Puddles in the field

[kerrieberry2]

This morning after the horses had finished their breakfast I witnessed my mare walk out of the barn? Passed a trough. Walk into the field and seemingly rounded up the mini and off they walked, passed another trough up to the far end of the field, shortly followed by my gelding. To the newly formed pond/flooded area and the mare and the mini both proceeded to drink from it. The gelding didn't join them in their new found tipple. I've seen my mare do this before

Does anyone else's horses do this? Suppose at least they are helping to dry out the field

Must taste nicer than fresh running water?

 

[splashnutti1]

my old man prefers to drink out of a dirty muddy puddle that his fresh clean water!! strange boy!!! lol

 

[eggs]

Mine sometimes drink out of the mini lakes that have formed in their field. One of them finds the deepest puddle and then gets down and has a good roll in it. Interestingly his full brother used to do the same thing.

 

[fatpiggy]

My mum found it hard to get used to the taste of mains water compared to the well water she had been drinking for the last 40 odd years. Animals go out of their way to drink from puddles - mum's cat NEVER drinks from her bowl of tap water, preferring to lap from the pond (and catch a few frogs in passing!)- and clearly prefer rainwater to mains water. With their better sense of smell and taste, I'm not surprised. My horse used to love sucking up entire puddles, and always selected the grass growing out of them in preference to standing on dry land. I am however surprised that horses happily drink water fouled by poo given that they avoid eating near it.

 

[rowan666]

Most of ours prefer puddles/rain water. I assume the floride or whatever else they put in tap water isnt to their taste!

 

[LynH]

My horses have access to their stables 24/7 but I leave the doors open so they can come and go. They have water in their stables and a trough at the end of the yard but one in particular will walk out of her stable and through the muddy patch to go drink water from the poached ground where the field is a bit water logged.

The odd thing is that the trough is filled directly from the downpipe so completely rainwater and I have a waterbutt also solely filled with rainwater that I use to fill the buckets in their stables. With the amount of rain we are getting it doesn't sit for long so is very fresh so there really shouldn't be any reason why she would prefer puddle water. The other two will sometimes go out to drink from the trough but not so much from the puddle but if they are in the field they will drink from puddles where they are rather than walk to the trough. That I assume is just laziness.

 

[EffyCorsten]

Mine will come out of his stable and drink from the rainwater overflow instead of his fresh clean spring water. My dogs will too actually drink the most disgusting puddles they can find.

 

[coffeeandabagel]

My horse does this too - he drinks from hoof prints full of rain that he can only just get his nose into. I thought he was mad but obvioulsy he isnt alone.

 

[Toffee44]

My old field was amazing grazing, too much really. And most of the horses prefered to go under the water and eat weeds from the stream rather than the grass and they never used the trough in the field unless the stream wasn't running.

 

[putasocinit]

Probably has lots of minerals in it from the rain and also from the soil, only the horse would know if it was good for them or not

 

[coffeeandabagel]

"Probably has lots of minerals in it from the rain and also from the soil,"


Why do I spend so much on vits and mineral supplements then!

 

[putasocinit]

Cos you dont get puddles all year round, lol,and in summer the puddles would be full of dust cos the ground wold be dry, in winter the ground is so saturated it is sitting like a little lake and all those minerals from below have come to the top. Just my opinion on it

 

[coffeeandabagel]

yes does make sense. But in the summer the grass could be sucking up those minerals and giving them to the ponies. I actually give full dose of vits etc in summer when they are on less hard feed and 2/3rd recomended in winter coz they are getting max rations which should be reasonably (?) balanced. Maybe he doesnt agree with me

Maybe they like the gritty feeling on their tongues as well

 

[putasocinit]

Probably