# Water temperature for bathing



## midnight star stables (Apr 6, 2011)

I understand that having hot running water in a barn is a luxury. Most do not.

My question is do most bath their horses with cold or warm weather? If using cold water, I assume you'd have to wait for warmer weather/days to do your bathing?

I know I bathed with cold water at my old farm, but my horses and I have certanly been lucky with warm baths the last few years. For us, hot washing water is very much utilized as we show often and it always seems to be overcast and chilly on bath days






I was just wondering how many out there do bath in cold water? I know I have my rubber boots ready as I'll be bathing this weekend.


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## LC Farm (Apr 6, 2011)

We have a portable hot water heater that I take to the barn to wash with and I also take it to shows. It is so nice to bath with warm water and the horses love it too.


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## Sandee (Apr 6, 2011)

I always washed my QH in cold water but it was always in the warm weather. With these little guys needing to be clipped and the weather here being so blame cold for so long here, we purchased a Hott Wash a few years ago. This was also party because our first mini, an older gelding, would not tolerate the cold water. He put up a really big fuss so we gave in and now all of our minis are spoiled. I do occasionally HAVE to wash in cold at a show but not often.


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## Reignmaker Miniatures (Apr 6, 2011)

If we washed with cold water I would be waiting until at least June for the temperature to warm enough to do any bathing so I use warm. I do not have warm water in my barn but I do have a tap (in my basement) that I can attach a nice long hose to and get the water to a suitable location for bathing that way. I can't even imagine how unpleasant my horses would find cold water baths, and I think there's a good chance I would object to having unheated water running up my arms and soaking me too.


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## ruffian (Apr 6, 2011)

LC Farm said:


> We have a portable hot water heater that I take to the barn to wash with and I also take it to shows. It is so nice to bath with warm water and the horses love it too.


I saw your set up Karen, and hubby is going to do the same thing. He bought me the instant hot water tankless heater last year for Christmas, now just got to get it on the handcart. This was an awesome idea and I'm glad I saw how you did it.

I didn't vote because I would prefer warm, but until my heater is set up, it will be cold water. Hopefully will be set up before show season this summer. . . if we EVER get summer!


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## chandab (Apr 6, 2011)

We don't have an outside hot tap, so I mostly bathe with cold water, but do use warm water from the house in buckets for sudsing up and shampooing. Sometimes, I do bring a bucket of warm out for the initial rinse, but do most of it with cold (so no bathing til at least June around here).


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## midnight star stables (Apr 6, 2011)

I'm truly surprised by the number of people whom have warm water.




I know many locally who don't and honestly had thought it was the norm. I know I went many years with lugging warm water buckets and using cold hose water.

I'd love a vacuum for this time of year but don't see that happening for a while.


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## Relic (Apr 6, 2011)

Warm only even if it's 90 out our cold water comes from the well so the longer you run it the colder it gets and it can get really cold..so we had the hot/cold taps put in and it also comes in handy for washing the trucks and dogs or my dirty feet


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## Becky (Apr 6, 2011)

My vote is for warm water!

I have a heated, air conditioned groom room with a 40 gal water heater. The horses are so much better behaved when it comes to bathing if they are bathed with warm water. They really seem to enjoy it!


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## Genie (Apr 6, 2011)

We have an outdoor wash rack for warm weather and have a hot water tank in the barn that feeds that outside wash rack as well as provide hot water in winter for frozen pails or any other washing in the barn.

In really cold weather and when there is a really good reason why I need to wet a horse, I use my "ANIVAC" which is like a carpet cleaner type system for animals.

Hot water and soap containers are housed in the machine (like a steam carpet cleaner) and there is a wand that shoots the water and soap into the coat and sucks it back out so the animal does feel too wet when cleaning is completed.

It works well for horses and dogs and you could likely clean a carpet with it too


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## targetsmom (Apr 6, 2011)

I run a hose from the utility tub in the garage, so can mix hot and cold water. But before that, at various boarding barns with my big horse Target, I had to improvise, especially for the early May shows. One way to get warm water is to do what we do on backpacking trips - use a Sunshower, which is essentially a large plastic "bag", black on one side and clear on the other. Fill with water and lay in the sun with the clear side up. You would be AMAZED at how nice a water temperature you can get that way, after only a few hours in the sun. Cloudy days will not work as well, but you can still heat the water some.

