Horses drinking water from sea/river

C

crazycoloured

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 April 2009
Messages
762
Visit site
Would it harm horses if they were to drink water from a river? I remember someone telling me once that they will only drink from there when the tide is low? Dont know if thats entirely true? Would the salt in the river harm them?
 
Rivers are not usually salty - or indeed tidal - unless they are an estuary.

The main reason why it is suggested horses are not allowed to drink from a river is because they may kick up sand into the water and then swallow it - placing them at risk of sand colic. But drinking from a pebble bottom stream is as safe as the water in it. Obviously if there is leeachate from nearby land there may be chemicals you do not want your horse consuming.

Hoses - like any mammal - cannot drink only sea water, although little sips won't hurt.
 
My winter field has a river running through corner of it, which we made a water jump into. Billy takes himself off to it and loves to play in the river and he appears to only drink from the river, ignoring the water barrel lol.
 
If the tide is out then in theory there should be just fresh water flowing through but without knowing the topography it's impossible to say for sure.
 
Nudibranch said:
If the tide is out then in theory there should be just fresh water flowing through but without knowing the topography it's impossible to say for sure.
Click to expand...
I remember someone telling me something along the same lines that the horses would only drink from river when the tide was low.horses have been in said field before and been ok
 
Well we feed them salt in licks and buckets... so it shouldn't hurt them! I had a vet advise me to offer a separate bucket of lightly salted water and a bucket of water with magnesium in it alongside freshwater, to offer some free choice minerals, and it's funny to see how they change what they drink depending on the weather and workload.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top