hay nets at the weekend, saving time during the working week when you only have to hang up the nets and not fill them as well.
You should also consider whether the muck heap is conveniently located. In summer, of course, you want it to be far away from the horses to minimise odours and fly nuisance, but in winter this means long extra walks.
It is unfavourable in terms of hygiene and worm contamination to collect the droppings in a pile on the walkways. Perhaps a container or trailer can also be set up and emptied regularly? Here too, of course, make sure that the ground is passable; you can’t always rely on the ground being dry or frozen in time for collection.
A frost-proof wrapped water barrel as a supply can also reduce the amount of carrying around water buckets. Equipment, muck trolley etc. should be within easy reach and as weatherproof as possible – it’s no fun digging them out of the snow or searching for them at dusk.
5) Ensure hay feeding
During the grazing season, there is usually little need to worry about this, as the horses are usually only given hay overnight or are on the pasture 24 hours a day. But from September at the latest, most stables will have to feed again because the pastures are eaten up (if they are not already, given the drought in most regions). In order to have enough good hay available, it is worth contacting the farmers now to let him know your upcoming requirements. Horses eat 2-3kg of hay per 100kg body weight per day.
The colder the weather, the greater the need for hay. It is always better to buy too generously than too sparingly, as experience shows that prices rise at the end of winter when stocks are running low.
Hay is the main source of warmth for horses, so make sure they have constant access to roughage, especially in cold weather. Evening mash is good for our mental being, but unfortunately it doesn’t help the horse to keep warm.
Many farmers offer the option of reserving the winter supply and having it delivered in manageable quantities so that you don’t have to store it for the whole winter. Storage in a shelter or hay tent for small quantities and short periods of time is perfectly possible. Storage under tarpaulin should be avoided as the condensation promotes the growth of mould spores.
This is only a temporary option (especially as it is difficult to get the hay bales from under the tarpaulin under layers of snow and ice), it is always worth installing a small shelter or tent. It is advisable to place 1-2 layers of pallets under the hay bales to ensure ventilation from underneath to prevent mould from developing.
Make sure that the quality of the hay is suitable for the horses. It is common sense that mouldy hay is not suitable for feeding. The nutritional values are often overlooked, and you can’t see them from the outside of the hay.
If you have a regular supplier, it is often worth having the hay analysed at a reputable laboratory. The Weender analysis together with sugar values are sufficient to get a good guideline. Sugar levels in leisure horses should be above 10%, in horses with metabolic problems such as insulin resistance, EMS, pseudo-EMS or PSSM the sugar level should be above 6%.
Poor protein levels can be compensated for by feeding sainfoin cobs or vital cobs in addition to hay. Otherwise, the hay should be stalky, light green and have a pleasant to neutral odour. Musty, sour or fermented smells, heavy dust formation, grey plates in the hay, poisonous plants etc. indicate that this hay is absolutely not suitable.
Hay offered in nets put into hay racks, hay cushions, hay boxes, hay bins, hay balls or other slow feeders extends the feeding time and ensures that the horses have continuous access to roughage. Various slow feeders in different places in the paddock also encourage movement and different head and feeding positions, which is in line with natural behaviour. Additional straw nets, branches and twigs or an armful of leaves can be used to add variety to the roughage on offer.
In order to ensure the supply even in winter, in addition to salt lick and mineral feed fat-containing seeds (e.g. linseed, sunflower seeds, whole rosehips OKAPI wild seeds) should be offered in rotation. Dried berries provide high-quality vitamins even in the barren season, e.g. as OKAPI Wild Berries or collected in summer, dried and offered in winter. Blueberries, rosehips, raspberries and blackberries can then be offered. When drying and storing, however, make sure that no mould forms.
So our four-legged friends will get through the next winter in good shape!
🇬🇧 We are an experienced team of therapists specializing in feed consultation and integrated therapies for horses. With extensive experience in treating metabolic issues, we focus on natural, species-appropriate feeding and proven naturopathic remedies to enhance your horse's health. Benefit from our expertise to ensure the well-being of your horse.
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