One of the first things you want to do at the barn every day is check the water troughs. There’s a host of reasons why you want to do this, the most obvious being that horses need to drink water. Unless the horse is hot from exercise or extremely thirsty, it should always have free choice access to fresh, clean water. In hot weather, horses can consume up to 25 gallons of water in a day. Most of our troughs contain roughly 100 gallons.
So, if you do the math, there’s enough water there for four horses per day in hot weather. What does that mean if you have more than four horses in a pasture? Well, in the case of our Kiger mustangs it means filling the trough at least twice a day in summertime. It’s always a good rule of thumb to keep the troughs over half full at least, that way there’s plenty of water.
But the Kiger pasture was special.
And no, it’s not because there are mustangs quartered there and mustangs don’t need more or less water than other kinds of horses. No the Kiger pasture is special where water is concerned because of one mare. A half-Kiger named Sycha is what all the fuss is about.
A sweet natured horse with pinto coloring, Sycha thinks that filling the water trough means playtime. Quite often she can be found yanking the hose out of the water trough and attempting to water herself or any other horse that tries to approach.
This began when she was a foal, often times we thought the hose simply slipped out or that the horses were knocking it out. One afternoon, however, on a particularly humid and uncomfortable day, the hose left the trough not once, but four times. Tired of the constant slippage, we stood guard over the hose and as the trough crested half-full, we let it be to return to work.
By happenstance, a glance thrown towards the pasture discovered Sycha standing there, calm as you please, with the hose in her mouth. Water splashed everywhere as she began bobbing her head and effectively tossed the water over her head and onto her back.
I know I was not alone in gaping at the activity as others stopped to watch Sycha watering herself down. Deeply curious, my husband approached the water trough and Sycha dropped the hose. He retrieved it and expressing the same curiosity everyone else was feeling at that point, aimed it directly at her.
Sycha preened under the water being sprayed over her, going so far as to turn around and dance backwards into the spray until she was completely soaked down. To be certain, none of us had ever seen such behavior in a horse before. Usually it takes practice to convince a horse that the hose as well as the water spraying over them won’t eat them, but we’re not complaining.
Bathing time with Sycha was no where near as difficult as it could be with some younger horses as you get them used to the feeling of water splashing against their legs. But I have to admit, there’s nothing better than a cold spray of water on a really hot day!
So now, as a rule of thumb, check the water in the pastures everyday and on humid ones, be sure to water your Water Baby before filling the trough so that the hose can stay put. Sometimes, the funniest tricks are the ones the horses perform themselves.