Winter Water for Horses
Horses require access to free choice clean water at all times and in all seasons and will drink an average of 30 litres of water per day. Many horses diets see an increase in dry feed matter like hay during the winter months. As a horse requires three litres of water for every kilogram of dry matter they eat although horses drink less in cold weather adequate water consumption remains a priority.
Forcing horses to get moisture from eating snow is counterproductive. In addition to the fact that an average of ten times as much snow must be eaten to provide an equivalent amount of water horses must use precious body heat to melt the snow. Horses on snowcovered pasture will receive a certain amount of fluid through the snow they ingest but not enough to satisfy their daily requirements.
Whatever your water source check it regularly especially during extreme cold and have a plan for a backup watering system in the event of a failure. If your trough heater or automatic waterer goes on the fritz heated buckets might get you by until repairs or replacements can be made. These heated buckets are also handy if you need to keep a horse indoors for a period of time and dont have a heated barn or automatic stall waterer. As winter storms can wreak havoc with