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Tracey Smith wrote:

> Since we are on the subject of water, I need some advice on how to get my
> mare to drink better on the trail.  
>
> She drinks great at my trailer when I offer her water (comes from home of
> course) but has not been drinking on the trail like I'd like her to.  So
> far, we have just been doing 25's but we are training harder as either this
> fall or after the first of the year 
We see this post a lot - not necessarly from Tracy but from many 
others.  My wife an I were talking about this the other day. Why don't 
we have this problem? My old mare would drink anytime there was water. 
The gelding I ride now has stopped to take a drink a mile out on an 
endurance ride ( it was a lolly pop loop and the water was there for the 
horses comingi in but he took a big drink going out).

Why do my horses drink early and often while many other people have 
problems with their horses drinking the first 20 or 30 miles. I think I 
know - my horses didn't start out as endurance horses. They started out 
as trail horses. They had a good year of just hacking around on the 
trails. When we went camping it was to hack around. They learned to 
drink in a relaxed laid back trail ride not the pressure of an endurance 
ride. Not to say we weren't moving on and covering ground, but it was 
still a trail ride.

By the time either of them showed up to an endurance ride they had a 
year or so of relaxed trail rides where drinking was just part of being 
out in the woods. From day one my horses drank early and often at rides. 
If my horse didn't drink for 20 miles - he would be pulled.

My new horse is now a trail horse. Yes we may trot for long stretches 
but it's still a trail ride, it's still relaxed and he is probably a 
better drinker than the other two. He won't go past a big clump of grass 
and typically has a big wad of grass in his mouth he is working on as we 
go down the trail.

Maybe the key is to lay back take it easy and do a lot of trail riding. 
There is plenty of time to hit the endurance trail after they have the 
skills necessary to do it. Drinking and eatting are two necessary skills 
- probably the two most necessary if you want to do anything other than 
LD's.

Truman

--

"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite 
of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."    Niels Bohr 
-- Nobel Laureate, Physics




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