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 Veteran
Posts: 253
 
Location: SoCal | I've never had a horse that was as picky about water as the young mare I have now. She will drink water from our area, but haul more than an hour or two and you might be out of luck. At home and places nearby, if you offer her water she will drink the whole bucket, so last summer when I hauled her to a large barrel race a few hours away and she failed to drink the water there, she got our shower water from home. It was enough to keep her hydrated, but she did not like the water there. It was what appeared to be well water, and by the time day 3 rolled around after our run and she was thirsty, she went to drink it not knowing it was the bucket of their water and she literally yanked her head up and spit it out.
I have heard Gatorade is something you can put in water to change the flavor, but I could never find out how much I should put in. What do you use to keep your horses drinking? (please include how much you give!)
Thank you! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1857
 
| are you on well water? |
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Veteran
Posts: 253
Location: SoCal | FlyingJT - 2014-01-17 2:21 PM
are you on well water?
Technically yes, but its a city well. We have really nice water here, but at the lake I take her to a lot, their water is very cloudy and not as clean as I'd like, and she loves it too. She was raised an hour away and they have a private well.
Eta: the lake water is not directly from the lake, it's from the lakes hook ups for RVs and trailers.
Edited by Last Catt 2014-01-17 4:26 PM
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Posts: 222
Location: Texas | We've used Gatorade before I put one large bottle ( like 30 oz or so) in water bucket fill the rest with water. Hubby's old head horse only like orange lol |
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Expert
Posts: 1857
| Might have something to do with the chlorine levels in the water when you haul her away from home. I have a few that are like that. Instead of trying to get them to drink the water with all the little tricks of Gatorade, Kool-Aid, jello mix, apple juice, etc. I just went a bought a tank (48 gallon) for my trailer and used that. Good luck in which ever direction you choose. It can be so frustrating!
Edited by FlyingJT 2014-01-17 4:37 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 1898
| I had a mare that was like that for a long time. She would not drink it if it had the slightest hint of treatment in it or if it had any odd smell. I hauled around gallons and gallons of water to every rodeo or race for years! My husband hated it. She eventually out grew it with hauling and started to drink other water too but it seemed like I hauled water FOREVER! |
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Veteran
Posts: 253
Location: SoCal | FlyingJT - 2014-01-17 2:35 PM
Might have something to do with the chlorine levels in the water when you haul her away from home. I have a few that are like that. Instead of trying to get them to drink the water with all the little tricks of Gatorade, Kool-Aid etc. I just went a bought a tank (48 gallon) for my trailer and used that. Good luck in which ever direction you choose. It can be so frustrating!
She ate the hay that was sprayed with their water, and I tried mixing the water from home with their water and once it got to about 20% of their water she didn't want it.
I've been considering hauling her out of state to family's house to work her on a ranch and learn to breakaway rope with them, and if I'm traveling a lot (since I'd like to use her as a college rodeo horse) I want to get her used to drinking water on the road. The way I kept her going this summer was spraying her hay to make it wet so that she'd at least get water through that. I had hauled up with friends who didn't have a tank other than the small one for showers. We sold our trailer that had a huge tank(living quarters, the water was a huge tank stored under the bench inside) and just replaced it with a tiny stock trailer with no tank, so that's the first thing on the list to buy. I'm hoping as she gets more familiar with the road that she'll drink easier. |
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Veteran
Posts: 253
Location: SoCal | cyount2009 - 2014-01-17 2:36 PM
I had a mare that was like that for a long time. She would not drink it if it had the slightest hint of treatment in it or if it had any odd smell. I hauled around gallons and gallons of water to every rodeo or race for years! My husband hated it. She eventually out grew it with hauling and started to drink other water too but it seemed like I hauled water FOREVER!
I'm hoping this is something she will grow out of, she'll be 6 in a few months, but she spent the first 3 years at her breeders before being sent off for training. I got her as a 4 year old, and what confuses me is one of the trainers she was with lives up north where we had headed, and they never said anything back then about her being a water snob during training... |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
 
