A Drink for the Horses
I’ve written before about archaic geographical names, like a spot in the river where I grew up being named “Horse Drinks.” As a horse owner I know how important water is to horses. They can go through a lot of water even on cold rainy days.
I really appreciate it when I visit the old section of a city, such as Victoria, B.C. where water fountains of the old days remain. Many of these fountains have special drinking areas for horses.
I know that whenever I am out on the trails with my horses I always find an opportunity for my horses to drink, be it a stream or a puddle. I lead them to it and leave it up to them to drink it or not. I've had horses that would drink from a hose. I once had a horse that would drink out of a bottle. That’s a cool thing about owning a horse that a kid owned. Kids teach their horses all kinds of crazy stuff.
I get upset when I go places and see the water facilities for horses lacking, or water that is old and standing with mosquito larvae and scum in it. Some horses do bad things to their water. I’ve seen some dunk their heads and faces in it. One horse I looked at to buy wouldn’t eat his hay unless he dunked it first. I have yet to see a horse poop in the water trough. It’s like even they know what is unacceptable. I’ve see horses finish their water and start kicking their water bucket around to get your attention to refill it.
For me watering is easy in the winter. I have the down spouts feed directly into their troughs. Just a mist of a rain fills them right up. They have a constant supply of clean cold water. However when the rains end I fill their troughs twice a day.
I guess I’m writing this so that all of you with pets will take a look at their water bowls. Yes, I know your pets probably drink from the toilet, but maybe if you kept their water bowls fresh and clean they would have a safer alternative.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
12 Comments:
We love our two in-ground waterers. No ice to break and all the water they want, any time.
that reminds me of something I used to say when I was little: "You can lead a gift- horse to water, but you can't make him stop and smell the roses along the way."
Dunno how that one started, but there it is a blast from Auntie's WAY past.
my dog is too small to drink from the toilet, and the one before her was far too stuck-up to consider such a thing.
both of them, however, will knock the bowl around or yelp at you until you re-fill.
bossy little things.
My dogs will both drink from the toilet and play in their water dish. Not the sharpest crayons in the box, I'm afraid. We keep plenty of clean water for them and they would rather play in it than drink it.
so it's true, you CAN lead a horse to water.
Something about you can lead a silk horse to a sows ear, but you can't poke a drinking pig in the water.
No......
That's not right, either....
My Italian friend says you can take a horticulture but you can't a make her curtsy.
If our cat's water bowls are left empty for more than a couple minutes, one of the herd will carry the offending bowl to where one of us is and drop it accompanied by cries of protest.
Damn! They sure trained us well.
When I was young it was common to have watering troughs in most rural yards & at many businesses in the rural areas as so many folks rode places to save fuel.
Oddly a toilet would make a great watering device for live stock. It is self filling and if you want to clean it all you have to do is flush.
And where did you people come up with those sayings. Sounds like Dr. Emilio Lezardo. Points for anyone who knows who that is.
The inventor of the failed version of the oscillation overthruster! Quite barking mad, actually.
We have more than a few clean water troughs...so I stopped worrying about how clean my dogs water was after seeing them drink from a mud puddle down at the barn, AFTER they ate half a pile of horse poop. No kisses for mommy!
Darev, Good. You've been paying attention.
Ginger, Dogs are so disgusting, it's a wonder anyone wants one.
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