# How long can horses go without water for?



## Pidge (4 July 2008)

Sunny dragged me over to another water drinker when bringing him in yesterday tea time and had a huge drink. So sis took him down to our water drinker last night when we turned them out after riding and it was 'scary'. 
He did the same this morning so obviously hadn't drunk from our drinker last night either  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 He's in today as part of his 'diet' so has a full 42L tubtruck full of water, and he did a wee that was shall we say a milky colour? 
So am going to be putting a large tubtruck of water in the field until he gets over his 'the water drinker is scary' moment, Pidge is fine and drinking normally. 
So how long can they go without water for without suffering any problems?


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## hellybelly6 (4 July 2008)

Its not ideal for a horse not to have access to water, although I know yours did and he chose not too use the facilities on offer.

I think its about 6-12 hours depending on whether the horse is being active or pottering around a field.

It is not unusual for your pony's wee to be so concentrated after a period without drinking and with plenty of water to drink, it will get back to normal.

Its a good job you noticed and have now put in a watering system he approves of.


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## Pidge (4 July 2008)

he'd been active as had a lesson but as well as drinking from others drinker he'd been in his stable from 5.30pm - 8.30pm bar the hour for the lesson so had water in there. but then would have just pottered round the field last night I hope! 
Oh thanks for that, will be checking his wee tonight to see if it's any better. How long do you think it will be before he realises his water drinker is no longer scary?


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## kerilli (4 July 2008)

i'd put a big bucket in his field, definitely. 
they can go for a few days without water i think, as can people, but it is obviously very bad for them.


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## Pidge (4 July 2008)

with the bucket in the field do we need to do a total water change every day or not? Sorry always had water drinkers before so not done buckets in fields!


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## PapaFrita (4 July 2008)

At some places here horses are only watered twice a day. FAR from ideal IMO, especially in summer, but they seem to adapt and cope OK.
One eedgit I know insisted that horses couldn't be watered immediately after exercise as it would 'damage their hearts'. That's all the endurance horses popping their clogs then!!


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## PapaFrita (4 July 2008)

[ QUOTE ]
with the bucket in the field do we need to do a total water change every day or not? Sorry always had water drinkers before so not done buckets in fields! 

[/ QUOTE ]
I wouldn't have thought so, unless it's getting really manky with the heat and food dropped in it! Depends a bit I think on how big the buckets are as well.


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## Pidge (4 July 2008)

very different to over here then! 
Hadn't been too worried as know when we've been out with boys they've gone several hours with not drinking and when they've been offered water they turn their noses up at it.
Wish I knew what had scared him down there


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## Patches (4 July 2008)

I have the odd tub trug in the fields which I fill up from the huge cow trough that's in the other part of the field. (Had to separate randy Patches and Taz you see, hence why they don't all have free access to the huge trough).

I don't change the tub trugs daily. Just top them up. Let's face it, the water in the huge cow trough doesn't get changed daily does it? It doesn't become tainted with ammonia like it would in the stable overnight and there is no hay/haylage dropped in it. 

He'll be fine like that. Maybe try moving the tub closer to the water drinker over time. Some of ours were scared of the auto drinkers in the stables, but soon adapted when they became thirsty enough.


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## Pidge (4 July 2008)

cheers, it's a 42L tubtruck so pretty big


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## Pidge (4 July 2008)

Thanks  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 the only thing that has changed is that they fixed a leaky valve so it doesn't leak anymore, and I took the opportunity to empty it so it was nice and clean. Perhaps he prefered the dirty water?


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## hellybelly6 (4 July 2008)

WHen my horse was striped grazed, I changed the water daily in his large tubtrug.

He may be dehydrated for a day or two, but he should be ok and no lasting damage done.  Keep checking his pee if you can to make sure.

You could gradually move the bucket over towards the scarey waterer.  When my horse was at the vet school, he did not like the hissing of the waterers, but he soon got used to it after a day or so, trouble was, the waterer was not deep or big enough for his big nose and he had to wait each time for it to fill up and he got frustrated!

I think patience and time is required.  I would and I am sure I will get shot down in flames for this, train him to go near it with treats and praise.

Hope he gets used to it soon.


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## Pidge (4 July 2008)

see he's been fine with it for the past 11 months so why now all of a sudden is it scary?


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## Patches (4 July 2008)

Well, I must admit mine prefer rain water to mains water.


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## Halfstep (4 July 2008)

I went through this with my nutcase last year. He WOULD NOT drink from the trough in the field. Only from his tub in his stable. He would go all day without drinking, then come in and drink and drink.  Nothing wrong with the trough, he wasn't afraid of it, other horses happily drank from it - he just didn't like it. I was really worried but the vet said that if he got very thirsty he would get over it and drink, he wasn't stupid.  

True enough, once he got left out at night he decided he'd rather drink than go dry, and now has got over his stupid fussiness, although I do have to clean out the trough a lot or he turns his nose up again.  Arrgh. horses.


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## Pidge (4 July 2008)

thanks am glad it's not just Sunny that's done this then


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## Natch (4 July 2008)

Hmmm sounds like something's happened - maybe he got suprised by a bird having a bath in there or something random like that.  
	
	
		
		
	


	





In Spain it is standard practice to water their horses once every 2-3 days. Not recommended  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 and the horses end up making horrible noises in their throats when they swallow because they are so dry, but they do survive.


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## JM07 (4 July 2008)

anychance that there could be a bit of leccy tape that has touched the trough whilst he's been drinking???


or......there is something dead at the bottom???


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## ladyt25 (4 July 2008)

Persoanlly i agree with the "if he'd thirsty enough he'll drink" logic.

As for the trough being clean - yep, check there's nothing dead in it, we once (when cleaning ours out) found a dead rabbit in ours. It was gross, admittedly we hadn't cleaned the trough out for a lot longer than normal so god knows how long it'd been in there - it was just white!!! eugh! 

Christ knows how the thing got in there either?!


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## mystiandsunny (4 July 2008)

Sure I remember reading that horses in the wild walk to their water source usually twice a day (sometimes once if it's a long way).  Horses were watered twice daily for centuries and did plenty of work on that.  It's obviously better for their insides if they can drink when they please but they're a bit like us - I can go all day without a drink if I have to (think shows with horrid loos!), I just drink loads that evening!


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## Pidge (4 July 2008)

Phew  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 spoke to vet tonight as when I got to the yard Sunny had hardly drunk anything from his tub  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 one wee in his box that I could see. So rung vet for advice, don't shoot me down I'd rather be safe than sorry. He said he was probably a bit dehydrated but sounded fine as all vital stats ok  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 cue me more relieved  
	
	
		
		
	


	




Sis lunged Sunny and he was romping so obviously feeling well  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 took them down the field with tub truck and bucket, and sis took Sunny down to the drinker again and woohoo he had 2 long drinks from it  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 We've filled the tub truck anyway just in case.
So no electric tape in the water or anything dead lurking in it, had cleaned it the day before. I know I have blonde hair but I'd forgotten  
	
	
		
		
	


	




 that some calves had got in the next field and they were in again tonight so think that may have been what distrubed Sunny - I am blonde  
	
	
		
		
	


	




So hopefuly problem solved but will leave the tubtruck in field for a while just to be on the safe side.
Thanks ever so much yet again for the help and advice given, much appreciated as always


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