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> So, how does everybody "water"
> their horses on the trailer?
The answer is--"it depends!" <g>

For short hauls (under 4-5 hours, or even up to 6, if the weather is cool)
I don't worry about it.  Watching my guys out in the field, even when they
are eating dry grass hay free-fed in big bales, only come up for water a
couple of times a day.  It is little wonder that they don't drink when
offered sooner, unless they are "trail-wise"--they are plenty hydrated,
and unless it is hot, they aren't dehydrating any worse than they would in
the field at home.

For longer hauls, I clip buckets in place near their hay nets.  Depending
on the group, I water accordingly.  If only hauling a few familiar horses,
I won't add the buckets until I am ready to water them the first
time--with the horses that are active campaigners, that may be anywhere
from 2-6 hours, depending on the weather.  With horses new to hauling,
that may be 12 hours or more, again, depending on the weather.

If I have a whole bunch of horses in the large trailer where it isn't
practical to go walking in with them to clip up the buckets, I'll put the
buckets in before we start--and just leave them empty until the
appropriate time.  (Usually big groups like that are NOT our usual
trail-wise riding horses, and are still in the learning curve about
drinking--so it is usually 12+ hours before I water.  But then they DO
DRINK!)  When I travel cross-country like that with large groups, I carry
a hose, so that I can fill buckets at service station hydrants, rest area
hydrants, etc.  With the large groups, I also have to refill hay nets more
frequently, if I can't go crawling in among them, since I DON'T have
drop-down windows, and can only shove a couple of flakes at a time through
the bars in a hay net.  (If I had drop-down windows, I could also add the
buckets later.)

When I'm on the road, I've found that it doesn't pay to LEAVE more than
about half a bucket in each bucket while enroute--I'll top them up at
stops if they are empty, since the horse is clearly drinking well, but
I've found that half a bucket will remain IN the bucket if the horse is
not drinking, so I have an idea of what they are actually consuming.

Heidi



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