Horse eating snow??

1eyejer

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Our horse would rather eat snow than drink fresh water from a bucket..is this normal?? she gets alot of carrots and we feed her beet pulp, which has a lot of water in it, We bring out fresh water everyday and she wont touch it..also, when i line her barn floor with straw, she will eat the straw, its kinda funny to watch..I even mix the straw with hay and she pushes the hay away to get the straw??the hay is good quality?? I guess they all have their Quirks
 

elevan

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My horse eats snow too... but she doesn't refuse her water if it's warm. We bring out warm water in the winter for her.

And she likes to eat the bedding straw too...but goes nuts for her hay.

They all have their quirks, I guess. Be careful about horses only eating snow and not drinking their water. Our girl went down about a month ago. When the vet checked her out he said she was dehydrated and suggested the warm water. Worked like a charm. He said that horses will eat snow rather than drink icy water because it actually feels "warmer" when you put it into your mouth. Sounds strange and I've never tried it personally but his advise worked so I won't argue.
 

Electric

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This is completely normal. My horses have stopped drinking water all together, so when I let them out I just don't fill the water bucket. But I do agree that if you do want to continue with water, heat it, or at least fill a couple of buckets, and let them sit inside for a couple of hours. I had to do this with my pony, for he refused to eat snow.
 

goodhors

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Just now doing the test questions for horse knowledge test in 4-H. It takes 10 quarts of snow intake to make a gallon of water for the horse, in our book. They literally can't eat enough snow for water needs. Horses allowed to only get their water from snow are often impacted, dehydrated and die from the resulting colics. This no-water and death problem was very common in the past, without trough heaters, out on the plains for wild and ranch herds.

You should be keeping track of how much your horse downs daily, start worrying if it is less than a couple gallons over 24 hours. This would not include snow eating. That is miniscule amounts in the total scheme of things.

We have had some dehydration problems in the past, finicky drinkers. I have gone to adding salt to grain on a daily basis. Feed salt is cheap, easy to use, horses seem to have no issues getting between a tablespoon or two extra. It really WILL inrease the water intake even for Miss Finicky.

When it comes to life and death, which this is literally, you need to MAKE horses drink better. Quirks of this type are not tolerated, unless you want to pay Vet expenses or bury the horse. Find something like the wet, warm beet pulp to add to feed, add the extra salt, don't depend on horse eating his salt block. Check the buckets and water tanks DAILY, so you can spot "abnormal" routine activities or not enough water being consumed.

We have insulated wood boxes outside the water tanks, run the heaters at night. With no electric on while horses have tank access, they will never get shocked if heater goes bad or a short develops in wet ground. Water in insulated tank is about 40F, stays liquid even if outside temps are below zero all day. Our horses are barned at night, tanks are covered with heaters running. Saves a bit of money, using night rates of electricty for heaters instead of 24 hours a day. There are electric heated buckets for stalls if you want water kept liquid in extreme weather. A lot of horses like their heated buckets, will drink more from them when inside.

I am saying all this because not drinking 5-10 gallons DAILY, PER HORSE, is very BAD for them. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but not drinking well WILL CAUSE problems at some point. The issue with dehydration is your warning sign, something needs to change in your horse management to help him drink more or better or it will be fatal to the horse.

Kind of gruesome, but usually the first horse show is a a tally of whose horses didn't make it, dehydrated into impaction colic over winter. At some point even the Vet and surgery won't save them.

We also do the wet, warm beet pulp in winter feeding daily. I do think it helps a lot.
 

Electric

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I have had all my horses from birth. Most are over 8 now, and I only water 1 bucket per day, they eat snow the rest of the day. And they do NOT suffer from dehydration and I am pretty sure none of them have died yet . . .
 

patandchickens

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goodhors said:
Just now doing the test questions for horse knowledge test in 4-H. It takes 10 quarts of snow intake to make a gallon of water for the horse, in our book. They literally can't eat enough snow for water needs.
Yah, well, all due respect to 4-H and so forth, but that's not necessarily true.

There is no way of giving a number for snow-to-water conversion because it depends on how *dense* the snow is.

Also, a lot of herds DO survive every winter of their lives on mostly snow, with few losses.

I'm not saying one should intentionally try to keep horses on snow instead of providing liquid water, and I'm not saying one shouldn't try to figure out how to make water more appealing if a horse isnt' drinking it, because for one thing even just "few" losses is not acceptable to most of us.

However, the situation is not as dire as the 4-H manual seems to make it out to be, either.

Interestingly, studies in Alberta have shown that sheep (note: NOT horses, *sheep*, they are different) not only prefer snow to water if given the choice, they actually *do better on* snow. Go figure.

Pat
 

goodhors

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Always interesting what folks say on here.

The western ranch folks I know, been doing ranching for many years, do supply DAILY water for the horses AND cattle. They DO NOT expect animals to survive on the snow they eat. The animals need enough liquid water to allow hay to move within the digestive systems. If they lack enough liquid, they get impacted, colic and die.

My friends, most ranchers, bring the animals up closer to the main house, so it is easier each day to provide hay aand open the frozen tanks or ponds. Those folks have to go out daily and make sure the water is open and full for the animals. If the animals die, they lose money, plain and simple. Providing water makes survival chances MUCH higher in extreme winter weathers.

Do what you like with your horses. I see folks who keep their horses as you do, just never seem to "get it" when they die in winter. Don't change their ways, horses are cheap to buy another. Just don't promote snow eating and not watering horses as good horse keeping. Read any horse book, they all say to insure horses have water in quantity daily. Others may not be as lucky as you have been so far, following snow eating advice.

Horses seem to often survive in spite of how they are kept, alway some to make a liar out of any statement about care.
 

Barn Maid Ann

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I am kind of new to this forum. Been a member of BYC for years.
I have had horses for years, though only brought my own home to my back yard 5 years ago.
I would NEVER not give my horses water in winter. It is not safe to presume they will get enough water in their system to keep properly hydrated just from snow.
Water consumption does correlate with how much they eat and what. Mine eat a lot of dry hay, so they drink a lot of water. I am lucky to have hot water in my barn, so I can offer some when needed.
My Arab in particular does not like to drink a lot of cold water. She has had a few colicky episodes in winter. I give her salt eletrolytes if I feel she is not drinking enough. Though this is controversial, I would rather not have a sick horse and a big vet bill.
I have read (forget where) that if given the choice a horse will choose cold water over warm. But if given only warm water, they will drink more of it.
Ann
 

elevan

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Barn Maid Ann said:
I have read (forget where) that if given the choice a horse will choose cold water over warm. But if given only warm water, they will drink more of it.
Ann
My 2 horses wait for me to bring out the buckets of warm water and can barely wait for me to get through the gate. They choose the warm over the cold that is in their water bucket every time since I started doing it for them.
 

Natisha

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Besides the obvious need for real water a horse eating snow will burn up valuable calories using energy to melt the snow. Energy needed for staying warm.
 

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