Any tricks to get a hauled horse to drink/take in liquids?

[eightpondfarm]

I haul two horses into lesson every week. One mare goes every week, and four others rotate through the second slot. NOT ONE will drink water when we get there.
I’ve brought my own water from the farm. I’ve tried bringing it in different containers even.
Now days i hydrate beetpulp/shreds and keep them in a cooler on ice…so nice and cold and gushy. For a while i could water it down in a nice open tub and they’d slosh around and kinda drink. After a few weeks they just played with the water. Past couple of weeks i’ve just given them the gushy cool beetpulp without adding water to the bucket and they eat most of it. But geeze-louise! It’s hot and humid and they had an hour and a half trip there, then a lesson, (and will be an hour and a half ride home…along country roads, so breezy…but still)

Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions of anything else to try?

[ClassyJumper]

I have had good luck with some nutrena pro force senior in the bottom of a small bucket. My picky mare will usually drink to get to the good stuff @ the bottom.

[frugalannie]

Have you tried peppermint oil? I’ve used that when a horse has to stay overnight somewhere. But then my horses love peppermints!

[findeight]

Try adding electrolytes to feed and/or water the days before hauling to get them hydrated. Because, you know, you really cant make a horse drink unless they want to and many wont when hauling. Theres no majikal fix for that. Many other critters wont during during transport in a trailer or carrier either

We aren’t talking long haul here, just a few hours, offer water but if they decline, don’t fret over it.

ETA, many prefer hay only and no grain or concentrates within 12 hours of a trailer ride and this is why. YMMV.

[luvmyhackney]

Mine loves a scoop of Gatorade powder added to his water. He will drink a whole bucket.

[vxf111]

This. Start doing it at home so they get used to the taste and smell.

[yaya]

Might want to try this. A local woman created it. I have not used it yet, but lots of people in the area love it.

https://gallagherswater.com/

[vxf111]

This appears to be extra fancy electrolyte powder marketed at something like 30x the price. It is literally sugar, electrolyte powder, and some crushed dried alfalfa.

If your horse likes alfalfa flavor you could throw a handful of alfalfa pellets into the water bucket, add a scoop of electrolytes, and scoop of sugar for pennies on the dollar compared to this. I’ve got to give her credit, she’s found a market-- but this is maybe a couple bucks worth of easily sourced stuff (being generous on the cost) that she’s selling for $10/bag!

[LovieBird]

The horses that like it REALLY seem to like it. My horse did not, and he’s a fool for alfalfa. It’s expensive for what it is, but it has the convenience factor, which may be appealing for some people.

[goodhors]

Are you giving extra salt in their grain daily? Horses worked and sweated, need more salt than they can lick off a block. Feed salt, plain, available at TSC, is what we give our horses. A Tablespoon, once a day to the unworked but drinking OK. Two Tablespoons once a day to the workers or poor drinkers. They seem to eat grain just fine with the extra salt. We only grain once a day.

You CAN pull out his tongue, pour on the salt to get it in them if needed. Had one poor winter water drinker. I told her she WAS going to get the salt in her one way or the other! She did not care to have her tongue pulled out, salt applied, so she started eating the salty grain and wet beet pulp!

Something to consider, is horse usually getting most of his water from a tank? He “may not lIke the flavor” of buckets, containers home water comes in. Not be used to drinking from buckets much. We quit bleaching or using soap to scrub stall buckets, horses refused to drink until taste-flavor-smell was gone in about a week! They drank plenty from the tank outside during that week!! You may want to dump or remove the water tank, hang a row of buckets and fill them daily until horses are used to bucket water, and empty them.

