Why You Can't Make A Horse Drink!
I imagine you’ve heard the heard the saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink, being a horse owner I can vouch that’s very true and it can be extremely frustrating and dangerous, I’m Susan Allen inviting you to stayed tuned for today’s Open Range, I'll tell you how a team of Canadian researchers has shed some light on the drinking preferences of our equines friends. One aggravation for horse owners is that their animals can be picky drinkers. When we rodeo or compete with speed and working horses there is a bevy of tricks cowboys use to get their animals to stay hydrated. Horses like humans enjoy flavored water, often apple juice, cranberry or even Gatorade can entice a horse to drink yes probably the reason old Willie sang about beer for his horses. A team of Canadian researchers recently had their study published in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science that concluded horses prefer the same water humans do, ideally pure spring water with neutral pH levels rather than low pH levels. In other words horse abhors acidic water. Now it didn’t matter the age, gender or breed of the equines studied, if the pH of the water fell below 5 meaning it’s was extremely soft, the horses consumption dropped dramatically. Thus the researchers recommended that for owners whose horses don’t drink much water to test the it with either a litmus paper or a hardness kit . Due to the fact that the horses tested showed a strong aversion to water with a pH under 3.6 more studies will be conducted to determine if acidic water can actually cause them harm.
