Horse drinking very little

[awelshandawarmblood]

One of my horses in my opinion isnt drinking anywhere near enough.

He drinks in his stable & out of a bucket on the yard but in his field (out 24/7) he barely touches it!

I bucket it out of a clean trough daily for him into a clean bucket but he barely touches it! I'm assuming due to the proximity of the yard it's the same water source into the trough as out of the hose, and the trough has been scrubbed out. He also drank happily from the trough in the next field all summer & winter last year - I can't let him drink directly from this one as there's barbed wire around it.

I'm at a loss!

Is there anything I could add to it to make it more appealing? Peppermint flavour, apple juice etc? Obviously nothing too strong to give him belly ache.

 

[ponynutz]

Is there an electric fence near the trough? Might be putting him off. Also if it tasted funny or he got the impression it wasn't clean water the first time around and now won't try even though it's clean again.

Could try apple juice - that would work. Or put apples in it (sort of an apple bobbing game to encourage him to reinvestigate the trough now it's cleaned). Or refill the trough from his stable bucket and see if that helps.

If you're worried he's still not drinking though either bring him in to drink during the day or put his bucket in the field so he can!

 

[Lois Lame]

What's the grass like? And rain, if any?

If you take him into his stable, does he drink straight away? (If he's expecting a delicious feast when put in the stable, he might not have a drink unless really quite thirsty.)

 

[Flowerofthefen]

My old lad has 2 water buckets in his field. One that is cleaned every other day and one the I fill up out the trough, which is fairly clean but has bits floating on it etc. He prefers the dirty one!!

 

[awelshandawarmblood]

Thank you all that's great - lots of ideas! I scrubbed the bucket again today & also put another one in a few metres away to see if he prefers it. He had a habit of flipping it for fun so it's by the fencing so I'll pull it away tomorrow to see if that makes a difference & also some apple slices or juice.

We had zero rain for weeks until yesterday so I was worried he wasn't getting anything from the grass either - despite being lots of it! He doesn't go straight for his water when he comes in but it's noticeable he goes back & forth to it - he'll always drink it if offered straight out of a handheld bucket though!! Fussy!!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

If the grass is long they get a lot of moisture from that so it might be why his not drinking 8n the field, my horses prefer the dirty water in the field strange aren't they ?

 

[eggs]

Mine definitely seem to be drinking less at the moment - think they are getting a lot out of the grass

 

[spotty_pony]

Mine aren’t drinking much at all - they have plenty of grass. I was also concerned but am now of the opinion they must be getting what they need from the grass.

 

[saalsk]

They are designed to drink big amounts a few times a day, rather than sips every so often, so maybe taking in more than you think at each drinking opportunity ? If he comes into the stable or you see him wee in the field, maybe check the wee - strong and smelly means he could be a bit dehydrated - nothing much to be sniffy at, then he is likely taking in enough water from various sources, that he is fine, especially if he looks fine, feels fine, has normal skin, and seems happy in himself. I swear to god they sometimes do stuff just to stress us out !

 

[windswoo]

I've just had to start paying a water bill for the yard. Over 6 months it is costing me 16 PENCE a day and that is with 3 horses having access to an automatic waterer. It did say how many pints it worked out as, but it wasn't much. I was quite surprised how little it was.

 

[Dave's Mam]

We moved to new grazing a few days before we went to overnight turn out. I noticed a large reduction in Dave's overnight water consumption & others in my yard did too. The ponies do get a fair bit of moisture from good long grass.