How to Encourage a Horse to Drink Unfamiliar Water

Anyone who has every taken a horse to a horse show or on a long trail ride, knows how stressful it is when the horse decides that it won't drink strange water. When your horse won't drink, you end up spending the entire day worrying about dehydration instead of relaxing and enjoying yourself. While the best way to get your horse to drink is to bring some of your own water with you, that isn't always a practical solution. The good news is that there are several tricks that you can use to try and encourage your horse to drink.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Old buckets
• Large wooden spoon
• Corn syrup

1. Pack buckets that your horse uses on a regular basis. Your horse will be more comfortable sticking his head in a bucket that looks and smells familiar. The scent of new rubber makes some horses too uncomfortable to drink.

2. When you get to your destination, fill a bucket of water and place it outside in a pool of sunlight. Some horses won't drink water that is cold. Allowing the bucket of water to sit in the sunlight warms the water and your horse might be more willing to drink.

3. Keep a bucket of water in front of your horse whenever you aren't riding. Constantly having the bucket in front of your horse will allow him to sample the water whenever he wants.

4. Use a wooden spoon and rub a teaspoon of corn syrup on your horse's tongue. The corn syrup will make your horse's mouth sticky and he will usually take a sip of water to clean his mouth.

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