Horse eating snow??

[WashingtonBay]

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

There was a study posted on TheHorse.com that found this.

The reason is presumed to be what we know from drinking water ourselves. Really cold water 'feels' more thirst quenching than warm water. So they therefore may 'feel' satisfied with less. Warm water doesn't feel as thirst quenching so they drink more of it. More is better.

I'll add my vote for making sure they are drinking plenty of water in winter. Lots of horses dehydrate in the cold.

 

[yankee'n'moxie]

This is my first winter owning horses, but I certainly plan to give them plenty of water. And if possible, I plan to buy them heated buckets for winter too! Either way, I will give them plenty of water and if they aren't drinking what they should, I have salts on hand already.

This is just my opinion, but I agree with the people who say that eating snow is ok, for the horses fun, but I think that they should be drinking water more than eating snow.

 

[MiniFarmGirl]

When it comes to life and death, which this is literally, you need to MAKE horses drink better.

I'm sorry, but you can not MAKE a horse drink water. When they say you can lead a horse to water but you can't Make them drink it, it's true. In MY experience, I've never been able to make a horse drink water. That might be different for you, but I've never known a person able to make a horse drink water. Horses have a mind of their own. Maybe all of the horses in the world eating snow, including mine, have some instinct to eat snow. Maybe not. We will never really know. We just make assumptions. We will just have to help our horses the best we can and hope that they drink the water. My horse also eats icicles. She isn't dead. She's just doing what she wants to do.

 

[goodhors]

Well, with a little work getting additional salt inside the horse, you CAN make them get more
water inside, if the water is available.

Most horses will eat loose salt on their grain pretty easily. If not, you can pull out their
tongue and put salt onto it. Salt sticks to tongue and they swallow it, drink more water.

We are not talking huge quantities, but a Tablespoon or two a day. I buy my loose salt
as "feed salt" from the elevator or farm store in 50# bags because it is the cheapest kind.

More salt in their body helps them to retain more water in the body during the winter.

From my experience, people who don't do things to prevent problems, are the ones who
are so surprised when their animal colics with impaction colic, from being dehydrated.
Winter is the season horses just drink a lot less, snow eating is not a big help in adding
water to their bodies.

Do whatever you please, but if your horse colics you better have the Vet on hand real fast.
Lot of horse owners "never had a colic", always done things that way, until colic happens
and they are so surprised!! Your choice to go the extra step or not.