Providing Your Horse with Safe Drinking Water
With hot Arizona weather right around the corner, it is even more important than usual to ensure your horse is receiving a constant supply of fresh water. Understanding how much water your horse needs and determining how to get it to your horse is an essential part of proper horse care.
Determining Water Needs
How much water your horse needs will be affected by a number of different factors, including air temperature, workload and the type of food your horse is eating. The amount of water your horse needs can also be impacted by the size of your horse and its health, including whether or not it is pregnant or a nursing mare. Your horse will also need to drink more if it has been working hard or sweating. In addition, those horses that feed primarily on hay will require more water than those who eat other types of feed. Therefore, it is important to simply ensure there is fresh water available at all times for your horse to drink.
Supplying Water
A number of options are available for supplying water to your horse. Buckets and automatic waterers can be used in stables, but it might take some time and encouragement to get your horse to drink from an automatic waterer. Natural water sources, such as a spring-fed pond or a stream in your pasture. can also serve as a way to supply water to your horses. In this case, care must be taken to ensure the banks are safe for your horses to use in order to get to the water. While there is no need to worry about these water sources freezing in Arizona, it is still important to check on the quality of the water to ensure it is safe for your horse to use.