Liquids warning!

[Nudibranch]

Remember in this cold weather that water intake is just as important as forage. I put some more haylage out this evening and the Dales turned her nose up. Straight away I was suspicious. I took a barrel of lukewarm water over in the pickup and she drank a good bucketful. I am slightly paranoid as she colicked not long after we bought her, for no apparent reason.
Anyway they have a stream running one edge of the field and a trough the other, but clearly they aren't drinking enough in the extreme cold. Fortunately all seems well at final checks and she is munching again, but it's always something to be careful of ime.

 

[PapaverFollis]

I've just boiled 6 kettles to fill a bucket to top off waters this evening. Although all mine seem happy to smash through ice to drink. Sloppy grass nuts will be added to the menu tomorrow as my forecast is utterly grim... minus 14 overnight. I'm not sure I believe that but am slightly scared anyway.

Edit: googled it. Going to give them some electrolytes tomorrow too!

 

[ester]

Thanks, I must remind mum about this.

 

[shortstuff99]

I feed mine 5 litres of equidgel (luke warm) each morning in this cold weather. Seems to do the trick

 

[SatansLittleHelper]

I feed mine 5 litres of equidgel (luke warm) each morning in this cold weather. Seems to do the trick

What is equidgel..??

Mine have auto fill troughs in the fields so I just keep the ice off and make sure they have salt added to their feeds, seems to work for them.

 

[PurBee]

I notice mine drink 30-40ltrs each 24hrs average, yet when it turns cold, that drops quite considerably to around 20ltrs ,unless i add 15ltrs of hot cistern water to their trug.
I have a 40ltr trug, 2 of them but they mainly use one, so can measure their water intake quite accurately

When temps hit 0, water intake drops - i think theyre aware of cold externally, and to drink cold liquid makes the internal cold too, a way for them to preserve their heat is to just sip bits and not take long cold drinks?

i wouldnt fancy a cold drink if camping outside at the moment!

 

[PurBee]

To add: if mine were on grass i wouldnt be adding water or so concerned with drop in water consumption, but because theyre on dry hay and haylage i know their need for moisture is higher, so dont want them skimping liquid due to cold.

 

[Sir barnaby]

When everything is frozen I take up two containers hot water from home and put that in the field so they have a choice. I break the ice in the trough one drinks warm water the other prefers the cold trough water

 

[Surbie]

I now add a kettle of hot water to his water trug in the evening and it's made a marked difference to how much he drinks. Plus he gets salt in his feed.

Am grateful to a fellow livery for reminding me of the hot water trick!

 

[J&S]

I have been boiling kettles to add to buckets and outside water. The ice on the outside containers was about 2" thick this morning but buckets inside not frozen.
Very lucky to be near to the house and have electric points in the tack room. Waiting for snow today and high winds forecast this pm.

 

[shortstuff99]

What is equidgel..??

Mine have auto fill troughs in the fields so I just keep the ice off and make sure they have salt added to their feeds, seems to work for them.

It is this https://shop.equidiet.org.uk/products.htm

I really like it

 

[Dasher66]

When it is really cold you can move the water bucket from next to the door to another corner and put a couple of inches of bedding underneath it to stop it freezing. Presumably the slightly higher water temp is more comfortable for drinking too.

 

[oldie48]

Really good point. My SIL's horse had an impacted colic as the water source out in the field had frozen.

 

[PapaverFollis]

Or you can spend god knows how long boiling kettles and dragging water from the kitchen sink out to your precious beasties... finally pour yourself a nice cup of tea then watch out the kitchen window as the ginger numpet turns round and poops in it!! ? ? ? ?

 

[Dia]

Helpful reminder thank you

 

[Birker2020]

Remember in this cold weather that water intake is just as important as forage. I put some more haylage out this evening and the Dales turned her nose up. Straight away I was suspicious. I took a barrel of lukewarm water over in the pickup and she drank a good bucketful. I am slightly paranoid as she colicked not long after we bought her, for no apparent reason.
Anyway they have a stream running one edge of the field and a trough the other, but clearly they aren't drinking enough in the extreme cold. Fortunately all seems well at final checks and she is munching again, but it's always something to be careful of ime.

Impaction is a very serious issue this time of year. I have been diluting a kettleful of boiling water in each of my water buckets to prevent them freezing so quick and making sure when my horse doesn't go out due to snow she has 20 minutes on the horse walker so she keeps moving. I also feed a warm tea because her feed is made up of half frozen speedibeet and the icy water can hit the stomach and cause colic. So I squeeze out the water and replace with hot water to mix the feed up and feed it sloppy.

I've been doing this since before Xmas.

 

[SEL]

My Appy is quite capable of breaking the ice in the water buckets in the field thankfully (she has also broken the trug with her rear up and stamp on it behaviour)

I'm making sure they've all got fresh non icy water in stables before we leave them at night and a sloppy feed

I'm relieved I can turn out even if the field is icy because my older one has had minor compaction colic when he's on large amounts of hay and not getting much movement.

 

[PapaverFollis]

One of mine is eating snow today. Same one that prefers to smash through ice to drink than drink warm water. Totally normal I'm sure.

