Hay dunking - who's horses do it and why ??

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Ladylina83

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For as long as I remember my mare has always been a hay/heylage dunker. By this I mean - mouthful of hay dunk in the water bucket - drip water everywhere- mouthful of hay dunk in the water bucket and so on until she has no water left as it's all over the stable floor !!! She doesn't do it all the time just on odd days and not much at all most of the winter and now her colt has started doing it too !! He was weaned before Christmas and has just started this week as I've brought him in at night due to dropping a bit of weight, he never did the dunking in the field ! (its quite a walk from the hay to the drinker !)

Does anyone else have a horse that likes to flood the front of their stable in this manner and does anyone know why they do it ??? Someone once said a lot of Irish horses do it but he was born in a field in Cheshire !!!!!

PS I don't soak my hay its good quality - I tried soaking it once years ago when she had a touch of Lami and she left it all.
 
Mine doesn't actually dunk his hay but he does take a slurp of water between every mouthful of hay and dribbles it across the floor. He is better if his hay is dampened before it goes in so obviously finds it nicer to eat when wet. Yet he doesn't do it when out in the field and the hay is next to his water trough.

Not sure on the irish theory but mine is from Ireland.
 
My fathers Mare did it. We also had very good quality hay, but given the opportunity she would dunk it in her water and much away.
 
My new mare did it when she came, made a right mess everywhere and all bedding soaked every morning.

I was told that horses that needed their teeth looking at did it.

I had her teeth done (always do with new horse anyway) and then I put her drinking water bucket right at the back of the stable at the opposite diagonal where her hay was and put another bucket of water starting off full next to her hay and over the days I reduced the amount of water in it so eventually after about a week or so there was literally just an inch or so in it and then left it dry.

I then removed the bucket.

Hey Presto, that stopped her, she has never bothered dunking in her proper water bucket and a much dryer stable now!
 
My ISH (was only shipped over by a dealer 6 months ago) does it. Don't think she means to dunk it. When I watched it was just that she wanted to drink after eating dry hay. Can't blame her really. Might take to soaking it when the buckets stop freezing over.
 
I used to have a pony that did the slurping water up onto the haynet routine. I just hung the haynet right next to the door over a large waterbucket so most went into the water bucket and the rest ran out of the door - bloody slippery in the winter though!!

I tried soaking hay - no joy...
 
Mrs_Wishkabibble said:
My new mare did it when she came, made a right mess everywhere and all bedding soaked every morning.

I was told that horses that needed their teeth looking at did it.

I had her teeth done (always do with new horse anyway) and then I put her drinking water bucket right at the back of the stable at the opposite diagonal where her hay was and put another bucket of water starting off full next to her hay and over the days I reduced the amount of water in it so eventually after about a week or so there was literally just an inch or so in it and then left it dry.

I then removed the bucket.

Hey Presto, that stopped her, she has never bothered dunking in her proper water bucket and a much dryer stable now!
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MY lad is terrible for this i have a soaked bed every morning i think i am going to try this and see if it works on him i would give anything for a dry stable.. so nice though to hear i am not alone in this
 
Mine does something like this, he fill's his water bucket up with his hay then eats it!! He only has half a big bucket of water as he never drinks it all, so the other half get's filled with his hay. I have no idea why, I even socked his hay for him but he wouldn't eat any of it!! Strange animals that they are.
 
Ive known 3 horses to do this, all warmbloods and god knows why! lol

Ive owned one myself and he only did it if his water was close to the hay, so if the water was in the opposite corner, all was clean and dry thankfully.
 
My horse, who we've had 4.5 years does it. He drags his hay to the bucket, and then stands there dunking, fortunatly only the front of his stable round the bucket gets wet. We have tried soaking hay - still does it and haynets, he pulls all the hay out into a pile and then puts it in his water bucket to eat. Funnily enough if I take the soaked hay out of the bucket he won't eat it. So twice a day the ponies on the yard who have soaked hay get what comes out of his water buckets. The only real problem is he is very thirsty in the mornings as his buckets are full of hay.
 
