I just bought a 9 year old OTTB that is a hay dunker. It is a full time job keeping her water bucket and the auto waterer free of hay so she can partake in her hay dunking activities. She has a water bucket to drink from on the opposite side of her stall and an auto waterer and a bucket next to her hay. I’m adding a second bucket of water as if she has too much hay left in the water she stops eating until someone clears the debris. She did this at her previous barn. She is on free choice alfalfa as she was at her previous barn also. Any tips/tricks?
Keep the hay far away from the auto waterer if at all possible. Mine gets a bucket over his hay specifically for dunking, so he leaves the auto waterer clean for actual drinking.
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My dunker also had buckets only for dunking, and water separate. Barn help needs to make sure old, wet hay (if any is left) gets cleaned out/removed from stall and water. I had to teach them that that wet moldy mess under his buckets has to go each day. Also, just no bedding under/around buckets. I never minded owning a dunker— they always seem so happy making soup for dinner.
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I don’t remember the specifics why but there is a correlation between dunking and ulcers. Might be worth trying a trial of Nexium and if the behavior persists after two months think of scoping.
Congratulations on your new horse. Will COTH aunties get pictures??
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Oh I need to for sure!! She was on 2 weeks of Omeprazole and nothing changed. But that is interesting.
@atr unfortunately both the hay feeder and auto waterer are right next to each other.
How are her teeth? My mini started messing with the hay and water when he had a bad tooth.
My mare dunks some batches of hay and not others.
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Mine dunks some batches and for other batches takes a mouthful of water and dumps it on the hay 
Dunkers are creative, aren’t they? 
Mine like to dunk & rinse repeatedly.
When he ate hay it sounded like there was a top-loading washer going 
Friend’s dunker was fed grain from a wood corner manger. He had a little oatgrass garden growing in the manger from mixing soaked hay with grain.
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This was the answer for mine, who was a serious dunker and appreciator of all the ways of dunking.
This deep rubber water trough fit in a corner. There was a (clean) ‘muck tub’ for water inside it, and his hay ration inside it right beside the water. The horse and the stall cleaners loved this solution.
This kept the water from turning over and spilling. Or if it somehow spilled there was less of it. It more or less contained the hay. The hay he spread outside the trough was not all that much.
Obviously this also took the place of a hanging water bucket for dunking. That was the biggest mess ever. It was always overflowing with hay and dunk water. It created so much mess that was dragged around the stall as the horse was moving around.
The deep tub did take up a few square feet of stall space. But the horse had plenty left for his needs.
Tractor Supply had them, and other farm supply stores.
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Vet examined and he said perfect and she was floated in Jan also.
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So how do you handle your hay dunkers in the winter with a round bale and auto waterer but no other electricity to handle electric buckets?
What does she get for feed? My old man used to be a dunker in his early days but I noticed that all stopped when I put him on a soaked feed. Another person at my barn found the same thing with her horse too.
I would love to see if she would eat a mash. I didn’t change her diet much as I have had her less than 3 weeks but it’s 9 pounds a day of Ultium and free choice alfalfa and 11-13 hours grazing in a good field.
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