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Re: [RC] teaching a horse to drink??? - heidiWell, first off, congratulations to you for making a good decision. You did what is right for your horse, even if it caused you disappointment. I second that! electrolytes should not cause a horse to stop drinking. It should encourage the horse to drink. Unfortunately, I've seen people take a horse that wasn't drinking and shove down the e-lytes and make the problem worse more times than I can count. E-lytes are a tool--not a cure-all. If your horse requires e-lyte replacement, then you need to use e-lytes. But they are not a Band-aid to make non-drinking horses drink! When I got started in this sport, my horse refused to drink.. I started adding powdered gatorade to his water. It's not as good as regular equine electrolytes, but he did drink the water which was important. Again, too often I've seen horses turned off from drinking by adding stuff to water--if it works for a particular horse, then great. But don't try this at a ride until you've tried it at home! IMO, the #1 reason why a horse doesn't drink at the ride is because he also didn't eat enough, and the #2 reason is that he isn't ready to handle the excitement. Deal with those issues, and the drinking will follow. Meanwhile, ride to the circumstances (ie slow!) or, as in the case of the original post here, pull from the ride if the problem is too much, and go back to the drawing board. Heidi ============================================================ REAL endurance is dressing for 20 degrees in the AM and by noon its 85 degrees! ~ Heidi Sowards ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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