Excessive Urination?

[Julienne Rha <Julienne.Rha.B@bayer.com>]

We recently bought my boyfriend's horse (he's been with us about 3 months now)
- he's a cute 9 year old gelding paint who's great.. except for the fact that
he urinates A LOT!   I'm talking about 3 times and sometimes 4 during the 3
hours Bob takes him out (about 4 times a week).

The urine is clear/yellow and there's quite a bit of it (I'd say normal amounts
judging from my own experiences with my gelding) which makes me rule out a
bladder infection.  His hydration is excellent and he's a very easy keeper..
he's about 1060 lbs and 14.3-15 hands (a bit of a chunker) which makes me
wonder about diabetes - how common is that disease in horses?  We've spoken
about the situation with our vet and he says we can try him out on strong
antibiotics for a few days to see if that helps (kind of a shot in the dark to
clear out any sort of infection at all) or try and catch some urine and do a
urinalysis screening to see if there is blood or any unusual values.

Harley, my own horse crosses his legs 'til I return him to pasture, and even if
he does urinate around me, he makes sure not *one* drop touches his legs.  Tavi
will go in the middle of the barn aisle on the concrete floor.

What does everyone think?  My gut feeling is that he may just be a really good
drinker.. it has been a warm summer here in N.Calif.  Do you think this may
just be the norm for him or do you think it's worth the tests/antibiotics with
the vet?

Julienne