Salt will help them retain water, as well as making them thirstier. They NEED to be accepting of various watering containers for travel. Not drinking at a show is frightening! Had a friend with a horse like that. Got to the show, no drinks in the trailer, won’t drink in new stall. Now at about 18 hours without water. She threw up her hands, loaded him and went back home, 12 hours each way. We use the rubber feed pans to water in the trailer manger, bucket is too tall to get in the window. Ours have had water in a variety of pasture containers, small rubber tubs, new muck buckets, plain buckets, no shy ones here. They KNOW trailer ride might be long, so they drink well when water is offered. Young horses watch older horses, copy them getting drinks.

Never did the feed in water, but do use kool-ade for flavor, which they have drank at home before we left. Good for sulphur water smell.

[Salty]

I just haul water from home, which is the only water suitable for my princess pony, apparently.

[eightpondfarm]

@goodhors

You may want to dump or remove the water tank, hang a row of buckets and fill them daily until horses are used to bucket water, and empty them.

excellent suggestion!

@goodhors

We quit bleaching or using soap to scrub stall buckets, horses refused to drink until taste-flavor-smell was gone in about a week!

yeah, i never use clorox or soap. ever. I do scrub with water and a stiff brush every Monday (“This is the way we scrub our tanks, scrub our tanks, scrub our tanks…This is the way we scrub our tanks so early in the mornin”. I sing to them when i do it LOL). Anyway, after scrubbing and rinsing, scrubbing and rinsing again i dose with about a half a cup of apple cider vinegar as the auto waterer refills. Keeps the algae down.

Mostly our horses drink out of the creek. They don’t get grain, just pasture. as for salt, they have salt blocks in a few places around the pasture and barn. And one or two red ones as well. I’ll offer them sheep minerals based on your suggestion. The mustangs are pastured WITH the sheep flock and they love sheep minerals…so it ought to be a hit with the domestic herd of horses too.

i’ll get some gatoraide and also people water flavoring stuff at the dollar store and see if any of them take to it…

I’m willing to try anything at this point.

[cattywampus]

Mine are huge watermelon fans, so I pack one on long trips. I am ALSO a watermelon fan.

[starsandsun]

I’ve had good luck with Horse Quencher.

[Maythehorsebewithme]

My trainer always offers her horses water from a smallish bucket after every ride. They seem to get in the habit of drinking after exercise, so when they go out for lessons, it is business as usual to drink.

Her OTTB was not a good drinker until she started doing this, which I thought surprising, as I have seen runners offered water after a race. But whatever, it worked.

[findeight]

Yeah….but I gave up trying to bring water from home when I learned most of mine still refused to drink on the trailer. Plus no way to carry more then a days worth.

Good point about bucket selection and management😉

Honestly, KISS, sports beverages are electrolytes, sugar and salt. Not to mention cheap, quick to add to the water, and easy to transport.

[Equibrit]

I’ve never met a horse that refuses water and Buckeye Perform’n Win.

perform-n-win.pdf

[demidq]

My mare is also fussy about drinking away from home. I now give her a bucket of “tea” after every ride and the routine carries over to different locations.
I put a couple of handfuls of her feed pellets in a bucket with a half dose or electrolytes and cover with water to dissolve before I ride. Afterwards, bucket is filled (warm water in winter, otherwise just cooler than lukewarm) and maresie happily drinks down the bucket. Other boarders laugh at her calling for her cup of tea, but several others now do the same for their horses.
I think the trick is the familiarity of the taste as well as the routine.

[eightpondfarm]

I brought them all in and fed them a bale of alfalfa in the middle of the sweltering afternoon today. And right there for their drinking pleasure were about 8 different containers (red gorilla large and mediums, regular 5 gal buckets, dumore tubs, etc. All full of nice cool clear water fresh from the well. Not everyone drank from them, a couple walked alll the way out to the creek… but i’ll keep it up.

[FrittSkritt]

My guy got too smart for HorseQuencher (kept eating it right out of the water), so I started adding a cube or two of alfalfa to plain water in his bucket to make “tea.” (Someone on COTH suggested this a few years back.)

Seemed to help as he loooooves alfalfa and the shreds disperse enough that he can’t really pick them out.