Should I be worried by how little she's drinking?

[SnowGo]

My pony has never been a big drinker. On thirsty days she'd manage half your average sized tub trug bucket overnight when stabled. But its usually more like a third (she's a 14.1 connemara). In the day i haven't been able to keep track as she's had an automatic trough.

However a few days ago her field had an extra section added to it, and the new section has her trough in so she now has buckets. And she absolutely won't touch them. One is her usual stable bucket, one is new. She is drinking some if I offer her it separately until tonight when she wasnt interested.
I've now added apple juice to her buckets (in front of her and letting her have some straight) which has worked before but she doesn't seem bothered.

She has lots of grass which is quite lush and she's not doing much work. She's happy in herself and I did the skin pinch test which was normal. So should I be worried about it, or give her a few more days to get used to the buckets?

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Is she on soaked hay? Mine don't drink that much if the pay have soaked hay or there has been rain dapsone he grass is more wet.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

I wouldn't worry, its rainy and the grass is wet. Does she hace soaked hay. If she has hard feed you could add sugar beet, or change from nuts/chaff to sugar beet if you don't want weight gain, to get more water into her. Is she clipped? If she's sweating whilst working and you don't feed salt she may need some.

 

[Pinkvboots]

Was going to ask the same about soaked hay, mine favour buckets in the field too depending on the colour mainly.

 

[SnowGo]

Is she on soaked hay? Mine don't drink that much if the pay have soaked hay or there has been rain dapsone he grass is more wet.

She's been out 24/7 this week because its been mild. Its only properly rained today but there's been dew on the ground in the mornings.
I'm trying to convice myself she's getting all her water out of the grass haha!

 

[SnowGo]

I wouldn't worry, its rainy and the grass is wet. Does she hace soaked hay. If she has hard feed you could add sugar beet, or change from nuts/chaff to sugar beet if you don't want weight gain, to get more water into her. Is she clipped? If she's sweating whilst working and you don't feed salt she may need some.

Sorry cross posts!

No hard feed either, she's never been too interested in her salt lick but will put it in her field just in case.
I'm prepared to give her a bit of sloppy chaff with some salt in, but she stops eating it after a few days when she gets bored of it.

 

[pixie]

Have you checked to see if she is actually dehydrated?

 

[Princess Rosie]

Have you tried switching the Apple Juice for a no added sugar cordial? We have a miniature that won't drink water on its own. Also we've had an issue in the past when we put in additional big trug buckets into the field, they would only drink from the black water troughs and wouldn't go near the coloured buckets (despite having the same coloured buckets in their stables).

My mare isn't keen on fresh water (we assume chlorine) so she prefers water that is a couple of days old or rainwater. Hope you find something that helps.