Possibly a stupid Question??!!

[stroppy]

My old boy has never drunk alot of water, but since we have moved yards and he has swapped onto wet hay from hayledge (unlimited hay is included in my livery) he has been drinking even less, does this mean he is getting most of the moisture he needs from the wet hay?? (told you it was stupid!!)

 

[Spit That Out]

There is no such thing as a stupid question...oh wait...lol, only kidding

I would think he's getting enough moisture from the wet hay. Just make sure he always has access to fresh water (obvious really!!)

If your worried about how much he's drinking (bearing in mind it's winter and he won't be drinking as much) then you could try things like adding apple juice to his water to make it flavored.
If you have bars separating your stables from the horse next door, make sure his bucket isn't against the side where the horse next door could disturb him while he drinks.
You could make his feeds sloppy to get a bit more liquid in him.
If they have automatic water things, make sure they work and not either trickling out or spraying him while he drinks.

 

[Paint it Lucky]

I would imagine so yes. My old horse changed onto wet hay awhile ago and has definately been drinking less since he did so. Make sure your horse always has drinking water available obviously but I'd imagine he'd be ok. If you are worried he may be dehydrated there are a few quick tests you can do. One is to press your thumb onto his gum for a few seconds then remove and see how quickly the skin returns to normal colour (capillary refill), the second (though this is for more severe dehydration really), is to pinch a bit of skin near the base of the neck, hold for a few seconds then release and see how quickly in returns to normal shape, in a dehydrated horse it will stay pinched for a while, in most horses it will go straight back to normal.

 

[stroppy]

He always has fresh water and doesn't seem to be dehydrated, just wanted to know if he was the only one, i may add salt to his feed when the weather is warmer so he drinks more.

 

[Holly Hocks]

My yard had really wet haylage for a while and my horses hardly drank anything. We're now onto a new batch which is much shorter and dryer and they're drinking much more.