Water stops on a long hack

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Jess+Murphy

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It might be a bit of a stupid question but just wondering about the dos and don'ts around giving a horse access to water during a long ride? How long/far would you ride for without the horse having access to water? I get it depends on a lot of various factors like the weather and speed of the ride but I'm wanting to do some long rides and want to my sure my share horse does not become dehydrated or ill. I know to avoid ice cold water but what else should I do/not do?
 
Jess+Murphy said:
It might be a bit of a stupid question but just wondering about the dos and don'ts around giving a horse access to water during a long ride? How long/far would you ride for without the horse having access to water? I get it depends on a lot of various factors like the weather and speed of the ride but I'm wanting to do some long rides and want to my sure my share horse does not become dehydrated or ill. I know to avoid ice cold water but what else should I do/not do?
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You're supposed to let them drink whenever they are thirsty. Obviously if they feel hot but more frequently than that. Better to offer it too often than not often enough.
 
I'm happy to make frequent stops, especially if weather is hot or if he's been working particularly hard (speed/hills), but on a hack which is 90% walking, how long should I go for before needing to stop for a drink for him? Usually I ride no more than 1-2 hours hack and he doesn't get a drink during those, nor is he in a rush to get a drink when we are back. I want to go out for longer rides but want to plan in appropriate stops. How often do you suggest I plan in these stops in terms of time/distance?
 
Thanks :) I'm not looking to do anything particularly crazy, but it would be nice to do a day ride! Unfortunately on my routes, I don't come across any water sources, even when alongside the river, there is no way to safely get close enough to it because of high banks, but I could plan to stop at my house or a friend's to fill a bucket if needed. I'm wondering if every 10 miles/2.5 hours would be appropriate? Obviously if the weather was very hot, or if he was clearly thirsty at these intervals, I would reduce this.
 
I did a long weekend riding two half days and one whole day and I found that the horses very quickly learned to drink when they could when offered. I was lucky as I was in the Cotswolds where we crossed streams, so they had a drink then and later I used a cattle trough. People who do this a lot will often take a collapsible bucket as sometimes a trough is the other side of the fence.
 
It is horse dependent too. With endurance, some horses will do 40km loops without drinking once and then only have a small amount at the end. Others will take any and every opportunity to down buckets worth
For example, with the pc kid I often ride with. Her little cob will drink a whole bucket as soon as it's offered to her at any point in the ride. In comparison , my warm blood x Arab won't touch anything until he's been untacked (and in some cases has been vetted first) even when he was doing 120km, he'd wait till he was untacked in the vet gates. But my sister's young Arab will do the same as the cob
Just a case of seeing what works for your horse unfortunately!
 
He's definitely no endurance horse but he's never seemed particularly thirsty after rides, so I don't think I need to be too worried - we rode 1h45 yesterday and stopped for a picnic with my family for an hour and he had water available but didn't touch it. We then rode 1h45 back and he still didn't go to his water for the best part of an hour after we got back so I'm wondering if he's simply not a big drinker - he's not dehydrated and happily drinks out of his bucket and trough so I'm not concerned, as long as his health is not at risk :-)
 
We used to do quite long rides on the Downs,my old mare had done endurance and always made a beeline for any troughs being in sheep country there were lots
 
I go out for some very long rides (at a walk) and I normally allow my horse to have some breaks and eat some nice long green grass (which hopefully will have some water content in it). I very rarely come across a stream or water trough and when I do my horse is not normally interested in drinking.
 
I stop if/when there is some. He's never drunk out hunting all day for instance, I can get him to eat though, a couple of times on hot days he will drink on a longer (2-3 hr) faster hack.

Friends cob did once try to get into the massive round cattle drinker on one of those hot days....
 
One of mine likes to stop and drink at every opportunity. I've let her do this as I want to encourage her to drink from streams and puddles on long distance rides. The other one certainly agrees with the old adage about leading a horse to water but can't make him drink...even on 8 hour rides, he won't stop to drink water from a stream. I have always let both of mine stop at grassy points for a snack, teaching them the command, grass, so that they know they are allowed to eat.
 
I do endurance rides, so far only up to 20 miles taking 2.5 to 3 hour at a good pace. Unless it is very hot my horse will not bother to drink even if offered. Always offer a drink as soon as we finish, but he often is not interested (so I add something tasty like apple juice to encourage him). I have been out all day when he hasn’t drunk at all until back in his stable. I wouldn’t bother on a normal hack, unless it’s vey hot.
 
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink...

I take a couple of collapsible cloth buckets. A tip from a woman I know who organises long rides is to plan on passing close to a cemetery if possible; over here in France there is always a water tap (usually near the entrance gate) to be able to water potted plants left at graves.

If it's not safe or practical to get down a bank to let your horse drink from a stream or river, you can lower a bucket on a length of rope to fill it.
 
I lived in the Low Desert area of the SW United States for five years -- there werent any natural water sources, unless we were on designated trails and someone had put in water stations for passing horses:)

That meant there was nothing in the rock hills close to my house. I taught my horses to drink from a sports water bottle. I always carried about 64 ounces with me (in separate bottles).

It was enough until we got back home:)

In the desert environment, humidity is about 4% which makes recognizing dehydration near impossible and even more dangerous. My horses never refused a bottle of water -- in that environment once you start drinking water, you realize how thirsty you are:)
 
I don't ride very far or very often at the moment, but my mare does enjoy muddy puddles and streams, so I always let her have a drink if she wants to
 
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