If the biochemical trigger won't cause her to drink then you need to
look for some other option. Personally I would be a little concerned
about just "throwing her into a 50 and she learn or else" - it could be
else. Sounds like she may be running on an adrenal high, i.e. the fight
or flight response is what is motovating her in which case drinking may
be the furthest thing from her mind. I have one that is normally very
good about drinking. He will drink 2 miles out. BUT he wasn't always
that way and every now and then the adrenal high will kick in and I
have to step in.
What I did with him was lots of training and reinforcement for drinking
on training rides. We'd stop and we'd relax and we'd hang around the
water till he got "getting out of Dodge" off his mind and me on his
mind. I also did lots of "shudder" dressage work with him so he
developed some dicipline. At rides when we started out, I'd stop at
water stops, get off, loosen the girth, let him scratch my back and let
him know he can relax. When he relaxed, he drink. When he drink, I
would walk a ways down the trail, tighten his girth, ease back in the
saddle, then start slowly on back down the trail.
After a while he would pull up to water, suck it down, look up as other
horses come and go and then go on and put his head down and suck down
some more. On those occasions where he gets into his pea brain "got to
go, got to go, no time for water, times a'wasting you idiot I got to
catch those horses," I just "call time" out after all I am captain of
this ship and get off and we relax a little. I used to take 5 minutes
of me getting his attention back on me - now it takes about 15 seconds
and it doesn't happen often.
Good luck,
Truman
Ridecamp Guest wrote:
Please Reply to: Cate Peloquin cpenguin57@xxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
==========================================
Ok, this is for all you who have experience with
a horse that just won't drink until later in a ride.
I have tried various protocals for elyting this mare.
None have worked to make her thirsty enough to drink
before about 20 miles, sometimes waits til the end of a 30
CTR. Natural water is not her friend and will drink from
a tub after a while. I ride with my daughter whose horse
drinks at every opportunity, my mare either just stands there,
or gets really impatient about getting down the trail. I start elytes before even getting to a ride and even that won't get her going drinking early in the ride. I give her really wet food, but that isn't enough to replace the volume a horse needs to drink. Someday, I think I'd like to do another 50, but won't
until this drinking issue is a thing of the past. Thanks in
advance! cpenguin57 @ aol . com
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"It
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It is necessary
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