Ladylina83 said:
For as long as I remember my mare has always been a hay/heylage dunker. Someone once said a lot of Irish horses do it but he was born in a field in Cheshire !!!!!
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It can't be specific to Irish horses as mine is an American Quarter Horse (ok born in Leicester). He does it when he is in the stable (which isn't often as he is a messy sod and prefers to be out). I think its quite sweet, just one of his idiosyncrasies (sp)! The water bucket is always nearly empty by morning and FULL of haylage. He has his teeth checked annually with his jabs - due soon, thanks for the reminder. Will watch and see if anyone else has any ideas. :)
 
My friend's solution is to hang the haynet just inside the door and hang a water bucket off the door. Her horse stands there happility and dunks.

Couldn't you put in two buckets of water, one right next to the hay so they aren't dribbling the water and dragging the hay all over the place. Then have a drinking water bucket as far away as you can get it in the hope that they don't prefer to dunk in that one?
 
Haha, my mare does this! She has her main water bucket and I put a small one by her pile of haylage in the stable. She gets her haylage in a tyre in the field, when we had snow she had a mouthful of haylage and nibbled snow off the tyre's rim!
 
My horse used to do it - sadly he is no more. He dunked in an automated drinker - not popular with staff on the yard as his drinker had to be thoroughly cleaned daily!! He did not do it whilst he had ulcers - he developed the habit while after treatment.
 
My boy has done it every day he has been stabled for the last 11 years, he doesnt do it in the field though and wont touch hay that has been soaked! He even does it with haylage. Teeth are fine but the ulcer thing is worrying me now. Hes fit and healthy at 21 but may have to mention it at vaccination time! x
 
My mum's Irish TB does it & her hay is always soaked & she still does it anyway!! She goes through stages of dunking it all the time then stopping for a week or so..crazy mare!!
 
Ron's haylage isn't allowed to leave his trough except to be eaten, so he's ok.

But Tom box walks and trails hay all round the place, including in his water trough. It's a bloomin' irritating habit, especially as he then refuses to eat it! Grrrr..
 
My mare does it, but only with hay not her haylage. I leave her a tub of water to dunk, next to a tub of loose hay(she has a haylage net too)and another tub for drinkng. Seems to work well and she's happy.
 
My mare does it - this thread reminded me that she hasn't done it this winter - she has changed stables, and the net is on the opposite side of the box from the water, so perhaps thats why. She's Irish too, and the girl that I was paired with at camp one year had another irish horse that did it.

It has never really bothered me. I've owned her for 6 yrs and she's always been healthy and worked well etc. I had her on full livery at the start for 6 months, and they were worried by it. Wetting the hay doesn't help - she much seems to prefer to do it herself! She has done it with both hay and haylage.
 
Mine does it, she has a haybar & her water is in throwing distance, she chucks it all out & into her water & eats it...i know a few horses that do it.
 
Mine dunks haylage in his bucket after taking several mouthfuls. He delights in sloshing it around several times before eating it, dripping water everywhere. He even did it in his auto drinker when he was at a yard which had one. Some mornings there's a not so attractive slimy hay soup at the bottom of the bucket.

I wouldn't deny him this as he absolutely loves doing it no matter how messy he makes his stable. It's one of his little quirks! :)
 
My 21 year old ex-racer has done it for as long as I've had him. I've moved the water buckets to the other side of the stable, but he just carries his haylage over and dunks it anyway. He is a picture of health, his teeth are done regularly and I have no reason to believe he has ulcers. It's his fetish and if that's what he wants to do, at his age, I have no intention of stopping him!
 
Yep, Merlin did it, and Billy does it too! Both Irish horses too :p

Billy seems to have a few mouthfuls, then dunk it in the water! He did it in his previous home as well, not just mine :)

Merlin was so bad at it we had to move his hay to the opposite side of the stable :p

Both had nothing wrong with their teeth (done regularly) and no reason to have ulcers, as they were out for about 9 hours of the day!
 
Sounds strange but my mare Irish TB not only dunks her hay but her short feed as well, even though I dampen it down for her, most mornings green sluch at the bottom of her water bucket, have had her teeth done, but she has always done it and at 13 I don't think she's going to grow out of it:D:D
 
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