About 6 weeks ago my tank heater shorted out and shocked my 7 horses. The
tank heater had only been plugged in for about 2-3 hours that day. I have
always kept my tank heater plugged into a GFI outlet and the water tank is
attached to a grounding rod. It turned out my GFI outlet was not working so it
didn't trip. The grounding rod probably kept my horses from being electrocuted.
It was 4 days before I realized my horses were not drinking. Since then I have
tried everything I can think of to get them to drink out of the water tank
again. I normally have a large metal tank that serves 2 pastures. I
removed the metal tank, put in 2 Rubbermaid tanks, I have moved the
horses to different pens with different tanks, I have tried floating
carrots and apples in the water, I even put peppermint extract in the water
because I heard horses like peppermint, but I can only get 3 horses to drink out
of the water tanks. The other 4 will only drink out of buckets. I have tried to
take the buckets away and the horses start eating snow which will not provide
them enough water. I can't keep hauling buckets of water all winter. The
buckets freeze quickly and the horses don't have free access to water. I'm
afraid they will colic. Does anyone have any ideas?
