Water Supply for Equine
Any treatise you’ve ever read on caring for horses probably includes the line, “Provide access to plenty of fresh, clean water.” Although we all understand that this is good advice–all living things need this simple, essential liquid–we don’t really tend to give water a lot of consideration as part of the equine diet. But, just any water source won’t do–it must be clean and palatable to the horse if he’s going to drink enough. Karen Briggs
Understanding how to treat water for your horse is one of the most important decisions you can make as pros and cons for each method must be understood.
1. Chlorine
Chlorine is added to kill bacteria and essentially sterilize the water. But the horse’s gut requires bacteria for all the normal processes so high levels of chlorine will kill off good gut bacteria, which can lead to many different health problems. It is possible to remove chlorine but the possibility is always there that excess chlorine may seep through and enter the water troughs if not monitored properly.2. Reverse Osmosis
Reverse osmosis (RO) has been known for a long time to be a unhealthy method of treatment as reported by the World Health Organization in 1980. The final report, published as an internal working document (WHO 1980), concluded that “not only does completely de-mineralized water have unsatisfactory organoleptic properties, but it also has the definite adverse influence on animals and human organisms”.3. Ozone
Ozone is a unique oxidation treatment method that uses natural ozone built by the ambient air around the system. It disinfects at a much higher level than chlorine, peroxides and other man made chemicals and leaves no DBP’s (disinfection by-products). Ozone simply breaks down back into oxygen once it has completed it’s sanitizing work so all you’re left with is a completely oxygen rich purified water.
Hey – here’s an FYI for you for that saying … “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”
Your horse’s body gets the signal that it is thirsty when one of two things happens: either the blood volume drops, or the sodium concentration in the extracellular fluid increases – that is, it gets concentrated, or salty. Horses get the thirst signal more slowly than humans. This is because in humans, Na+ is less concentrated in sweat, so sodium becomes more concentrated in the blood, and the thirst signal goes out quickly. In horses, the sweat glands are very poor at conserving Na+ so even though the horse has lost a large amount of water and Na+ , the signal does not go out for the horse to drink until a serious drop in blood volume occurs due to dehydration. Consequently, even though your horse is clearly dehydrated, when you lead him to water you can’t make him drink! He’s not stubborn – His body is just not giving him an early enough warning signal.
Extract from TUFT School of Veterinary Medicine
Research Center
Welcome to the Water4Equine research center. We have compiled below links to academic research showing the benefits of clean water.