Posted 2006-05-14 10:11 AM (#41687) Subject: long rides and dehydration
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 385 Location: washington
How do you get your horse to drink out on the trail, from a stream or lake? My horse will barely cross water, let alone drink from moving water, at least he hasn't yet. I am guessing this is one of those things where you simply have to be out long enough for the horse to get thirsty enough to drink. but I wonder how dehydrated he would get before drinking.
Also, what's the key to getting a horse to stop and pee on a long ride? My horse will hurry back to his favorite spot in the paddock after a long ride, just to pee, like a little kid running for the bathroom. He will hold it the whole trailer ride home too :( Actually I think he pee'd once in the trailer, but only after the horse next to him did - hahaha.
Posted 2006-05-14 1:50 PM (#41701 - in reply to #41687) Subject: RE: long rides and dehydration
Veteran
Posts: 247 Location: NW
One thing you could do for drinking on the trail is to get one of the portable water "buckets" - the first one I had had a solid ring at the top, & a handle, & collapsed flat when not in use. I now have a heavy canvas type that does not have any solid parts so is very foldable for packing. Just use it at home to be sure the horse will drink out of it. On the urinating, sometimes getting off & loosening your saddle will do it. Some horses are just really funny about going elsewhere.....I had mare yrs ago that wouldn't go & we were on a 30 mile benefit ride...she FINALLY peed one time when I was off her & I praised her big time. From then on, she'd go when she had to. In a trailer, alot of horses don't like the urine splashing on them...so if you bed it w/shavings, maybe he'll go then.
Posted 2006-05-14 6:14 PM (#41708 - in reply to #41687) Subject: RE: long rides and dehydration
Veteran
Posts: 285
You might try giving your horse some electrolytes the night before the ride. It will make them thirsty and drink more. When we head out west we give our horses electrolytes every day for about a week. They did not hesitate to drink at all. DK
Posted 2006-05-14 11:14 PM (#41722 - in reply to #41687) Subject: RE: long rides and dehydration
Expert
Posts: 2453 Location: Northern Utah
Learn to tell if you horse is getting dehydrated. Pinch a tent on his shoulder, press on his gum, listen to his gut sounds. These signes will help you know if he is getting dehydrated.
Endurance and CTR riders are always worrying about hydration on long rides. It took my horse a few rides to learn to drink from mud holes. First time or two he would turn up his nose and say thats not my water. It helps if the other horses you are riding with all dunk their heads and slurp up water. They soon learn not to pass up water.
Give him time to drink. If he is thinking about it and see other horses leaving, he will loose his desire to drink.
Wade out and let him splash and play in the water.
I use electrolytes a lot in the summer. If you do use them, make sure the horse has plenty of opportunities to drink. It's like you eating a salty piece of ham, you know how thirsty you are all afternoon after eating it. It's not right to give the horse electrolytes as you leave the trailer and then not see any water for two hours.
The old saying is you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. So trick him! Mine will gobble down soaked beet plup. So I soak up some beet plup and make a real soupy mash.I usually add my electrolytes to the mash, and give it to the horse AFTER he has had an opportunity to drink. Once he has drunk all he will drink. He gets more fluids with the soaked plup.
Posted 2006-05-19 2:20 PM (#41977 - in reply to #41722) Subject: RE: long rides and dehydration
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 524 Location: Lone Oak, Tx
Just be careful about the eletrolytes you purchase. Stay away from the ones that contain sucrose or frucose or dextrose as those are sugars and you do not want that. Electrolytes are used not for just making a horse drink but to replenish salts and minerals that they lose when they sweat. =)
I make my own ( http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/archives/past/02/22/msg00005.html ) and use yogurt and a 60cc feeding syrige to administer. That way I know they get it. On the trail I'll use water to mix up my lytes out of a film canister, suck it up in my syringe and give it to them that way. For general trail riding. I'd just give it to them the day before, that morning and that evening, maybe during if it's really hot and humid.
I also like the other ideas that paintedhorse gave.
Hope some of this helps.
long rides and dehydration
