England 17/06/2013 – To remain healthy horses need to spend time outside, but this year’s bad weather has made it more difficult for horse owners to turn their horses out.
The Met office announced this week that the UK has suffered the 2nd wettest winter on record. The total rainfall fell just 6.6mm short of the record; the UK had 1,330.7mm of rain during the 2012/2013 winter. If that rain had fallen evenly, the impact would have been minimal. Unfortunately, heavy rainstorms in some parts of the UK led to flooding. On top of that, there was deep snow in some areas.
This inclement weather has caused problems, especially for farmers and horse owners. They own animals that need to spend time outside, both cattle and horses need to graze. Of course, it is possible to keep them using dry feeds, but large grazing animals are definitely happier and healthier if they can take in at least some of their food naturally by grazing. The inclement weather has meant that horse owners have had to keep their animals inside to protect them from the weather and from nasty diseases such as mud fever that are more prevalent in wet conditions.
Firms like T.E.N. Supplements have seen sales increase as horse owners try to compensate for the fact that they have been unable to turn their horses out to graze much this year. They have dealt with many enquiries from horse owners asking for advice about changing their animals feeding routines.
Nutritional content of pasture particularly poor this year
Some owners have still been able to turn their horses out to pasture because the weather in their area has not been as bad. However, even they have had to review the amount of supplements they feed their horse. As the seasons progress the mix of grasses and plants in a pasture change, which means that the mix of nutrition a horse gets change too. This year plants and grass have grown slowly and the quality has been poor, meaning that the nutritional content of most pastures has not been as good as normal. As a result, more horse owners are visiting http://tensupplements.co.uk to buy products to supplement their horse’s diet.