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.