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Hi Lucie,

With respect to that smelly water barrel, I learned about 20 years ago to 
never assume that what looked or smelled bad to me would be received by my 
horses the same way... or vice versa.  I had picked up real cheap two bales 
of gray rye hay.  Yes GRAY.  But heck... it was only $2/bale.  Well, after 
the first feeding of the stuff, my horses near to mowed me down when I 
showed up to feed that evening and there wasn't a snick to be seen.  Wow, I 
thought.  They like rye hay.  That's great to know.  Fast forward a few 
months and over in Half Moon Bay I stopped by this hay barn and lo and 
behold, they had rye hay.  It was green and beautiful and smelled to die 
for.  I put two bales in my station wagon intending to order a ton or two 
as soon as I had fed from them.  When I fed that evening, the horses looked 
at me and said as plain as day, "So?  Where's dinner?  You expect us to 
actually EAT that stuff?  Are you nuts, Mom?"  It made great bedding.

If you put water in that barrel, your horses may indeed not want to drink 
the stuff but don't assume so until you've tried.  Fill the barrel and 
leave it 24 hours.  Tie one of your horses to the trailer and hang a hay 
net, provide two big buckets of water, one fresh from the tap and the other 
from the stinky barrel and then wait to see what happens.  If the horse 
drinks all the fresh water FIRST, don't use the barrel.  Otherwise, your 
horse will be saying, "Hmm... this isn't so bad, Mom.  Got more?" :)

If you don't usually tie to the trailer, do the same experiment in a pen 
that has no other source of water.


LUCIE HESS wrote:
> I'm trying to think of another way to carry extra water to the rides...
> I've had donated to me by one of my traveling partners, a  large
> barrel that has a spigot on the bottom, but this barrel must have had
> olives in it as it smells to high heaven and I won't use that water
> because I think if I can't stand the smell, my horse won't drink it.


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