You know what they say about leading horses to water and making them drink …

During the cold winter season, many horses drink less than they should, setting them up for impaction colic, poor digestion, and other kinds of problems.

Most horses drink 8-10 gallons of water when the weather is warm, but may drink far less than this during the winter.

Tips on Getting Your Horse to Drink During the Winter
Horses often drink less in the winter because cold water can make them feel colder. In addition, horses with teeth problems are sensitive to cold water, and tend to drink less during the winter.

Luckily, there are simple horse health care techniques you can use to get your horse to drink more water in the winter. These include:

– using a water heater
– feeding hot bran mashes
– feeding soaked beet pulp topped off with hot water
– adding electrolytes or blue-green algae to feed to encourage drinking

In addition, to boost your horse’s digestion during the winter, consider adding probiotics (like Fastrack and Pro-Bi) and enzymes to his feed. This, along with adequate hydration, will go a long way to preventing impaction colic.

Read more about winter time horse health care, avoiding impaction colic, ways to treat impaction colic, and other articles and books related to horse hydration below.

Horse Health Care in Winter
Avoiding Colic in Horses in Dry Weather
Treating Impaction Colic
Holistic Horsekeeping Book
Holistic Horsekeeeping Ebook

You can also get digestive products in our online one-stop shopping store:

Holistic Horsekeeping Online Store

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