Polar vortex has me stuck in the house with nothing better to do than fret about my horses. Today’s worry is how to get them to drink more in cold weather. They’ve got fresh water always available, both from a tub with a heater and water buckets that I refill every evening when they are stalled. They have mineral blocks that they lick every day (red trace mineral salt blocks; they don’t like the plain salt blocks). But, even with water and salt available they aren’t drinking very much. I’ll add a little table salt to their evening meal to see if that helps, but I was wondering if any COTHers have any tips I haven’t thought of? How do you encourage your horses to drink during cold weather?
You can offer loose salt as well. I have loose stock salt ( white) and 6 mineral salt ( red) available to mine as well as the large blocks. Is their water in the stall in heated buckets? That is the best way to get them to keep drinking( IME). Some just don’t like extremely cold water. I don’t blame them!
If you are familiar with Horse Quencher - typically we throw a handful in a bucket in the summer but you can also toss it in warm water. Its a grainy type stuff with flavoring (peppermint, apple, etc) https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/horse-quencher-15207
1 Like
Do you feed anything hydrating - like soaked alfalfa cubes, for instance?
In the winter I always feed grain meals in a nice, warm, mushy mess of soaked cubes to make sure they’re staying hydrated. I worry a bit less, and it warms 'em up, too.
3 Likes
Very wet mash.
Also warm water with molasses and salt.
1 Like
Very wet mash, mine get soaked beet pulp, timothy pellets, and then I throw either their grain or a few treats in. I can always get a gallon of water into them at each feeding that way. Not much, but every bit helps.
1 Like
Thanks everyone for the suggestions.
2tempe, I’m not familiar with Horse Quencher, but it sounds interesting. I’ll check it out.
Red_Barn, a couple of years ago I tried making a mash with alfalfa/timothy cubes. That was the winter I had a horse that I was almost unable to ride because he was so hot. In fact, this was the subject of my first post on this forum (Hot horse, but with a twist ). I don’t know if the alfalfa caused the problem, but I took him off it and sent him to a trainer for a couple of weeks,and he’s been a good boy since then. Still has a lot of energy, but it’s obedient energy. After that experience, I’m afraid to give him any more alfalfa, even just a little.
Both of my horses are very easy keepers, so I have to be careful about adding sugar to their diet. I have thought about trying beet pulp, as B_and_B suggested, and as soon as the roads melt enough to drive to the highway I plan to go get a bag.
I go with the kiss method… (no offense to anyone!) Farnam apple flavored electrolytes, basically apple salt powder. Right on top of their feed so they have no choice but to be thirsty after eating. If you have oldsters, yes soaking feed and hay helps as well! I do not trust mine to lick their pretty pink salt licks enough since I also subscribe to the “horses are suicidal by nature” theory lol. So I force them to take in the salt, be annoyed and thirsty, drink water and live to worry me another day!
2 Likes
Soak any “hard” feed aka “grain” that they get in warm water. Soak that as soupy as they will tolerate. Some won’t go for it at all, but many will, so it is worth trying on everybody. You can also experiment with soaking some alfalfa pellets or cubes in abundant amount of water for those horses that don’t usually get much/any hard feeds to otherwise soak for them, or just do it for everybody as a bonus to add water. Some horses love senior/alfalfa tea in warm water and will suck up buckets of it even with minimal feed added.
Offering very warm water in cold weather will really get some horses drinking. Even if they have a water trough and/or bucket heater, try using a kettle to heat a 1/2 gallon+ of water boiling then add it to a 5 gallon bucket of regular water in their stalls. Not freezing water does not = warm water, if that makes sense. Some will suck down the entire bucket of very warm water in their stall and look for more. They might not figure it out the first time offered. Even if the horse doesn’t initially seem interested, you might try it more than once to see if you can get them into it.
Of course, once you figure the individual horse out and hopefully get them going on the very warm water, you can try additions like alfalfa or gatorade or whatever else you can think of to that to help increase their water intake. Thankfully electric water kettles are very very quick to heat and also very cheap. I once had 5 of them in the feed/tack room in the winter scattered around various outlets to distribute the electric load. It represented about $100 total investment and made a huge difference for the horses. Also just as important to note, I unplugged all of them after each use.
