Winter watering important for horse health
Recently a woman from University of Guelph used our farm set-up for horse welfare research purposes. She shared that one of the big problems she hears from farm owners is that horses are fine in winter as long as they have snow. Oh dear!
The average 1,000 pound horse, at rest, needs 11-30 litres of water per day to make up what they lose through urination, feces, and respiratory as well as sweat and lactating. Water must be comparative to the hay amount so in winter, horses may drink more while eating hay than they would during the warmer months when grazing moist pasture. When they have free access at all times, they can get as much as they need without our guessing.
Water has many important affects on bodily health. A few specifics during winter conditions are that water aids the horse’s body to regulate body temperature, to digest, and to help skin maintain elasticity, and thus good hair. Water, should always be available in large quantities. Good clean, palatable water. If the water is not good for humans, it’s not good for horses. Incredibly, a horse drinks approximately 3-4 litres in 30 seconds!
Horses prefer icy cold water but if we warm their water slightly, it impacts their bodies better.
When water intake was measured, research showed that horses would consume less cold water than they did warm. (Drinking water temperature affects consumption of water during cold weather in ponies: Applied Animal Behaviour Science 41:155-160,1994.)
Warming water to 1-4°C (35-40°F) resulted in them drinking more volume, decreasing the possibility of impaction colic (serious digestive blockage that can result in death) at all times, but definitely in cold weather.
As an important aside, colic is the leading cause of horse death next to old age. Impaction colic incidences are higher during the fall and early winter, the time when horses begin to have hay as their primary source of food.
Myth: Snow is not an adequate substitute for water as it is only 5-10 per cent water. A 19-litre, heated bucket, filled to the brim with snow, would melt to 1.9 litres, providing it melted at 10 per cent. Therefore, to ensure 11-30 litres of water daily, would require a horse to “eat” 6-16 buckets of snow per day.
Ensuring water isn’t frozen can take a lot of labour. Lugging the hose in and out of the warmth is exhausting; becoming entangled (picture nose-dive into a mound of snow) a daily risk, but sometimes it’s the best option.
Chopping ice out of water troughs a few times a day certainly isn’t fun and with the subsequent splashing, coupled with experiencing wet, frozen hands are a given.
Taking out buckets of warm water, without dumping them down your boots, while attempting a new form of ice skating in barn boots like an ungraceful Olympic star makes a good story, but the reality is frozen pants, boots, fingers and toes. Remember, this is a few times a day! It’s truly miserable.
A trough with a floating heater is an enviable luxury as is the heated hoses that are now available! Insulating around the trough, located out of the wind and encasing in wood painted black, helps to keep the ice from forming.
And then my personal favourite, an insulated automatic watering system complete with heated bowls and heating coil for the source pipe, requiring no more than monitoring most days. A power outage can be problematic and sometimes in extreme cold, it may need some warm water to kick start it, but 90 per cent of the time it’s a perfect solution to winter watering.
Providing water to horses can be achieved. Know that it is one of the most important needs your horses have in winter. Our frozen body parts, the strained muscles, the bruised knees-backside-cheek-chin and changing your socks a few times daily, are very much appreciated by our equine friends. Our labour equals their ongoing good health.
Wendy Eagle guest lectures for the Equine Behaviour course at Equine Guelph, the faction for horses at Guelph University.
