Equine Diet: A Horse's Water intake - By: Tammy Patterson

Water intake is a vitally important part of the horse's diet. An average sized horse will carry around 300 litres at any one time. For this reason it is essential that the horse has enough water in its daily diet. A horse can live for many weeks with no food but can only survive for a few days without water. At rest a horse will lose water through excretion, evaporation and evaporation from the skin. They will consume up to thirty litres on a typical day and on a hot summer day can consume around fifty five litres.

Horses will take water both from drinking and from food; the contents of their diet will affect the amount of extra water they need to consume. For example haylage has higher water content than dry hay.
If a horse does not get enough water in their diet then they run the risk of becoming dehydrated. If they lose a lot of water during exercise through sweating then it is important that this is accounted for and replaced. Another time when their water intake should be monitored is during transportation. Horses can get agitated on long journeys or hot due to the reduced airflow and in both cases this can lead to water loss through sweating.

To prevent your horse suffering from dehydration you should make sure that they always have access to clean, fresh water especially when at competitions or make regular stops if travelling a long distance. On hot days try to make sure the horse has access to a shaded area to try and prevent sweating. If your horse does not drink well then consider making sure that their diet is rich in water, for example you can feed watery sugar beet and haylage instead of hay.

There are many signs of dehydration that you can look out for. These include reduced urine production or producing a darker coloured urine. Also mucous membranes can become red in appearance and congested. A loss of performance can also be a sign when coupled with the above. If you are concerned that your horse may be suffering from dehydration it is advisable to consult a vet who will be able to carry out a blood test. If you consider that your horse may be mildly dehydrated or to prevent dehydration at competitions you can put electrolytes or salt into their water which will encourage them to drink more. If the horse will not drink water with salt in then consider adding them to their feed then making sure there is plenty of water available to access.

About the Author

Tammy is a passionate equine rider who likes to promote the correct ways to be treating horses. Tammy works part time for a company who specialise in riding boots as well as mark todd long boots & horse riding boots in the UK. For more info, please visit the site for a range of horse rugs and equestrian clearance products

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