Horse Quencher

TrustMeNaturally · Horse Quencher

I have heard a lot about this product. As we have a gelding that seems to "forget" to drink and we constantly have to monitor how much he drinks (and try to encourage him) - especially in summer.
So, I was giving this a look.

I am not thrilled with the ingredients:

Crimped barley,
salt,
steam crimped oats,
cane molasses,
flaked
corn,
beet pulp,
vegetable oil,
propionic acid,
and flavor

Anybody out there have experience with this product. My biggest concern is that he will never want to drink plain water again.
We have tried ACV (apple cider vinegar), heated buckets, and just about everything else. He does okay, but is definitely not drinking the 8-10 plus gallons a day he should be. His manure looks good, he pee's like a pro, but 2-3 times a year he falls into a minor colic because he didn't drink enough.
Would love to hear your thoughts or experiences with Horse Quencher.
Thanks,
Marianne

carefreegirl

Never used it, I've heard of some using fruit juice in the water or Gatorade...heard of others giving electrolyte supplements....sorry not much experience with this, Good Luck.

creekwood

I've used it for endurance rides, hard trail rides & clinics. LOVE it, & so do my horses. I'm not so sure about using all the time because of this

TrustMeNaturally

Yep, thanks Kelsey, that's what I am afraid of too!
Marianne

Clarissa

You could try a bit of elcheapo orange & mango juice concentrate in a bucket of water, say 1/2cup in 20lt to start with. Then when he is happy drinking it you would slowly cut the amount of juice down over a few weeks until it is just plain water again. All of my horses have loved juice concentrate over the years. My friend used to work at a juice factory & we got all the out of date bottles & gave them to the horses to drink. The elcheapo concentrate is just frozen pulp from Brazil which is exported to many countries to supplement the expensive fresh juice grown locally. No other difference.

Or you could grate an apple or carrot into the 20lt bucket & fill with water & progressively reduce the amount of fruit. Or soak sultanas in warm water for a while & add that to the water. Things like honey & molasses have more calories than sugar.

PasoBaby_CarolU

Marianne, have you looked at his diet to make sure the salts in it are balanced? If your local pasture or hay has a high salt, say potassium salt, the horse's body will say it 'has enough salt' and won't eat any of the free choice sodium salt. Then they won't drink enough. Keeping these salts balanced is critical to their system's balance. We have a problem here with too much calcium in the water and hay.

It might behoove you to get your hay and pasture analyzed and run it through Dr. Kellon's feed balancing chart and see what is off. Then just add what is needed.

I know people that sprinkle a tablespoon of salt on their horse's hay every day. I still think it's best to go with the testing and do just what is necessary.

Contact Dairy One. It's not that expensive, they send you bags, return envelopes and instructions. It's a lot cheaper then a vet bill.

After that, if it doesn't solve the problem, you might run a blood panel on him.

TrustMeNaturally

Clarissa, thanks for the ideas. I had not thought of some of those. I especially like the idea of carrots or apples. I could puree them.

Carol, yes his diet is completely balanced. I am a Kellon graduate. We have every batch of hay tested here. He gets loose salt every day in his soaked ODTBC along with flax, vitamin e, ProBios. We have amazing grass hay and the only thing he is a wee bit short on is under 1 gram of copper and zinc.

He is a funny duck. It is almost like he "forgets" to drink. He is rotated on pasture and dry lot all year with hay when dry lotted. We make sure he has buckets of water "everywhere."

I am careful also to notice changes in our well water. We have had it tested and there wasn't anything terribly out of sync.

I will be getting our pasture and soil tested this spring/summer to see if there is anything there.

This has been an ongoing thing since we bought him in 2007.
It can just get tedious constantly watching the lines on his water bucket to see if he did drink. So, I thought of trying horse quencher, but wanted to get some forum opinion first.
Thanks,
Marianne