Drinking water.

[leanda]

We have been offered grazing on another land away from our yard for a few months @ £10.00 a week but there is no fresh clean running water only a brook/stream that the horses are expected to drink from!
I have reservations about my horse drinking from this if she does in fact drink at all as she is used to water troughs on tap where she is...Do you feel this would be safe?
Thank you

 

[Enfys]

She is a horse, she will manage. There are provisos though. Check the source, is the bed sandy? What is the footing to the stream like? You may have to make access easier. Mostly though a stream is good news.

 

[leanda]

Thank you for your advice! She's a bit of a loopey mare and has never experienced a brook, I'm a bit anxious that she may not drink at all and become dehydrated hence vet bills just for the sake of a bit of grass!

 

[HaffiesRock]

Could you fill a bucket from the stream? Leave it near the stream and she will soon get the idea. xx

 

[leanda]

Thanks for all the advice. There will be a few horses going to this field, all of which have had water on tap where they are. There are no facilities (water, electric, shelter) its just a large field with a brook. I'm sure they will be all fine and there are semi ferrel horses in the field the other side of the brook that have been there years and are pretty hardy and have drank from the brook.
Its just not ticking all the boxes for me. There is another horse that will be staying at the yard so I think I'll leave Daisy there, munching on haylage

Thank you again...

 

[Birker2020]

Just remember that a stream in the summer will be a breeding ground for flies and may well drive your horses nuts unless you are prepared to cover them from head to foot in netting!

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

How is it fenced off from the feral horses then if they are all using the stream? (just confused).

 

[mynutmeg]

We've had a field before now with a stream running through it and our guys loved it - in the summer they would go and stand in it!

Didn't have any particular problems with flies as it was moving water, not stagnant. You need to make sure its good footing down to and in the stream, that it's big enough it won't dry up in the summer.