Re: Getting your horse to drink

[Michael I Lindinger <mlinding@uoguelph.ca>]

On Thu, 16 Apr 1998, carl meyer wrote:

> How do you get your horse to drink 1-1 1/2 gals. of water two hours
> before a race of training especially a fit horse. 
> Did you ever hear of the adage,"you can lead a horse to water but you
> can't make him/her drink"?
> Please pass on the trick....
> Carl Meyer D.V.M


I will attempt to address this comment which, of course, is correct. What
we try to do is retrain the horses over a period of time to drink
electrolyte solutions. this, as I mentioned before, greatly depends on the
palatability of the product and the solution. If the solution is not
palatable it will not work. If palatable, starting with a diluted solution
(50% of the recommended dose for example) that is provided in place of
water all the time has worked in many horses. Many now prefer this over
water. Granted, at times they will be getting electrolytes they do not
need but the kidneys easily handle this as the loading is comparable to
what they will obtain in feeds. When trail riding and training patience
with the horse is a key. Some riders train their horses to drink by not
moving from the water source until their horses has taken a drink. Once
the horse understands that this is expected before proceeding then this
becomes part of a normal routine. This may take quite some time and some
patience when horses have not been doing this routinely over the several
years of their training.

I hope that this helps, and gives some riders something to try out.

Mike