This article has appeared previously with Equestrian Life. To see what's in our latest digital issue, click here.

A 'normal' horse requires approximately 50-60ml/kg body weight/day (25-30 litres/500kg).

Don't forget the water

By Dr Maxine Brain

With the hot weather upon us, providing access to good clean water is even more vital now than at any other time of year, due to the increased requirement for water to cool a horse’s body down in high temperatures.

How much water should a horse have access to and how much does a horse drink? There are no simple answers to these questions as water requirements are affected by many factors, including environment, diet, body size, metabolic rate and even the fat content in the body. As an example, it has been shown that horses increase their water intake 15%-20% when the ambient temperature increases from 13C to 25C.

A “normal” horse requires approximately 50-60ml/kg body weight/day (25-30 litres/500kg) to replace the fluids required/excreted in the process of conducting basic bodily functions such as metabolism, respiration, and elimination of wastes from the body. If “water in” doesn’t equal “water out”, homeostasis (maintenance of the body’s equilibrium) cannot be maintained, and the horse will suffer if this inequity is not rectified in a timely manner…

Read the full article in our January 2022 magazine here.