Auto Waterers

[gooselover]

I just moved my gelding down to a new barn for training. I just realized I do not think he has been exposed to auto waterers. How do you "teach" them to use one or do they figure it out on their own?

Any experiences?

[Thomas_1]

Yep!

[Thomas_1]

Oh should have said:

Unless you're a wealthy owner and it's a high level dressage Dutch Warmblood and then you'll have to pay an immense amount of money to a trainer to teach it how to drink. ;)

I'm free :winkgrin:

[Painted Horse]

I usually just watch my horses the first day, When I seem them looking for water, ( I leave a empty tank near the autowater) I show the horse. Press the paddle and fill he bowl, lead the horse to the water. He will figure it out from there.

[deltawave]

Average time I've observed my horses take to figure it out: 15 minutes. :) Range: 30 seconds to a couple of hours. I figured the late-learners just weren't thirsty. :)

[naturalequus]

They'll figure it out on their own and by observing other horses :D On the other hand, it never hurts to show him yourself and splash a little of the water around for a second or two so they perhaps pick up the general idea easier.

[dotneko]

Never had one that did not figure it out.
We don't have the 'paddle' style - ours are
toilet tank style that refill as the level drops
without the horse having to 'push' on anything.

We usually put a half bucket in to start them.
Then we they come in from turnout we don't
add water to the bucket - we watch and see if they
use the waterer instead.

Dot

[starkissed]

If we have a new horse we usually set a bucket out by the waterer as well just in case. But they aren't too stupid usuallY!

[SMF11]

I always put a bucket out in the paddock next to the waterer until I see the horse drinking from the waterer.

I have Nelsons, so nothing to push down; the new horse watches the old ones and USUALLY figures it out.

However, my TB took a good week to figure it out -- he got the hang of drinking all right, but when the waterer would start to refill he would leap back in horror. So I kept the bucket going until he drank quietly. I don't think you ever want a horse to get thirsty . . . even with buckets they do figure it out eventually.

[MunchkinsMom]

They figure it out. I recall when I moved my horse from self-care to the Horsey Hilton, and he had been on the trailer for 4 hours, we put him in the stall, he found the Nelson waterer and drank, but when it started the refill process it scared him and he plastered himself against the far wall and snorted at it, giving us all a good laugh. Probably mean of us to laugh at his expense, but it was comical. We didn't give him a bucket, and I don't recall how long it took him to figure it all out, but probably less than an hour.