Lacking that, I have also filled water buckets and put them in the sun to warm the water. Doesn't work as well as a Sunshower, but it does help. I HATE to wash a shivering horse, can you tell?


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## Miniv (Apr 6, 2011)

Our previous barn which we built ourselves had a water heater in it and a horse wash rack area......It was great.

Now when we need to bathe a horse we do it like our dogs -- in our back yard. Our laundry room sink is just off the back yard and has a faucet that allows us to screw in a hose which we run outside. The only downside is that we really don't want to bathe outside in lousy weather, even WITH warm water.

Was just wondering.......Has anyone bathed their smaller mini in their bathtub shower with a hand-held shower head?


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## Minimor (Apr 6, 2011)

We don't have warm water available at the barn. However, we do take out pails of warm water for the initial washing and first rinse. Otherwise we fill some black garbage cans with water & let them sit in the sun--that warms the water up some & makes it more pleasant when used for rinsing. We'll use cold water from the hose to rinse legs and tails. I would use cold water for body rinsing only on a very hot day--I've had horses that enjoyed a cold water rinse when the weather is very hot & humid and they're sweating while just standing in the shade.


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## MindyLee (Apr 6, 2011)

LC Farm said:


> We have a portable hot water heater that I take to the barn to wash with and I also take it to shows. It is so nice to bath with warm water and the horses love it too.




Oh I would love to have warm water! LC Farm, do you have pics of your set up? Love to see them!


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## Mominis (Apr 6, 2011)

Shake does NOT take cold baths, ever!



Last season, we didn't have the luxury of having the portable system and didn't have a water heater at the barn, so every day (to rinse His Highness after sweating), I would haul a big cooler half full of hot water to the barn, add cold to it to make it lukewarm and then rinse him. We did the same thing at horse shows and would half fill two coolers at the hotel with hot and drag them to the showgrounds, one to bathe him and one for his hot oil treatment. At the new barn, we have heated water in the wash bay, in fact both Shake and Eli had baths today and got their manes and tails redone. This year I am bound and determined to get one of the portable systems from Schneider's before we go to our first show. I sure hope they aren't on backorder, or it will be back to the coolers again until one gets here. Nah, he's not spoiled or anything. lol


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## Minimor (Apr 6, 2011)

Forgot to say--at our local show facility there is warm water wash racks, so when we're showing there we just do bath the horses there. Much easier than doing it at home, even if it does mean a rushed morning. Actually the water there is HOT unless you have 3 taps running at once


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## Fanch (Apr 6, 2011)

I don't have a barn but my bathing area is close to our downstair untility tank and lucky me theres a window there too. So all I do when I want hot water to bath with is hook up a hose to the tap and bring the hose out the window.


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## mydaddysjag (Apr 7, 2011)

Where I currently board they have warm water for bathing, but the wash rack is outside. We're working on getting the horses brought home this summer, and I wont have hot water in my barn, But I plan to just bring em up to the house and wash em in the driveway (we have a utility sink in the garage with hot and cold water that we have a hose attached to.)


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## Connie P (Apr 7, 2011)

I hook my hose up to my laundry room tub and run it out the window, then tie my horses up at the house to my hitching post that hubby lovingly installed for me. I used to bathe in cold water, but honestly this well water is SO ice cold that I felt sorry for them having to endure that, hence the hitching post and warm water at the laundry tub. They love me much more now on bath day!


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## Flying minis (Apr 7, 2011)

So what portable system do you guys use, for those that have one? I want to get one, but not sure if I should go with the electric Hott Wash or the propane one? The propane says 1.4 gallons per minute (which doesn't seem like much), but the Hott Wash doesn't say, except that it holds 4 or 8 gallons (I'd get the 8 gallon one). Suggestions?


