The summer months are typically more conducive to equine dehydration but actually the winter time can cause our equines to suffer from dehydration too. With freezing weather conditions, horses sweating as their clips grow out and their thirst mechanism in some cases not always functioning as efficiently can lead to equine dehydration in the winter time.
What is Dehydration?
Water is lost from the horse’s body daily, through their waste products, the moisture in their breath and more obviously from sweating if the equine is working hard or their thick winter coat has not been clipped. If this lost water is not replenished this can cause dehydration affecting the functioning of variety of different roles in the body and delivery mechanisms including transporting vitamins and nutrients to cells, flushing out toxins, regulating body temperature and metabolising and digesting food.
What Do Our Horses Need to Avoid Dehydration
Most horses require a minimum of 10-12 gallons of water per day to meet their physiological needs and horse owners should always ensure during winter time that equine’s have access to clean, fresh water and that in freezing conditions the ice on the water is broken and removed at least twice daily.
How Does Dehydration Occur in Winter
Horses may consume less water during winter for many reasons such as; consuming less food in general, reducing the amount of water required for digestion, disliking excessively cold water, the water buckets or tanks becoming frozen, and ingestion of less grazing. Grass is rich in water, containing up to 80% moisture, whereas hay can be as low as just 10%.
What can you do?
1.) When our equine’s stabled time increases and hay becomes the main food source why not soak your hay that you provide to your equine friend?
2.) Monitor the amount of water your horse consumes by providing ample buckets of water in the stable and assess how much they consume on a regular basis.
3.) Studies have shown that warming the water provided to your horse in freezing temperatures can encourage equines to drink up to 40% more, so why not try adding warm water to your equine’s drinking water?
Friday, 24 January 2014
Avoid Winter Equine Dehydration!
The summer months are typically more conducive to equine dehydration but actually the winter time can cause our equines to suffer from dehydration too. With freezing weather conditions, horses sweating as their clips grow out and their thirst mechanism in some cases not always functioning as efficiently can lead to equine dehydration in the winter time.
What is Dehydration?
Water is lost from the horse’s body daily, through their waste products, the moisture in their breath and more obviously from sweating if the equine is working hard or their thick winter coat has not been clipped. If this lost water is not replenished this can cause dehydration affecting the functioning of variety of different roles in the body and delivery mechanisms including transporting vitamins and nutrients to cells, flushing out toxins, regulating body temperature and metabolising and digesting food.
What Do Our Horses Need to Avoid Dehydration
Most horses require a minimum of 10-12 gallons of water per day to meet their physiological needs and horse owners should always ensure during winter time that equine’s have access to clean, fresh water and that in freezing conditions the ice on the water is broken and removed at least twice daily.
How Does Dehydration Occur in Winter
Horses may consume less water during winter for many reasons such as; consuming less food in general, reducing the amount of water required for digestion, disliking excessively cold water, the water buckets or tanks becoming frozen, and ingestion of less grazing. Grass is rich in water, containing up to 80% moisture, whereas hay can be as low as just 10%.
What can you do?
1.) When our equine’s stabled time increases and hay becomes the main food source why not soak your hay that you provide to your equine friend?
2.) Monitor the amount of water your horse consumes by providing ample buckets of water in the stable and assess how much they consume on a regular basis.
3.) Studies have shown that warming the water provided to your horse in freezing temperatures can encourage equines to drink up to 40% more, so why not try adding warm water to your equine’s drinking water?
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