enough moisture from the snow?

Exactly. I am pleased there are so many good caring owners here. But hve been shocked by the number of lazy, 'can't be bothered' owners who think that 'because their horses cope' they are doing nothing wrong. They are! They are bing extremely cruel and neglectful. I cannot believe my eyes reading posts from people who have not taken water to their horses.:mad:
 
Wagtail said:
Exactly. I am pleased there are so many good caring owners here. But hve been shocked by the number of lazy, 'can't be bothered' owners who think that 'because their horses cope' they are doing nothing wrong. They are! They are bing extremely cruel and neglectful. I cannot believe my eyes reading posts from people who have not taken water to their horses.:mad:
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Playing devils advocate again here. I am one who carried water out to my horses, I give hot soupy dinners, the horses have a river running through the field, I put out hay yet still they choose to dig for hay and eat snow. Not lazy - I give the option but they choose to do their own thing...
 
I have been taking warm water up for weeks, my 4 are drinking loads of water, the colder it is the more they seem to drink.

Am also taking extra for the 2 next door, owner is trying to provide enough but doesn't drive so is struggling.
 
Are you sure though christmas cracker, as they have a river running through their field I am willing to bet that as well as eating snow they are also drinking from the river.

My horses go out during the day, they only choose to eat their haylage when they are hungry when they are full they find digging for grass in the snow, much more fun.
 
lannerch said:
Are you sure though christmas cracker, as they have a river running through their field I am willing to bet that as well as eating snow they are also drinking from the river.
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The snow has covered the wee river so if they had been at it I would know (I do check water, river, that grass has actually been dug for, poos and wees) - you can see it in the pic of my pup... I did actually spend a lot of time iniatially clearing a section so it wasn't covered in snow...
 
Christmas_Crackers said:
Playing devils advocate again here. I am one who carried water out to my horses, I give hot soupy dinners, the horses have a river running through the field, I put out hay yet still they choose to dig for hay and eat snow. Not lazy - I give the option but they choose to do their own thing...
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Unless you are watching the horses 24/7 there is NO WAY you can say they don't drink from the river. I expect when you are around there are more interesting things to be doing. Do you sit in the field all night and watch them? Anyway, I can see that you do care for your horses and they have access to water at all times. My annoyance is aimed at those who say they haven't taken water to their horses. At the very least, the troughs should have their ice broken several times a day. Often horses that refuse cold water are chilled and should be rugged more, but not in all cases. My TB has plenty of rugs but I have to pour in a kettle full of hot water to his bucket so that he will drink it, then he downs the lot!:rolleyes:
 
Wagtail said:
Unless you are watching the horses 24/7 there is NO WAY you can say they don't drink from the river.
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If you look at the picture you will see that the river is covered with snow so, yes I would know if they had been drinking from it.

I'm just saying that horses can and do get enough moisture from snow so please don't condemn people that let horses be horses.
 
As has already been said while horses can survive on snow in the winter, it is far from ideal. Horses require a lot of water to digest dry feed. Forcing a horse to produce moisture by eating snow is counterproductive. Six times as much snow must be eaten to provide an equal amount of water. Furthermore, calories are used to melt the snow in the mouth and the stomach that should be used for body warmth, thus wasting body heat, and this can make it difficult for the horse to maintain a safe body temperature. While horses can receive some hydration from licking ice and eating snow, they do not like to do it, so they will limit their consumption and could quickly become dehydrated.

On the issue of warm versus cold water, vet David Marshall from the University of Delaware did an interesting experiment in his paper "Horse Health Depends on Water." He found that what horses prefer, however, does not always add up to increased water intake. For example in very cold weather, when drinking water temperatures approach freezing, a horse’s water intake will decrease. This decrease in daily water intake may lead to problems, frequently impaction colic. Early recommendations to promote increased water intake were to provide the horse with a bucket of warmed water alongside its regular water. Marshall discovered the horse preferred drinking from the cold water, leaving only the warm, and continued to drink too little water per day. When he took away the cold water, leaving only the warm, the horse drank the warm water, actually consuming a great quantity of water per day. So Marshall advises that in the winter, to increase your horse’s daily water intake, warm up its water (warm to 60-70 degrees F) and remove cold water sources.

I have a vested interest in this subject as I sell one of the available products that gets horses drinking immediately but I won't say which one (I don't want to break the advertising rules) and that is why I know so much about hydration. Indeed, the lady who wrote the Star Letter in this week's Horse & Hound is my customer and the product she mentions that got her horse drinking is my product and she has very kindly written an incredible piece of feedback on my product's Facebook page.

I hope all the above information on hydration helps and good luck, it is really important to keep horses drinking especially in this cold snap as horses get thirstier in the winter than they do in the summer because they are eating more dry forage and don't like drinking very cold water, so they back off drinking and get thirsty, and then problems like malnutrition and impaction colic can arise.
 
So many replies, but posting my penny's worth as well :D


Our four now have new big tub trugs filled every day. We have them spaced out as GM bullies LL and he can't get to the water. He was filling up when we took her out of the field, so I know he was thirsty, hence extra buckets. They also have fresh water in their stables and sloppy sugarbeet feeds every day (all fed in stables so they can eat and drink in peace).
 
where we are we have had snow and ice for 4 weeks. I have no water at my field and collect the water from my stable roofs, so although I have a nearly full 1000l container it has been frozen most of the time.
I have 2 in at night and 2 out 24/7, i know the 2 that come in are getting plenty to drink but was concerned that one of the ones living out wasnt drinking enough. They are used to a mainly grass diet, switched suddenly to hay and I have been concerned about impaction colic.
Yes it is a pain in the proverbial or in my case my arm to lug water. I have a problem with my elbow caused by lugging water last winter and then again in the summer when we ran out. But water is basic requirement be it hot or cold and unless they have access to clean free running water it us up to us to provide them with it. I know if mine are getting enough by checking their droppings, as I said I was concerned the yearling wasnt drinking and have been giving her warm water twice a day so at least I know she is drinking.
U wouldnt deprive them of food, dont deprive them of water
 
Christmas_Crackers said:
If you look at the picture you will see that the river is covered with snow so, yes I would know if they had been drinking from it.

I'm just saying that horses can and do get enough moisture from snow so please don't condemn people that let horses be horses.
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All I can see is a river if it is there completely covered the dog is clever enough to find it dosn't mean the horse is. Did you not say you have cleared an area to it?

no one is condeming people that let horses be horses, my own horses are horses majority of the time, we are however condeming those too bone idol to give the horses the choice which clearly chritmas cracker does not include you, you think too well of people :)

As said horses can survive eating snow however it is far from ideal and can at the worst synario put them at risk of impaction colic and dehydration, especially as usually they are being fed hay to counteract the fact the grass is covered.
 
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Humans can survive without food for a cetain amount of time, but do we do it? No. Just because horses can survive with just snow, doesnt mean it is nice, or good for them.
I am sorry, but everyone knows when they take a horse on there are going to be rough times, i.e winter, when most people struggle, but horses are relying on us to take care of them to our best ability.
 
benson21 said:
Humans can survive without food for a cetain amount of time, but do we do it? No. Just because horses can survive with just snow, doesnt mean it is nice, or good for them.
I am sorry, but everyone knows when they take a horse on there are going to be rough times, i.e winter, when most people struggle, but horses are relying on us to take care of them to our best ability.
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+1 :)
 
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