I live in the deep South and only in the very hottest weather will my trail horses bother to drink during all but the longest rides. They will get all they want once they are back to their trough, but often just cant be interested in water.
I rode my gelding for the first time with a big group back in the late winter–we were going at a good clip for several hourse in the morning and when we got back to a water trough at the campground all he wanted to do was splash the other horses after taking a sip or two.
Many years ago I took a 4 year old mare out for an all day ride on the hottest day of the summer with a bunch of gaited horses (she was not). I had just bought this horse and hardly ridden her more than a couple laps around the paddock. It was extremely hilly terrain, and we rode hell for leather up and down, hours and hours and hours. Temperature and humidity both at least 90. There were plenty of little creeks and streams that we crossed but she did not seem to understand that water could be found outside of a bucket.
After about six hours of this I was terrifed I was going to kill her. Finally in sheer desperation I got off at a creek, got down on my hands and knees and pretended to slurp water and when she got her head down to see what the hell was going on I managed to scoop a little water into her mouth and the light bulb came on. After that she stopped and drank at durn near every creek. Made me think of Scarlett O’Hara, “as God is my witness I’ll never be thirsty again.”
She showed absolutely no ill effects from this experience whatsoever and although i would much prefer for my horses to drink while on long outings I dont stress too much about it if they dont.
