Water in the field for your horse...

Do you think water in the field is:

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FestiveSpirit

FestiveSpirit

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When the horse would be turned out during the day but stabled with constant access to fresh water at night (say from 5.30pm to 7am)
 
My horses have access to water 24/7, they don't always drink the stuff I provide though!
Right now they are ignoring their troughs and drinking the puddles - their choice.

If you watch the drinking habits of horses though, they generally only drink every couple of hours or so, so they are quite capable and content (temperature/conditions etc, considered) to go without access for a while. A while, to my mind, being a couple of hours, whether they drink when it is available is up to them.
 
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I know water should be available all the time, but if you had to run your horse out for a few hours without, when it had access the rest of the time I don't think it would cause any trouble.

Grass is quite moist anyway, and my horse goes at least a few hours without water at shows - he is offered it, but sometimes won't drink all day. :)
 
enfys said:
Right now they are ignoring their troughs and drinking the puddles - their choice.

Mine LOVES doing that, I think they hardly ever use their trough really. They also have an old stone trough that is set in the ground that is fed by a spring, which they seem to prefer to the conventional trough most of the time. :rolleyes:
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I wouldn't be happy with water not being provided even for a few hours, it can cause so many problems being without water that I wouldn't be prepared to risk it, especially in hot weather. It's easy enough to put containers of water out if there is no trough.
 
I think that your horse shouldn't be without water for any longer than you are prepared to ride them without giving them a drink.
 
We have water available in the field 100% of the time - which was a nightmare given the winter we have just had ...

I have noticed that the youngsters come down and drink twice a day, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon.

Most of the older horses go out and have a drink straight away when they are turned out, even though they have water in their stables.

So in answer, I don't think it is the end of the world if they don't have constant access to water as long as they have regular access.

Any animal will die from dehydration quicker than from starvation.
 
I am watching this with great interest - obviously I have my own view, but just wondered if it was shared by others :) Thanks for the replies and votes :)
 
I aim to provide water 100% of the time, but if something went wrong and they didn't have water for 2-3 hours I would not stress. R never drinks when he is at competitions (just dressage so not as bad as eventing) and there isn't much I can do about that. I do make sure I cool him off though if he has sweated.
 
There were a couple of days during the cold weather when I couldn't break the ice on the trough so had to leave my horse without for a few hours. That was an exception and I wouldn't generally be happy if my horse didn't have access to water in the field at all times though.
 
I think they should have access to water 24/7. There is no way of predicting when a horse will feel thirsty or not so there should always be water there as an option. My horses thirst depends very much on the seasons. As does the amount he wees. Spring always requires much less water as does autumn, presumably as the grass is much more lush. We are lucky enough to have an autmatically filling trough so unless there is a breakdown I know he will always have access in the field.
I wouldn't consider it the end of the world he I found him with an empty water bucket in the morning unless it was a regular thing which would suggest I need to give him more!
 
My horse has constant access to running water (spring fed stream) so freezing weather is not a problem for me. I often see him and his pal drinking from puddles after they have been fed, but there is a fair walk to the water. I have also seen my horse's field pal licking up snow after his feed. All the horses I have had would not drink whilst out at comps (I have always offered water) but would have a good long drink as soon as they got home. I always made sure there was a full bucket waiting for them.
 
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The last couple of yards I've been at had no water troughs in the fields, so we just use big containers and either top them up from buckets, a very long hose or water carriers in a barrow/truck, depending on how far they are from the stables.
I don't like my horse to be without water for any length of time - during the freezing weather they seem to get particularly thirsty, plus we were feeding haylage in the field which is obviously drier than grass. When the ice on our big containers was too thick to break (I tipped one ice block out and it took nearly a week to melt!) we would just give them a normal sized bucket of water and bring it in at night.
 
Our yard has containers of water (100l) next to troughs. In the summer they are checked twice a day and are always full (each trough containing about 50l when full) the most that this would have to go round is 7 horses.

During the winter months the horse's are only out between 7am and 3:30pm. They usually have access to water as the troughs are regularly checked but there may be the odd day or half day where they don't have any, none of them have died from dehydration yet!
 
The longest I have travelled my horse was 4 hours, he was offered water - but didn't take any.

I think horses need less physical water (as in pure water, not bound in food) than we think, if they are on grass - that is especially water-rich - i do notice my horse always wants a drink after/during eating hay though.

I always think of the ratio of wee: poo with horses - they poo far often than they will wee, people wee more than they poo (generally speaking!) We have discrete meals - horses are designed to graze all day - something that I think is more important than them having access to water 24/7. Horses in the wild do not always live next to water, but always have grass under their feet/browse nearby - they will go down to drink water at specific times :)

My horses do have access to water in their field at all times, but I wouldn't worry if they had to go up to 6 hours or so without. :)
 
My horses have automatic troughs and drinkers so they always have water but I wouldn't worry if they didn't have some for a few hours. When it was snowy the pipes in the field froze solid so I drove water up twice a day. Interestingly they never touched it (typical :rolleyes:) so they must have got enough from the snow.

My horse hunts for 6hrs without drinking but that's his choice and I wouldn't leave a horse stabled without water for 6hrs.
 
Whilst I do beleieve that they should have access at all times, and I ensure mine do whilst at home, I do believe that a few hours occasionally will do no harm. Depends on the circumstances/conditions to a large extent though
 
I always keep fresh water available even though they have a huge amount in their field (doesn't everyone at the moment lol?!!) so that they have the option to drink it if they wish. I know how picky some can be, and they can't just go turn on a tap like us, so I like them to have the opportunity when they choose. :)
 
If the horse is only out during the day it would depend on circumstances IMO.

Hot day...water a plenty
Plenty of grass to eat...fine without
No grass/only hay to eat...water
 
We take water up to the field every day and fill two containers, for four horses.
OH has the containers on the pickup, all the time, if he is working and i check the horse and they have drunk all the water, i don't worry to much as i know he will do it when he gets back. In the winter they tend to drink from the ditch as well.
IMO, the short time they have to wait for it to be filled up is no longer than waiting untill the end of a ride.
We also keep ponies on common land, they drink from the streams, there are no troughs. One of them does'nt seem to like tap water, when given a bucket, if she is stabled.
 
All the time. I'd never leave them without water. The only time they dont have free access to it is at an event (purely as there's nowhere safe to leave a bucket of water (I'd have to tie them too loose to reach it) but even there I offer it frequently. Mine, like a lot of others, doesn't drink plain water at events - hence I always make up a big bucket of very very wet sugar beet which he's happy with!
 
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