Horse seems to prefer algae water v fresh water in his bucket!

A

AmyJoy99

Member
Joined
15 January 2016
Messages
27
Visit site
We are at a new livery - his field does have a cement 6 ft long trough that has some algae on the surface - BUT I gave him his usual big bucket of fresh water and has hardly touched that - I have seen him slurping away from the the trough! I had been concerned he wasn't drinking from his normal bucket but I presume he must be drinking from puddles or this trough…but dont like the idea of the green stuff although it does not seem to be putting him off!

Should I just give the trough a really good scrub and let him use that instead?

I remember growing up one of my horses never would drink freshly poured water - he much preferred 2 day old water!

I have read that some algae is poisonous - … any advice would be great!
 
my veteran hates fresh water! much prefers older water and loves drinking from field troughs.

We moved them to the summer paddocks yesterday, so i cleaned the trough out as it really was green.
I would just clean the trough and let him be :)
 
mine prefer green water, or puddles over fresh water! I cleaned my trough last summer and within a few days it was green again, so not going to make a habit of keeping it clean.
 
A few years ago they decided to clean the big galvanised water trough in the field because of all the algae that had built up. They drained the water and the horses were then fighting over themselves to eat the algae before it was removed. I guess it had a lot of minerals they were craving.
 
I think freshly drawn tap water can smell of chemicals which puts them off. I've noticed many times over the years that horses will drink freely from some pretty disgusting looking troughs, with no ill effects at all. Here's a tip - keep a fine meshed plastic sieve near the trough - they're ideal for scooping bits off the surface of the water. I do mine every day. The water is still quite green (effects of sunlight on the water), but the sieve will get rid of anything floating on the top.
 
When he's turned out or hacking, mine loves drinking from muddy puddles or dirty troughs. The muddier the better, particularly if he can then rub the mud onto his legs or even better, me!

In his stable, he gets most offended if there's more than a speck of two in hay in it. He often demands fresh water when I arrive in the morning as he looks so disgusted by his own (clean) bucket. Funnily enough, when he pooed in it overnight he had no qualms drinking it then ... :D
 
MuddyMonster said:
When he's turned out or hacking, mine loves drinking from muddy puddles or dirty troughs. The muddier the better, particularly if he can then rub the mud onto his legs or even better, me!

In his stable, he gets most offended if there's more than a speck of two in hay in it. He often demands fresh water when I arrive in the morning as he looks so disgusted by his own (clean) bucket. Funnily enough, when he pooed in it overnight he had no qualms drinking it then ... :D
Click to expand...

I have one like this - in the field he will flip the lids off manky water butts and guzzle the water down. in the stable he must have fresh water
 
My extremely precious little arab x mare who hated mud, was fussy with her hay etc. used to make my life misery at shows. I used to trek all the way across the field at summer shows to fill her bucket with fresh, clean water and trek all the way back to the lorry lugging thefull bucket only to have her turn her nose up it. She'd then manage to find the skankiest, most slime ridden, mosquito larvae infested trough imaginable and guzzle it down.

Samuel loves drinking from the water jump especially when it has loads of blanket weed floating around in it. The other day I arrived back at the yard to find he'd got some stuck in his moustache LOL
 
B prefers water from the trough. In summer when they're out 24/7, after riding I leave him in his stable for his dinner and some hay before I turn him out again. Always make sure he's got clean water. Won't touch it, he'll wait until he's out and will drink from the trough instead.

In winter when mostly stabled, he will only drink fresh so I change his water every day. He has a large trug that I half fill from the tap then top up with a bucket... Sometimes he will mug me for the bucket before I can tip it into his trug!
 
One of mine stops in the swamp that is the gateway every morning for a good old slurp. He barely touches his beautifully clean and freshly filled water bucket overnight.

The other won't touch his water in the stable until it's a good few days old. We just top it up now rather than emptying it every day.
 
In his stable, mine has a drinker, a bucket, and a skip bucket under the drinker to catch drips, and which usually has bits of poo and not -very-clean bedding in it. Guess which one he likes best?
 
Mine would much rather not drink at all in the stable and slurp down a muddy puddle when she gets turned back out (trough in the field too, I hasten to add, which also gets ignored most of the time). If she's in overnight she will drink the clean water from her bucket, but the bare minimum! If I really need her to drink I get her to drink from the hose, which she is quite good at and it almost seems to be a reflex that they drink when the water hits their lips.
 
Haha we were just speaking about this today, our boys have a trough full of dirty old water.. and two large buckets of fresh water. Where are they all drinking... THE TROUGH!
 
We have to pass a trough on our way out on one of our our hacking routes and my lad always stops for a drink either on the way out or on the way back. He much prefers it, even though it has green stuff and even little bugs swimming about in it. He seems none the worse. (He does have fresh water in his stable, I hasten to add!)
 
Green algae is just a plant, same as grass and nothing unhealthy about it. Same with pond creatures, most won't survive long in polluted water. Tap water must stink of chlorine to an animal with such a sensitive nose.
 
Dave has 2 troughs in his field, one is connected up & auto fills, the other is full of rainwater & slime. Guess which one he chooses? They are right beside each other & I empty, clean & refill the auto one weekly.

Yep, you guessed it, the manky one.

Camilla has a stream, so she's happy to slurp through the weed.
 
I've yet to meet an animal, wild or domestic that given the choice, will drink mains water. You only have to smell the chlorine coming off when you pour it to realise why, and don't forget that an animals sense of smell and taste is wildly different from ours.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top