As the weather gets warmer and you enjoy taking your horse out with your Fairfax jump saddle you need to make sure your horse stays hydrated.

You need to provide water in troughs or buckets. They need to be clean and available at all times. To ensure they are clean check for dirt, dead animals and manure. Horses do refuse to drink dirty water and will become dehydrated as a result of this if there is no other water available.

You must always scrub troughs and buckets clean and make sure you have a schedule for refilling the drinking vessels so the horse is never without water. Remember that when it is hot you need to compensate for the evaporation that will occur, as well as the increased consumption from the horses.

Water consumption of horses can double when horses are exercising in hot and humid conditions, so take this into account.

The sodium intake of the horse also affects their hydration so you need to keep an eye on this also.

Horselicks can help and are an affordable solution but researchers have shown that sodium intake is variable and may not be high enough. You can add table salt to the horse’s food to increase their consumption; you can also add food supplements to feed. It is best to mix this into the food so that they don’t eat around it, and they eat all of the salt you give them.

If you do feed your horse additional salt then keep an eye out for ulcers and potential gastric ulcers, which can be exacerbated by increased electrolyte consumption.

Find more tips for caring for your horse in the summer on the Redwings Horse Sanctuary site.