1 Like
I’m also doing loose salt - nearly a tablespoon am and pm and it keeps them drinking. They need it and don’t get enough from a salt block. I’ve tested hay for 20 years and it comes back with basically no salt in it AND so common to see high Potassium. My latest hay was also high in Potassium so enough salt is even more important.
Also if you are worried, can you dress up warm and go out and walk your horses for 15 min? That really helps them feel better overall.
I also feed hay pellets, soaked and then add in my vitamin/minerals and also soak the Enrich Plus for my old dude. Just seems to make sense to feed wetter food and loving their nice, moist manure.
I’ve also got a 16 gal heated tub doing and a Nelson waterer so they are getting moderated temp water which helps.
Yes, to the warm water. My pony loves to drink hot water in the winter, plain with nothing in it. He will suck down an entire bucket in minutes. You can also do soaked beet pulp instead of hay cubes.
2 Likes
From the other side of things (frequent warm weather), I often add salts like Apple -a -day to my horse’s feed, He has a salt block and a Himalayan salt lick (I don’t know what that means but I tasted it and liked it). Since I discontinued the summer salt supplementation, I notice he has leaned on the external supplements. I will likely restart the salt supplementation.
1 Like
Honestly the biggest thing that gets my mine to drink more is a CLEAN water tank. In the winter, nobody wants to scrub out those giant stock tanks so they just stick the hose in it and refill it even though the water is nasty and smells like a diseased fish tank.
I SCRUB, rinse, and refill my water tank twice a week, every week, whether it’s 70 degrees or -17 degrees out and I’ve never had issues with anyone not drinking enough. The extra 10 minutes of labor to scrub and rinse the tanks versus just filling it up is completely worth it to me.
3 Likes
I personally can’t think of any reason why this mix would make your horse hot, but, if you think there is one, you could always try all-timothy or orchard pellets/cubes. The most broadly available brand selling these is probably Standlee, but I bet there are others in your area.
1 Like
I’ve never had a horse who refused to drink water with Perform 'n Win added.
Well, I tried some of the tips today. I made a warm soupy mash with forage balancer, a handful of oats, some salted roasted peanuts in the shell, salty pretzels, peppermint, a bite of apple, and a couple teaspoons of table salt. Both horses gobbled it down and licked their dishes. Tomorrow morning I’ll do the same but add a little more salt and water. I also put hot water along with cold tap water in their stall buckets to make the water warmer. I didn’t see them drink anything all day, even after I put hay down by their heated water tub. They ate the hay and walked away. I hope the added salt in their mash will start making them thirsty.
1 Like
Question, and I may have missed this but is there snow on the ground where you are? If so, mine barely ever drink out of their tanks because they’re busy licking the snow which I’m fine with. If they want to eat the snow that’s fine by me and I wouldn’t be so worried about them not drinking.
1 Like
Unfortunately, snow does very little to hydrate a horse. The equivalent amount of snow a horse would have to consume to equal a 5 gallon bucket is 13.5 CUBIC FEET. That’s almost two bags of shavings, to put it in perspective.
OP, I have had success making a grain “tea” for my bad drinkers. I put about 1/4 scoop of triple crown senior (or any grain that dissolves easily) in warm water and my horses absolutely gulp it down…
All of my horses also get 1oz of loose Himalayan salt added to their feed.
2 Likes
I have added some table salt to my horse’s grain. BO will sometimes provide a hot mash of his regular pellets and some treats thrown in. OP, I think you can and should avoid alfalfa. I had a horse that also reacted badly to alfalfa - just jumping out of his skin, unusable energy, seeing dead people. Seems to affect some horses that way even when overall Calories are adjusted properly.
Equkelly, no snow here at the moment, but we’re expecting some in a couple of days. Right now the ground is covered with a thin layer of sleet/freezing rain that is frozen solid, hard as concrete and slick as a skating rink. Grass is still poking through in the fields, so there’s enough traction that they can walk on it. They’re pawing through it and I’m sure they’re getting some moisture, but it doesn’t substitute for a good drink.
The good news is that they drank a normal amount of water from their buckets last night, and slurped down their morning salty soup. Their skin springs back when I pinch it and they’re producing a normal amount of manure. I wish they’d drink from their heated tub, but at least they’ll get some water with their evening mash.
