Sunday, July 28, 2013

how to lead your horse to water AND (probably) make him drink: a giveaway!

Each day when I clean Lucy's stall, I check how much water she drank the night before. Many days, the answer is "hardly any". It freaks me out!! I've already dealt with one impaction colic with Lucy, shortly after I bought her, and I have been a crazy water lady ever since.

One way I get extra water into her is soaking her dinner, and trust me, it gets soaked thoroughly. She happily eats whatever I put in front of her face, so that's nice, but how nice would it be if she also drank a bit of water?

Recently I tried a new product called Equine Aid. It's made by a relatively new company based out of California. The product is a powdered supplement that you add to your horse's water to encourage them to drink. It has powdered alfalfa and Himalayan rock salt, along with some other tasty ingredients. It comes in pre-measured packets and the idea is that you add one packet to each 5 gallon bucket to entice your horse to drink the water.

The company offered to send me some samples, so I decided to give it a try. I supplied Lucy with one regular bucket and one got a packet of Equine Aid added to it. The first night, Lucy completely ignored it. She didn't drink any of the Equine Aid water, and she also didn't drink any water out of her other bucket. I re-used that water the second night, since it was untouched. She drank half of the Equine Aid bucket, and about 1/4 of the normal bucket. On night #3, I added a packet of the Equine Aid into her dinner, which she gobbled up. The company's owner recommended I try this so she gets a "taste" for the supplement. On the final night, she drank 2/3 of the Equine Aid bucket and only a small amount of the regular bucket. I felt encouraged!

I think this would be great to add to water at shows, or if you move your horse to a new barn and they have to get accustomed to new water. It will mask any small changes in taste of the water, while also encouraging the horse to stay hydrated. I think it's a great idea for a helpful product and if you have a picky drinker, or a horse that doesn't always like to drink at shows, consider giving this a try.

A word of caution to owners with horses who have insulin resistance or other dietary restrictions: this product does have a small amount of brown sugar in it. Luckily Lucy is free to inhale as many cookies, sugar cubes, etc as she wants so that wasn't an issue for us!

Equine Aid is sponsoring a giveaway for us, and five winners will each receive five packets of Equine Aid. To enter, leave a comment with your name, email address, and why you'd like to try this product. Good luck! Contest ends Thursday, August 1st at 5pm.

If you'd like to read more about the company and their products, visit their website at www.equineaid.com.

15 comments:

  1. Estout18@gmail.com

    Sounds like a great product for endurance rides too!!

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  2. Seems pretty awesome! Living in Florida, Lex sweats while standing still in her stall. I worry constantly about her water intake and I'd love to try something that might help tempt her!

    jess.clawson@gmail.com

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  3. I think this would be great for Houston as I just moved him to a new farm. Sounds like a really interesting product.

    Equestrianathart at gmail dot com

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  4. Would love to try this product on long hauls (which is to any event or show we go to!) so that Koda stays at least partly hydrated.

    msrider13@gmail.com

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  5. Ohhhh!! Karley.hall@gmail.com

    This would be awesome for Henry ... With his rigorous schedule I am kinda crazy about his water intake and have a large trash can that I keep topped off at all times for him to drink!!

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  6. I think this would work for Pixie my mare, she has a hard time wanted to drink out of new containers when we travel/ trail ride.

    livininadream79@yahoo.com
    Sarah

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  7. oooh! me! me! ashleylohmeyer1@gmail.com. Would love to try this out, especially since Olivia is about to get on a 10 hour trailer ride. Would love a way to soak her full of water before she goes and while she's at her show!

    -Ashley
    www.theprocessoflearning.com

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  8. This sounds like a perfect solution for shows! I usually mix powdered Gatorade into Max's water bucket at shows so he will drink.

    -Lynn
    acoustic5141@yahoo.com

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  9. I'd love to try this! Last time we hauled, Ollie colicked from getting too dehydrated, as he's not the best drinker when we're off property. I'd love to try this when we go to our first event!
    Wendy
    wendyangel@gmail.com

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  10. I would love this product because my barrel horse hates drinking and has already been dehydrated at a show and required a vet.. and my mare looooves to impaction colic on me. I'd love to find a product that I could mix in their feed to avoid all these ridiculous problems - and this sounds like it could be it!

    gefluhler@gmail.com (:

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  11. I'd love to try this as we have hit a heat wave recently, while we are still able to ride a couple of horses at my stables aren't drinking enough, as I'm hoping to take gatsby to a couple of shows this summer I think that it would be perfect for him! It would keep him drinking while we have some summer fun in this heat.

    Amber@naturesnaturalbeauty.com
    Amber Rose

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  12. Alicia
    Alicia_torres5990@yahoo.com

    I would love to try this with Mollie because she's never been a big drinker in her stall. I know she drinks outside because she always takes a big drink when I turn her out after a ride but it's much harder to monitor how much she's drinking in a shared water tub than it would be in her own personal water bucket.

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  13. I'd love to try this, because my erm.. enchanting red mare Lexy won't drink at events. No matter how hot or how humid it is she resolutely refuses any water until we get home. I do pumpe her full of electrolytes before and after the trial, but I would love if she'd drink the water I offer her fifteen times instead of splashing it all over me. My trainer actually has me use a sponge to get it in her mouth if its especially hot. SOME PRINCESSES...

    Megan
    kiessling.megan at gmail.com

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  14. I saw this on another blog and I'm dying to try it! Bobby has stopped being impressed with his horse quencher and he's not always a great drinker at shows. Starkeycarly@gmail.com

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  15. I wasn't really sure how to reach you outside of your blog about a possible saddle pad commission. My email is Lnwillia at gmail dot com

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Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment!