Muddy Puddles

We take special pains to be sure that our horses have a plentiful supply of fresh, clean water. It's puzzling then when they drink from mud puddles. I found the answer recently in my copy of "Why Horses Do That" by Lisa Dines.

If you think about it, drinking out of a puddle is a more natural neck extension to drinking out of a trough or out of a bucket. It simulates drinking out of a stream or a lake. In the wild, horses paw up their own mud puddles which also provides them with important minerals. Fresh water after a rain may be more appealing than the water that has been in the bucket several hours.

I trail ride with a woman whose horse periodically will stop to paw and to nibble on what appears to be plain old dirt but which may have a mineral that he's seeking. Horses know instinctively what they need and what they like, even it it doesn't make sense to their owners.

Happy Trails, Kathy, Horsedrivensite.net