Managing Your Horses During Drought Conditions

Abnormally hot dry weather conditions can cause droughts that pose unique challenges for horse owners. Even shortterm drought can create a harsh environment that stresses both horses and their pastures. Horses grazing in sparse droughtstricken pastures can face disastrous results. Its crucial to be extra attentive to your pastures and your horses during drought conditions.
Healthy Habits for Horses During Drought
One major concern during times of drought is maintaining your horses water supply. Natural water sources like ponds and streams dry out and the remaining water can become stagnant. Its unhealthy for horses to drink stagnant water due to parasites and bacteria.

If you use natural sources for your water obviously you worry about it getting low says Kris Hiney PhD an assistant professor and Equine Extension Specialist for Oklahoma State Universitys Department of Animal and Food Sciences. You must regularly check for water availability. However what I think about when there are high temperatures and a lot of evaporation is you have to careful about bluegreen algae. It can be toxic.
Hiney prefers horse owners use fresh water to keep horses hydrated. However the heat on watering tanks can also substantially increase when its hot so horse owners must be much more vigilant about refilling water buckets and tanks.
Pasture Problems During Drought
Horses can graze very low to the ground when a lack of moisture suppresses vegetation growth in a pasture. Overgrazing close to the ground can cause horses to ingest more soil material. Consuming soil poses risks such as obstruction hazard if a horse ingests a stone or sand colic if the soil contains a lot of sand.
When vegetation becomes sparse Hiney says horses might also start grazing a little closer to latrine areas that they would normally avoid. If so they are at risk of picking up more parasites. Besides the

risks for horses theres also a danger of severely damaging the pasture.
You really need to keep an eye on whats happening in your pasture in drought conditions Hiney says. Normally in the summer Im not feeding hay which saves on my hay budget. But if you overgraze pastures in a drought think about how long it takes for pastures to recover. If you have to reseed and try to reclaim pasture thats been really stressed all that input cost adds up.
It may seem a little more economically painful at the time but youre better off using some of your hay