Hydration is one of the most important but often forgotten elements of sport both human and equine. I train my horses to be good drinkers, although as the old saying goes ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’, I have found that with consistency you more or less can.
So in competition I offer three pony beverages:
- Plain Water
- Aqua-aide
- Sugar Beet water
The training starts at home, I always offer them a drink before I ride and after and I mix up what’s on offer from the three options. Aqua-aide is like pony squash, the sugar content means it’s very palatable, it really does smell yummy, and without fail they guzzle it up. I’m ok with offering something with added sugar if it means they instantly drink 15 litres. So I start with that for the first few weeks. Then start switching it out for plain every now and again. I’ll even wander into the field and offer it up, or mid way through a schooling session.
The consistency of when I give it to them seems to mean that more often than not my horses drink the whole thing whenever they’re offered a bucket. But you also need to get to know them. For instance Tissy will drink before a competition and in training whenever you give it to her but during the first 40km she’s not interested. Azid will drink whenever it’s offered, whatever he’s doing and Qantas is still a work in progress.
I guess I’ve been really lucky with my horses, never having a ‘bad drinker’. But if you do struggle with keeping your horse hydrated you can try this recipe from Baileys Horse feeds in the video below.
Beth Endurance 