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## mydaddysjag (Apr 7, 2011)

You know, I never realized how much having a hot wash rack was a luxury. After I sold a gelding, the new owner told me she was having a LOT of trouble bathing him. I was really confused, because while he didn't LOVE being bathed, I was always about to bath him myself with him tied loose. A few months later I found out she didnt have hot water to bath with. He was much better about bathing while at their trainer where there was hot water. Goes to show you how much of a difference it makes!


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## Sandee (Apr 7, 2011)

Flying minis said:


> So what portable system do you guys use, for those that have one? I want to get one, but not sure if I should go with the electric Hott Wash or the propane one? The propane says 1.4 gallons per minute (which doesn't seem like much), but the Hott Wash doesn't say, except that it holds 4 or 8 gallons (I'd get the 8 gallon one). Suggestions?


We have the smaller 4 gal. Hott Wash. I thought I'd be taking it to shows but I don't. I have the temperature set fairly high and let it heat for 20 minutes or so before starting baths. To heat the whole tank from cold start takes about 20 minutes so I try not to run too much hot out at one time so I don't have to wait to reheat.

I connect a hose splitter (backwards so it combines instead of splitting) - one side has the hot hose and one side has the cold from the well. Regulation is done by turn the valves so more or less hot/cold gets to the washing hose. I wet one area of the horse down; shut off the hose (we have a nozzle that shuts off); soap; turn the water back on and rinse. By doing an area at a time and shutting off the water so it doesn't just get wasted, I can do at least 2 horses without running out of hot water. I can but my daughter can't. She likes to be too generous with the water and she can run out of hot on one horse.


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## Flying minis (Apr 7, 2011)

Sandee said:


> We have the smaller 4 gal. Hott Wash. I thought I'd be taking it to shows but I don't. I have the temperature set fairly high and let it heat for 20 minutes or so before starting baths. To heat the whole tank from cold start takes about 20 minutes so I try not to run too much hot out at one time so I don't have to wait to reheat.
> 
> I connect a hose splitter (backwards so it combines instead of splitting) - one side has the hot hose and one side has the cold from the well. Regulation is done by turn the valves so more or less hot/cold gets to the washing hose. I wet one area of the horse down; shut off the hose (we have a nozzle that shuts off); soap; turn the water back on and rinse. By doing an area at a time and shutting off the water so it doesn't just get wasted, I can do at least 2 horses without running out of hot water. I can but my daughter can't. She likes to be too generous with the water and she can run out of hot on one horse.


Thanks Sandee, I was thinking of the same thing with the "splitter" but using it to combine. I am looking at the 8 gallon, mainly because I have a big show horse too. I wouldn't use it all the time, mainly spring / fall when it's cold here, so thinking that might work really well (plus to use when we go camping for people showers!). I figured using the splitter and combining would give better pressure too.

Thinking it's time to go ahead and invest in one!


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## donna123 (Apr 7, 2011)

HI.......I'm new on the forum and don't post much but this one got my atttention.

I have the Hot Water washer at home and have the same problem with having enough hot water and getting it to rewarm water very fast.

Then I bought the propane washer.........WOW...........that one is great and also cheaper on line. You hook a 20lb lp bottle to it and it will last all year.

We offer them at a show for ALL exhibitors to use in the wash rack and have never run out of gas..............and the they automatically shut off and start when the water is being used.........I can't say enough good things about the propane water heaters.


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## Flying minis (Apr 7, 2011)

donna123 said:


> HI.......I'm new on the forum and don't post much but this one got my atttention.
> 
> I have the Hot Water washer at home and have the same problem with having enough hot water and getting it to rewarm water very fast.
> 
> ...


Decisions, decisions! : )

The propane one also appealed to me, because it seems to have more capacity. Ok, now I"m going to have to think some more - I also like the price of the propane better!


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## midnight star stables (Apr 12, 2011)

This was a great post... there are some very creative members!




Yeah for happy horses!


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## Magic (Apr 12, 2011)

Warm water all the way! Cold water here is also VERY cold, and the horses find it very uncomfortable even on very hot days. Run ice-cold water down your body and see how long you can take it, lol!



