The Importance Of Water

I know I have blogged about the importance of water before, but people just don’t seem to get it and it bears repeating and updating! A friend recently informed me that one of the reasons she bought a farm was partly due to the lack of clean and fresh water available in boarding barns. And it wasn’t just one barn, it was several barns that she experienced this.

Having just gone through the hottest summer on record, I really feel bad for the horses who did not have access to fresh water. And now that winter is approaching, it is just important to revisit this important message!

We have learned from a very early school age that water is one of the most important nutrients a living body needs. This goes for all mammals, not just humans.

But when it comes to horses, why is it such a neglected part of horse keeping?

One of my biggest pet peeves is the lack of concern when it comes to providing clean water for horses. I have been in more barns than I care to count, where the buckets are empty, full of warm to hot water or are slimy with algae. Barns fill buckets in the morning, sometimes not even dumping them out first, and then forget about them until dinner. Water troughs are rarely dumped because they are big and clumsy, and they might be cleaned once a month if that. Many barns that I have been to have a policy to just let the hose run while the trough overflows, creating a muddy mess and while temporarily clearing the algae out, it does nothing to clean the sides and the slime returns within hours.

The typical horse drinks between 8 and 12 gallons of water a day. They prefer cool water...temperatures between 50-65 degrees. Horses need to drink plenty of water, not just in the summer, but during winter months as well.

Every winter, it seems that there is at least one sad story of a horse that died because they did not have access to clean, fresh and cool water. Even here in Florida, it seems that after a freeze, there is always a senseless death because the owners did not break the ice on the bucket and the horse coliced as a result of dehydration. How many summer colics are also related to lack of water intake?

It is a very simple horse management rule. Ask yourself if you want to drink the water that you are expecting your horse to drink. Is the bucket clean or full of algae, slime, dirt, and other debris? What is the temperature of the water? Freezing cold with a layer of ice or does it feel like sitting in a hot tub? If a horse does not drink, death can occur within 3-5 days. Often the signs leading up to death are colic and kidney failure. A dehydrated horse will be lethargic. A good way to test for dehydration is the skin fold test. Simply pinch a fold of skin. The neck is a good location to do this. If the skin returns to its original state immediately, all is good. If the skin stays rigid for 2-5 seconds, he is dehydrated and skin that stays rigid for more than 15 seconds indicates severe dehydration and immediate vet care may be needed. When riding on hot days, it is a good idea to perform a skin check periodically. When finished riding, offer your horse water immediately and they should be rinsed off with cool water to combat heat stroke and dehydration. As a kid, we were instructed to walk a horse after a ride and offer only small sips of water every few minutes and to not hose down a horse until completely cooled off. New research in the last 20 years or so has proven this method to be outdated.

There are many factors that impact a horse’s water consumption. Horses that are primarily on pasture have less water requirements than a horse that is stalled and fed hay and grain, as grass has a moisture content of 60-80%, whereas grain and hay are low in moisture content. In addition, horses fed a high protein or high sodium diet will have a greater urine output, and thus have a higher water consumption rate. Lactating broodmares will also have a higher need for water intake.

Temperatures also play a role in water consumption. Horses tend to drink more on warmer days and less on colder days. Because they tend to drink less in the winter, that makes it all the more important to make sure that they are getting enough fluids. If you find your horse drinking less water in the winter, a wet mash is a great way to encourage them to get more fluids, as well as adding some table salt to their grain. Feeding a wet mash every day for lunch is a good way to ensure water intake, regardless of the season. Insulated buckets will help keep buckets from freezing and a bucket heater is a good economical way to heat water up.

Another factor that may affect your horse’s water intake is travel. Some horses will not drink strange water at a show venue. One way to solve this is to acclimate them at home to water with Gatorade added to their water. By adding Gatorade to their water away from home, they will usually continue to drink. I once had a horse that would not drink strange water, even with Gatorade. We would travel with extra water from home and mix it with the water from the show location and that did the trick.

So how do you ensure that your horse is getting enough water?

Buckets and troughs should be dumped daily and cleaned as often as needed…whether it means daily, 2- 3 times a week or weekly. Even running your hand inside the bucket before dumping will provide a light cleaning. I keep a scrub brush near my hose just for scrubbing buckets. Not only are water buckets cleaned, but feed tubs are cleaned daily and my feed buckets are cleaned at least once a week. My barn design, which is a shedrow, allows for easily dumping buckets. First my feed tubs are removed from the stalls, the water from the buckets is dumped into the feed tubs and feed buckets and I muck stalls while the buckets soak. After all barn chores are finished, I clean and hang the buckets and tubs back up. Barns which are not designed in such a manner to allow easy dumping can come up with creative solutions, whether dumping buckets out the back window or door or dumping the water into a wheelbarrow or into the manure spreader. Names on buckets or a color-coded system will make sure that the correct buckets are returned to the right stalls.

A barn that simply adds new water to a half filled, dirty water bucket every morning, is not practicing good horse management. In addition, it is a good idea to hang more than one bucket in your horse’s stall if they are going to be spending several hours in the stall. I always hang 2 buckets of water, and if I have a hay dunker, I will provide a 3^rd bucket away from the hay.

Troughs should be treated the same way. I prefer using muck buckets instead of big troughs, as they are easier to dump and clean on a daily basis. If you are in an area with water shortages, providing smaller amounts of water more often will reduce the amount of wasted water. Leave a branch or rope to provide an escape route for any animal or bird which may fall into the trough. Having something for them to climb onto will save their life and prevent contamination of the water. While you are filling up with fresh water, take the time to look around your paddock or fields, checking for broken boards, toxic weeks or for any trash that may have blown into the field overnight. It is all part of practicing good stable management. 

In areas of extreme heat or cold, water temperatures should be checked often throughout the day. This past summer, I found myself refilling buckets 4-5 times a day. Filling buckets and troughs half-way will prevent waste of water, but it is imperative to check the water level frequently to make sure that your horse has not depleted the water. When the temperatures are extreme, test the water temperatures often by sticking a hand of finger in a bucket. A good rule of thumb is to check the water every 2 hours.

Providing clean, fresh water daily can be a lot of work during certain times of the year, but it is imperative to make sure your horse is getting that very important nutrient! Remember, it’s all about the horse!