Location: Phoenix | Honestly, I would just let her figure it out. Sometimes my horse drinks, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes I don't think he's even thirsty. |
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Expert
Posts: 4766
Location: Bandera, TX | This is something that I take very seriously. I had a friend hauling with me several years ago that lost her horse to colic. They were on a serious run to make the NFR. You must keep them hydrated or face the UGLY that come with a dehydrated horse. I like Horse Quencher, I hate sugar going into my horses but this is a time to let that go by the wayside. If I can't get a colt to sip water after giving some alfalfa pellets that have been soaked then I use the Horse Quencher. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I bought a water tank for my trailer when we made a 10 hour move. He didn't end up drinking any on that trip - but I'll be darned if it isn't the best thing ever to not have to haul water buckets from lord knows where at barrels races!
My boys a picky drinker too, so having the tank and being able to take some with us has been very nice and set my mind at ease.
I would consider trying soaked hay cubes or a really sloppy bran mash to keep some moisture in her. I also heard an old transporter trick is a half can of cheap beer...give them the beer first and then offer water. Old timers say it's never failed them, but I haven't tried it personally. |
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Veteran
Posts: 253
Location: SoCal | Uno-dos-tres: Hence the reason I gave up my shower for 3 days, and my friend did as well. We don't feed pellets or cubes, we have good quality alfalfa and our horses do well on it. But with our hay provider switching to 3 way, we're considering going over to cubes.
Where would the best place be to buy thirst quencher?
Ohmax: I had actually took some bags of feed and bran incase she didn't want to eat as well as electrolyte paste, which I did give her the first day, I also made sure that the mash was wet and soupy, since my horses prefer it that way. But I also wet her hay pretty good in order to keep dust down in the hay as well as get moisture into her. I monitored her carefully and being she was in a pen, I made sure I kept track of her bathroom business lol she never showed any signs of stress or dehydration thankfully. I have only heard of beer being used to take the edge off a nervous horse (like a 12 pack of beer in a bucket), but never tried that either. I'll have to see if she likes the taste of beer...that might be an option... |
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Veteran
Posts: 139
Location: Abbotsford B.C. Canada | Just an observation. To keep horses drinking, my clients who do endurance routinely or three day eventing add an electrolyte to the feed to make sure the horse is literally forced to drink water. If you use a regular performance horse feed try adding just 1 oz a day of a good electrolyte about 5 days before you hit the road and then use one oz at least daily at the show. THe horse will be forced to drink.
You can make your own electrolyte with a 50/50 blend of regular plain white stock salt (sodium chloride) and the salt used by heart patients called lite salt which is a blend of potassium chloride and sodium chloride . This gets you the electrolytes involved with water balance and matches losses in sweat fairly well and will encourage drinking.
Adding some beet pulp which absorbs and holds water in the gut may help as well. A bran mash is a bit of help, but the bran is not a soluble fiber that soaks up water and puffs up. It is a harder fiber and not as handy as any endurance rider will tell you for prevention of colic.
You can also fill a tank at the show and let it stand for a day depending on timing and that may let the chlorine (if the main culprit ) actually dissipate into the air. That is why a swimming pool smells, chlorine will turn into a gas and come out of the water.
So the horses are just trying to protect themselves from an unknown thing by refusing. You can add a cup of molasses or the gator aid but maybe a water filter like campers use may help. I have never tried it, we are more of the electrolyte types but think about it and maybe someone has some experience with that.
Cheers,
Coastal Rider
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Member
Posts: 36
| Get powder electrolites and put it in your water at home a few days before you go to show and then do the same at the show. This has worked well for me as we have a couple places we go that the water smells and our horses do fine this way |
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  Ms. Marine
Posts: 4642
Location: Texas | We have a 15 gallon tank of water in the nose of our gooseneck that we bring water from home in so we don't have to worry about our horses not drinking. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | It might have something to do with the chlorine in the water where you haul to. My mom had fits with her dairy goats, raised on well water and hauled to shows. Imagine entering a milking contest with goats that won't drink the water or trying to bag one up for the show under the same conditions!!  |
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Regular
Posts: 87
| We have a rain barrel (I think 50 gallons but I could be wrong) that stays in the trailer with water from home, never have a problem with a horse not drinking.
Another thing to try that my mom's talked about using before is a package of kool-aid or just use pennies in the bottom of the bucket. She said both have worked well in the past with picky drinkers :) |
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| Just make your water at home stink by using Gatorade, kool aid or whatever ... then use the same to cover up the smell of strange water on the road ..... iron in drinking water is the biggest stinker that horses refuse ... it is more the stink of the water horses refuse versus how it tastes ...
BUT NEVER DIP WATER OUT OF OR LET YOUR HORSE DRINK IN A COMMON WATER TROUGH WHICH ARE FULL OF DISEASES ...
I have used this type of tanks for years and they are stackable and price will not break the bank .. and the design is very well done .... to sanitize ... just add a half cup of bleach to half a tank of water and shake around and then rinse very well and you are ready to go ... a lot of RV places carry similar that are for potable water use .....>>>>
http://www.thereadystore.com/water-storage/water-storage-containers...
Edited by BARRELHORSE USA 2014-01-19 1:12 AM
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boon
Posts: 1
| Add 2 cups of molasses to a bucket of water.....they love it and it's a natural electrolyte ! |
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 Thick and Wavy
Posts: 6102
Location: Nebraska | One of my mares won't drink on the road no matter if I bring my own water. I've learned to carry electrolytes with me and give them to her. I use OTC Jug and just give her a couple lines on the plunger (can't remember how much that is). Usually she'll drink within a couple hours. I've never had a problem with her since I started using that. |
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