drinking

[Charlene]

came home from work yesterday, went out to do chores. it did not look like a drop of water was missing from either stock tank. it was SO hot, i wondered why on earth the horses had not been drinking. got my answer when i went to put hay in the feeder. all 3 horses finished their grain and made a beeline for the huge puddle of rain water at the other end of the dry lot. it's a low spot where water collects after a hard rain and believe me, we have had nothing BUT hard rains almost every day for what seems like forever! several times, i have dug a trench to drain as much as i can but with so much rain, i can't keep up with it.

they all waded into the fetlock-deep water, put their heads down and drank their fill.

my stock tanks are pristine. i'm obsessive about keeping them clean. what on earth would make horses drink from a PUDDLE instead of a clean stock tank?? we're on sand so the puddle isn't muddy but it sure doesn't look very appetizing to ME!

 

[kaykay]

Early spring we had a ton of flooding here in Ohio. My dang horses would drink from the puddles instead of the tanks because they are basically lazy and would drink whatever was close. We had some come down with diarrhea and my vet said it was from drinking the puddles--flood water. He said almost every farm he had seen that week had the same problem. Ughh they make us nuts sometimes dont they

 

[Charlene]

i'm already nuts enough as it is but yeah, this makes me even nutser! their feed buckets hang on the fence just steps away from the stock tanks. they have to walk clear across the dry lot to drink from the puddle.

something else...gary's brother called me yesterday to tell me how much fun he had watching the mini boys playing. as hot as it was, they ran and bucked and kicked and reared and then started all over again. he said they were so sweaty, they were dripping. the heat index was 102. what goes through their little minds??

 

[Connie Ballard]

Hey Charlene...Tim had couple questions about your water. (he was the water supply technical specialist for 30yrs at the county water dept here)....he asked if the water in your tanks is well water or city water? Wondered if it was city water if it was high in chlorine for some reason. He said he'd have the water tested.

You said your tanks are pristine...could they have some cleaner residue? Any change in cleaners?

I know they say to let a bucket air out a little after cleaning with bleach/soap so the fumes from the bleach disapate.

Just some thoughts.

Other thought is just nature...drinking out of a creek is pretty natural for them too....good for them or not I guess...?

 

[Bailey@SmallWonders]

I have a book, havent read much of it yet, but its called "Why Horses Do That" and one of the chapters is why horses prefer to drink out of yucky puddles to drinking out of nice clean water tanks. I'll have to read it....

 

[Just Us N Texas]

We have what I call "city horses". There is a pond in their big field, and they will come up and drink the city water in their tank instead. Go figure! Whatever we think they will do, they will just do the opposite just to keep us on our toes!

 

[Brandi*]

When we irrigate my animals don't touch their water buckets for two days. They like to drink off the ground I guess

 

[fowlersminis]

Horses are so silly!!!

Who knows why they do what they do.

Maybe you can put up some t-posts and wiring or something similar just around where the water puddles to keep them out of it?

Good luck!

 

[Charlene]

connie, our water comes from a "sand point". it's pumped up from an underground spring. it is the freshest, coldest, best-tasting water on the planet. i'd put it up against any fancy bottled water any day of the week. there are no chemicals in it and there are no fields around it that would contain leaching chemicals or anything else.

as for cleaning my stock tank, i dump it a couple of times a week, scrub the bottom and then refill it. if i let it go more often, it gets messy because in hot weather, my biggie takes a bath...he stands at the tank, puts his whole face in and splashes water back onto his chest to cool off. i keep another smaller tank in a fenced off corner of the dry lot that only the mini boys have access to because sometimes, tuffy will splash so much water out of the big tank, they can't reach the water! IF i have to let it go longer and 2 or 3 days, i throw in just a capful of bleach to prevent algae from growing. it's not enough to change the taste of the water, it's a 75 gallon tank.

baileySW, if you find an answer in your book, i'd LOVE to know what it is!

LOL, city horses! isn't that an oxymoron??

fowler, i couldn't fence this area off since my dry lot is only 80' x 100'. this covers a pretty good chunk of space and t-posts would be a train wreck waiting to happen because of the way the little guys run and play.

and yeah, these horses never cease to keep me guessing! gotta love that!!

 

[horsefeather]

Well, I have a very large tank for the horses to drink from and I only clean it once a year! I do have goldfish in it to help keep it kinda clean. My horses will cross a slow, cool running creek to come up and get water out of the tank. Yep, that's exactly what they do. Why they would prefer the dirtier, warmer water I will never understand.

Pam

 

[Miniv]

Our critters can sure do funny things........ Like, why do the choose one trough over another???

Several of our paddocks have TWO water troughs, side by side. And for some reason the horses obviously have a favorite that they all go to first......They drink it down before even looking at the other!