Early on we bought a propane water washer and it's awesome. The horses stopped fighting their baths and learned to enjoy them instead. We've tried the Hott Water Washer but the combination of needing electricity with water didn't appeal to us (ok, I personally found it scary)and having to ration the water so much was annoying to me too. When we had this house built we had both cold and hot water taps installed to the outside, but we don't have a wash rack yet so it hasn't been as helpful as it could be.

At Nationals in Tulsa the water comes out of the tap lukewarm so we've never had to bother with hot water washers there.


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## hobbyhorse23 (Apr 12, 2011)

mydaddysjag said:


> He was much better about bathing while at their trainer where there was hot water.


Can't blame him- I'm much better behaved about hot baths too!





I'm another who grew up sticking a hose in the window of the downstairs bathroom to get hot water. It's a pain in the rear to get water that way as I have to drag the hose around the side of the house, climb through the flowerbed, remove the window screen, go inside and open the window, go back out and shove the hose through, go in and screw it in and adjust the temperature, then go back out and bathe the horse. Plus when I'm done the bathroom is inevitably soaked because the water backs up when I'm not running it and sprays everywhere from the join of the hose and the faucet.



But we only have a few days a year in the 80's here and 90's and 100's are so rare we can count them on one hand so I'm not about to bathe my poor horses in cold well water. For most of the year that would be torture since it's overcast, damp and _maybe_ 60 degrees. The boys stay double or triple blanketed for the first two months of show season here and still shiver.



It only gets warm enough for a bath to be a pleasure for them in July and August.

Leia


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## eagles ring farm (Apr 12, 2011)

Reignmaker Miniatures said:


> If we washed with cold water I would be waiting until at least June for the temperature to warm enough to do any bathing so I use warm. I do not have warm water in my barn but I do have a tap (in my basement) that I can attach a nice long hose to and get the water to a suitable location for bathing that way. I can't even imagine how unpleasant my horses would find cold water baths, and I think there's a good chance I would object to having unheated water running up my arms and soaking me too.


same here we use the stationary tub in the basement but we have bilco doors so don't need too long of a hose. just in the cooler weather other than that its cold water here


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## Blackwater Farm (Apr 13, 2011)

We dont have warm water available at our barn like I wish we did but I am still able to give them warm baths. They seem to tolerate the warm water and I will only use the cold when it's really hot outside. I went to Lowe's and bought one of those little adapters to put on my litchen sink and I run a hose out my front door and into the yard, have to use 2 hoses! Luckily I only have the two horses and I wash them on seperate days. We have a well so I dont pay for the water, I would hate to see our bill if I did!!!! I would love to have a hott wash system but they are a bit pricey for me so until I hit the Powerball I will have to run hoses and do it early enough in the morning so I can take a shower when I'm done!!!!


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## susanne (Apr 13, 2011)

One of the car washes in town has a dog washing room. Nobody is around in the evening, so I keep threatening to take a horse in...I figure I could get away with it once at least!

Even with hauling hot water to mix warm bath and rinse, I wouldn't bathe in anything but very warm weather, as they would be cold before they would dry. Perhaps with a wet/dry vac I could get them dry enough.


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## Field-of-Dreams (Apr 13, 2011)

The water lines down here are so close to the surface the water comes out warm in the summer! So warm it's nasty to try and drink from the hose! So our guys get an unheated warm bath!





Now, Sunny LOVES it when I'm filling the water tanks and I hose him off. He just waits, even turning so I get both sides.


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## Sandee (Apr 13, 2011)

Magic said:


> .........
> 
> At Nationals in Tulsa the water comes out of the tap lukewarm so we've never had to bother with hot water washers there.



In Tulsa the water is "naturally" heated.....it's so HOT



there so often I doubt they know what cold water is!


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## rabbitsfizz (Apr 13, 2011)

I do not even have running water, only what I pump up from the river, but I would not dream of bathing my horses in cold water, except on the warmest of days.

I heat the water in an old gas boiler, and mix it by hand.

I would not want to bath in cold water, why would I subject the horses to it?

Besides which it is much easier to rinse the suds out in warm water.


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