 

[VioletStripe]

Impaction is a very serious issue this time of year. I have been diluting a kettleful of boiling water in each of my water buckets to prevent them freezing so quick and making sure when my horse doesn't go out due to snow she has 20 minutes on the horse walker so she keeps moving. I also feed a warm tea because her feed is made up of half frozen speedibeet and the icy water can hit the stomach and cause colic. So I squeeze out the water and replace with hot water to mix the feed up and feed it sloppy.

I've been doing this since before Xmas.

Just as a note - adding hot water to buckets will make them freeze more quickly, though it is nicer for the horses to drink

My horse rather enjoys chewing snow while digging through to get grass, and has extra sloppy feeds being made up. I've read somewhere you can put tennis balls into buckets to help 'disturb' the water and stop them freezing as quickly?

I would try with apples and carrots but that ends with my rather nosy Connemara getting water all over his stable, or tipping his buckets out

 

[Birker2020]

Just as a note - adding hot water to buckets will make them freeze more quickly, though it is nicer for the horses to drink

Someone else said this to me but I didn't understand the logic. Surely if you have two buckets of cold water and add boiling water to bucket B, then bucket B would take longer to freeze because it has yet to cool down to reach the starting temperature of bucket A??

 

[VioletStripe]

Someone else said this to me but I didn't understand the logic. Surely if you have two buckets of cold water and add boiling water to bucket B, then bucket B would take longer to freeze because it has yet to cool down to reach the starting temperature of bucket A??

There's a strange phenomenon in Chemistry which dictates that the hotter a liquid is, the higher the rate at which it cools is - so a pot of hot water left to cool will do so and freeze more quickly than a cooler pot. Under some circumstances it's not the case, but hot water will always have a higher rate of cooling to ambient temperature for sure...

https://phys.org/news/2010-03-mpemba-effect-hot-faster-cold.html


I think since taking Chemistry A Level 5/6 years ago, a huge amount more research and knowledge has been gathered on the matter, but I've always been told it will make water cool and freeze more quickly. Though, it is nicer for the horses to drink then and there for sure!

 

[Scotsbadboy]

I have my water bucket in an old car tyre and its packed inside with old hay/ shavings and also a base of old (but clean) bedding for the bucket to sit on. This seems to help it not freeze.

 

[Birker2020]

I have my water bucket in an old car tyre and its packed inside with old hay/ shavings and also a base of old (but clean) bedding for the bucket to sit on. This seems to help it not freeze.

That's what I do with my sugar beet bucket, but I can't do that with my water buckets as they are the flat sided type that hang from the side of the stable as my horse thinks anything left on the stable floor is fair game and will start throwing it around, or pulling it apart

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

I feed a wet feed twice daily and ours are happy to drink freezing cold water from anywhere but their stables ? idiots lol

 

[Merrymoles]

I am slightly paranoid about this at the best of time because my horse doesn't drink a lot even in normal weather. They have been in the last two days because it is too icy to get them to their grazing and last night my friend reported that my boy had only had two inches from his bucket. So I was very relieved this morning to find he'd drunk a good ten litres overnight. He gets sloppy grass pellets and salt for his feed and I've been keeping his carrot in-take up as much as possible but we currently have no working taps on the yard as they are all frozen solid so we are relying on using water we have already stored indoors. I don't worry nearly as much if they are out as they seem to get plenty of moisture from the grazing.

So it is a very timely reminder to try to monitor exactly how much your horses are drinking so that you can take action if needed!

 

[Birker2020]

There's a strange phenomenon in Chemistry which dictates that the hotter a liquid is, the higher the rate at which it cools is - so a pot of hot water left to cool will do so and freeze more quickly than a cooler pot. Under some circumstances it's not the case, but hot water will always have a higher rate of cooling to ambient temperature for sure...

https://phys.org/news/2010-03-mpemba-effect-hot-faster-cold.html


I think since taking Chemistry A Level 5/6 years ago, a huge amount more research and knowledge has been gathered on the matter, but I've always been told it will make water cool and freeze more quickly. Though, it is nicer for the horses to drink then and there for sure!

Hey thanks for that, interesting to read. Feel like I have wasted a lot of time, but on the plus side at least she's drank a fair bit when it was lukewarm rather than freezing before it froze lol

 

[Reacher]

One way to insulate a water bucket is to put it inside an empty shavings sack then pack hay under and around the bucket. Then tuck the open ends of the sack over the top of the hay so it is not visible to greedy horses!

 

[Pippity]

Mine currently likes to crunch through the ice-covered puddle in her field and eat the underwater grass, so I'm pretty sure she's getting enough moisture. Weirdo. (There's plenty of normal grass. Pretty sure it's just those Bog Cob genes coming through.)

 

[bouncing_ball]

Hey thanks for that, interesting to read. Feel like I have wasted a lot of time, but on the plus side at least she's drank a fair bit when it was lukewarm rather than freezing before it froze lol

I think it still is worth doing, as mine seem to actively drink the warmed water, immediately I add kettlefuls of boiling water to their water buckets.

 

[dorsetladette]

my little man isn't drinking enough. you can tell by his droppings. I've been taking a large milk bottle of warm water up and adding to their feeds. It is a worry although he is having great fun playing with lumps of ice.