Piedmont Equine made “sweet tea” (handful of feed in warm water) for my mare when she was hospitalized for a week to ensure she was drinking; reportedly, she was very enthusiastic about it. I suppose then, it’s “vet approved”.
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Thanks for the idea. My horse would probably enjoy it.
I had a picky drinker who didn’t like any water but her home water. About six months before we had to move to another state I started adding a small amount of peppermint extract to her water.
On the road I added a small amount to the “strange” water and it worked a treat, tasted like “home”.
For horses that like peppermint, maybe a tiny bit of extract (it doesn’t take much) in some warm water would go over well. I don’t know if there’s anything in it that would test, since she wasn’t being shown I wasn’t worried about it.
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I’m struggling trying to get extra water into my Old Man horse. He drinks from the trough, but I don’t like the current consistency of his poo. He’s been a bit of a camel his whole life, but I worry about impaction.
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I’ve tried tea made with just about everything imaginable. Apples, carrots, grain, hay pellets, peppermint.
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He gets loose salt in his grain AM and PM. A salt block is available to him at all times.
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Both AM and PM grain is soaked to soup.
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The trough is heated, but 100% grounded, no stray voltage. He drinks out of it whether the trough heater is on or off, just not enough.
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Hot water. Warm water. Cold water. All are treated with the same ‘eh.’
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Gallaghers water worked once, but no longer works.
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He ate Replenimash, but it really didn’t get a substantial more amount of water in him than his grain, and didn’t bump his water consumption.
Any ideas I haven’t tried yet?
One thing I’ve noticed with my mare is she really likes the addition of salt to the sweet in her tea. Have you tried the combo?
Also, for my picky with regard to water gelding, I have noticed that time and place matter. He likes to drink outside over inside and he prefers to drink right when turned out or brought in. So I try to have fresh, not too hot not too cold water for him outside whenever I move him.
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Mine love their winter tea! And their tea is a herbal homegrown “tea” of usually mint but I have done a blend of mint and lemon balm and sometimes bee balm too. Just depends on what I have dried in bulk that year. If my horses lived at home they would absolutely get it everyday but since they are boarded somewhere withoff and on hot water I make an effort to do it when we are getting big weather changes or in the bitter cold. Next year I plan to harvest all my rose hips for them. It was one of those duh moments this fall when trimming things back that I took fresh ones as snacks to them and the one in particular thought it was the bees knees of snacks.
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I have not tried adding salt to the water, but will give it a whirl.
I have tried multiple bucket locations - inside the run in, on the floor, hung, by the trough. Mine are out on a dry lot, can come in or out at will, so no specific/special time to give it, really.
I tried tricking him, making it a “strong” tea with his regular grain, and giving it to him as if it was his grain. He’s too smart for my bull-crap and gave me the side eye as his stood waiting for the actual grain meal.
Do you regularly offer both warmed and unwarmed water? I heat water inside but break ice outside and every day when I turn out, they’re all lined up waiting for the icy cold trough. They drink fine inside, too, but they really like the cold water 
Would he do an additional bucket of alfalfa pellet soup, in addition to his grain? (Or any hay pellet?) (Or a soaked hay meal?)
Would he prefer a muck tub sized water option over a bucket? (Sometimes they’re reluctant to put their head in a bucket?)
You could also try adding a little mineral oil to his grain, just to keep things moving along. I’ve always wondered about miralax in horses, but haven’t ever found anything in the literature.
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He’s drank out of a normal sized bucket his whole life, and doesn’t have an issue eating out of one, but yes - I have tried using a clean muck bucket.
I have tried leaving the trough heater off and popping a hole in the ice a few times, and it didn’t make a difference. I can only do that when it’s going to gently freeze, not fully freeze the trough though. I’m not going to hatchet the whole trough.
I’ve also tried bailing water out of the trough into the muck bucket so it could cool down, and that didn’t get any traction with him, either. I had hopes for that one, as he could “show” me his ideal temperature as it cooled down.
I’ve tried adding a small sploosh of bleach, as some horses will guzzle bleachy/chlorinated water. Nope.
I could try additional soaked hay pellets, but I’ll have to locate timothy pellets and get a new metal can for them (no big deal). He is at a good condition and I don’t want to add alfalfa at this time. He is hit or miss with eating hay, so soaking a meal will 50% of the time be a waste. He’s going through a bale every 3 days or so, with no slow feed net on it. His quidding is increasing, so that’s next up on needing to be addressed somehow.
He will eat mineral oil, that’s a good idea as the “last resort.”
FWIW, he’s always been a low-end water drinker, and has a gigantic colon that holds a lot of poop-per-pile. I just don’t need him getting sick, and while his poo has always been well formed and firm, there are now 2-3 nugget pieces that are all glommed together which is a bit unusual.
One more thought: Adding a little magnesium to the grain (epsom salt) is one more option to hydrate manure.
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I’ve not heard of that. I’ll do a little research and give it a try. Do you recall the quantity?
It’s one of those start low and titrate up sort of things. I’d try one of those ounce supplement scoops first and go from there.
It doesn’t always work, but that’s rare. I got my grey mare up to a pound without seeing effect post melanoma debulk. But she ate it fine until that level (when she wouldn’t touch the mineral oil) so at least it seems fairly palatable.
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Does he prefer sweet or savory? Apple cider vinegar maybe?
One of mine really loves orange Gatorade and adding a beer to his soaked food is his favorite.
The other is disgusted with the above and prefers a splash of apple cider vinegar or a few alfalfa cubes.
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He will literally eat anything. He’s like an equine garbage disposal.
I haven’t tried beer-tea though, maybe that would pique his interest.
My horse is a terrible German and hates beer. He does love a hard cider, though. If you try Gatorade, the powder is the best. I use that in summer. My guy prefers blue. lol
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I made my guy some “tea” today just as a treat and to see what he thought. I put about four of the Beet Treats in it (beet pulp and molasses pretty much), and about five peppermints (the softer kind). I put in about…maybe 3 quarts of hot water (some cool water too just to make sure it wasn’t too hot).
He sucked that stuff down like it was the best thing ever!
So glad I saw this thread. What a great way to get more water into him.
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My guy is bit of a camel too. He will eat Replenimash, and I noticed after rinsing out the dish with warm water, he will (usually) slurp down the warm water with only a small amount of residual mash in it. Something easy to try, if you are already giving Replenimash.
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Lol, I’m clearing out our old stock in our beer fridge (we went a little ummmmmm crazy over covid) and while my old lady mare is really happy enough with any beer addition, she loooooooooooved the hard cider. Excellent suggestion, she fully agrees!
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I’ll have to try the hard cider, I know he loves apple juice and is a total lush.
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My mare enjoyed black tea (which I discovered on a cold day at the last horse show one year when she desperately tried to get to the cheapo cup of orange pekoe I had in my hand). Due to the caffeine, I thereafter only provided it occasionally and only well outside of show season, but I would just brew her a thermos of tea and bring it with me to the barn, then dump it in her feed tub for her to slurp up.
Not useful for getting a lot of water into a horse on a regular basis, but it never did any harm to her as an occasional winter treat.
