Stafford Equine Club

01/08/2025

Temperature inside a horse trailer…

https://www.facebook.com/share/1DgKZbLTCs/?mibextid=wwXIfr

This Is A Reprint Of A Very Good Post From A Very Good Horse Woman: Really Worth The Read
Jo Christensen AERC: American Endurance Ride Conference
Hey everyone,
Temperatures inside horse trailers are a concern to most endurance riders I know. We tend to haul very long distances, both in the heat and in the cold. I had to do some winter hauling today and before I left, I installed a temperature monitor inside my horse trailer. What I discovered was surprising and fascinating and changed my mind about what I thought was going on back there… so I decided to share what I learned in case of value to anyone else.
I hauled two horses about 6 hours today through the mountains here in western Montana, to a veterinary facility in another town. I was concerned about temperatures for the horses before I left. Forecast temps along some of the route were in the low single digits. My horses have very good winter coats but I was trying to decide whether to blanket or not. I recently switched to an enclosed gooseneck trailer and realized that I had no idea what hauling conditions in the winter were like back there.
I bought an inexpensive temperature monitor with a base station- the kind folks hang out on the porch so they can see what outdoor conditions are like without going outside. Before I put it into use in the trailer, I verified its accuracy by comparing its readings to some equipment I know is very accurate.
I hung the sensor in a mesh bag (good air flow) about halfway up the side of the wall in the trailer that encloses the rear tack room. I didn’t put it on the roof (heat rises) or near the floor (cold air sinks). My trailer is a 3 horse slant load, and I put it in the stall that did not have a horse in it. It was not hanging on an exterior wall. My trailer is not insulated- no living quarters, just a standard small dressing area in the front.
The trailer did have about 3 inches of hard encrusted snow insulating the roof-this snow stayed the entire journey.
The side windows could not be opened- they were encrusted with ice- however we opened all three roof vents to their maximum extent and turned the so that airflow would be maximized.
When we left our house in the Bitterroot, the temp inside and outside the trailer both read 20 degrees. BTW I was using my truck temperature monitor to determine the outside temperature (I had previously verified its accuracy and that it read the same as my newly purchased gear).
We loaded the horses and took off this morning about 0345 hrs. By the time we got to Missoula (30 minutes later), temps in the trailer had risen from 20 degrees to 32 degrees. In contrast, outside temp was still 20 degrees. By the time we had been on the road for an hour, the temperature in the trailer was (are you ready for this?): FORTY FOUR DEGREES.
Along our route, outside temps dropped as low as 14 degrees. At the same time, temps in the trailer NEVER dropped below 39 degrees. For the vast majority of the journey, the trailer was holding at 44 degrees. Temps inside the trailer were ALWAYS OVER TWENTY DEGREES WARMER than the outside.
We stopped for a half hour pitstop did not unload the horses. However I opened the back door and let cold wind flow into the trailer. Temps in the trailer quickly dropped to the high 20s. But they were back up to the low 40s in about half an hour.
We left both horses at the vet in Three Forks and returned with an empty trailer. All the way home, temps inside the trailer were identical to temps outside.
So here are my take-aways from all this. First of all, it’s very easy to monitor temps in your trailer and I would highly encourage everyone to do it! I think I spent about 20 bucks on my monitoring stuff and it was easy to use and very accurate. Secondly, I cannot believe how fast two horses could heat up a 3 horse trailer in very cold weather and keep it warm. I never dreamed that horses radiate that much heat. And to think I had been considering blanketing them.
Of course the need to blanket and other things might be different if your horses are body clipped or your trailer is different. And of course this is an enclosed gooseneck, not a stockside trailer. But rather than just guess what might be going on back there and whether it is appropriate for your clipped horse (or sick horse or…?) just go get a temperature monitor and find out!
And believe me, my eyes are going to be GLUED to this thing come summer and I’m hauling in hot temperatures…

01/01/2025

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas

12/06/2024

Remember donkeys differ from horses in winter care💜

10/20/2024

Pastures, nonstructural carbohydrates, and frost 🌱🍂❄️

Because it is that season, I want to discuss horse pastures and nonstructural carbohydrates, specifically as they relate to the beginning and end of a grazing season. Let’s begin by breaking this down by each topic before we add them all together:

Nonstructural carbohydrates, often abbreviated as NSCs, are comprised of water soluble carbohydrates (simple sugars and fructans) and starch. This class of carbohydrates is an important source of energy for the horse and they are digested and absorbed in the foregut, leading to an increase in blood glucose and insulin. As a result, high levels of NSCs in the diet can be an issue for horses with metabolic concerns specifically related to insulin dysregulation such as equine metabolic syndrome (EMS), Cushing’s (PPID), and laminitis/founder. While NSCs can be more consistent and documented in manufactured concentrates, more variation is observed in pasture or hay due to outside factors such as plant maturity, time of day, and weather conditions.

In pasture plants, NSCs are produced via photosynthesis, a process in which sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide generate glucose and oxygen. A separate but complementary process known as respiration is responsible for breaking down the glucose created during photosynthesis and releasing that energy for cellular use. As a result, increased photosynthesis leads to an accumulation of NSCs and increased cellular respiration leads to a decrease of NSCs. There are many weather conditions that can alter the balance between these processes in plants.

So how are these two factors connected to frost and the swing in temperatures observed in the spring and fall when horses are either being introduced to or removed from pasture? Well, when temperatures fall below 40°F, the enzymes involved in cellular respiration become significantly less active. And when temperatures fall below freezing, the enzymes can become denatured, stopping respiration altogether. This means low temperatures can lead to an accumulation of NSCs in the forage which can be problematic for grazing horses.

As a result, it is important to look at the nightly lows, and if these temperatures are sustained for more than a few hours, change your management practices accordingly, especially for glucose-sensitive horses. Furthermore, a hard frost occurs when temperatures drop below 28°F for more than four consecutive hours and will not only result in NSC accumulation but also marks the end of the growing season. While current recommendations allow grazing to resume 7 days following a hard frost, pastures require a minimum height of 3” to 4” going into the winter to support pasture productivity the following grazing season. Since grasses will no longer grow after a hard frost, continuing to graze can put undue stress on the pasture.

Additionally, sudden changes in the diet that would occur from removing horses from pasture abruptly, keeping horses on dried forage for 7 days, and then reintroducing horses to pasture, could lead to digestive upset or other health problems and the process will be time intensive for owners. When shifting the diet, even between different forages, it is critical to plan intentional transitions that allow the gut microbiota to sufficiently adapt. While the transition back to pasture can be accelerated in the fall compared to beginning grazing in the spring, it should still be done with care.

I hope this information is helpful as you make decisions on horse management and grazing this season!

- Dr. DeBoer

11/28/2023