Water softeners and Conditioners.

[Stonehedge]

I am wondering if anyone has a water softener and or conditioner where the water has not been diverted from the barn water..... how safe do you think it is if the horses drink the softened water.... when we moved in 6 years ago I shut the whole system down because I was not sure of the effect of the added salt to the horses water would do any harm. I am not sick and tired of hard water stain and the fact that the scale is building up on all fixtures that have just recently been replaced..... If any of you have experience with this I would love to hear how you either got around it or if you did not bother diverting from the troughs at all. We do not have a separate water system for the barn and I am not prepared to go to that length to avoid it.
Any SUggestions.

[deltawave]

For people with health problems (such as high BP or heart failure) that makes them vulnerable to trouble from a lot of sodium, we recommend that the level of sodium in the drinking water be kept under 15-20mg/liter. The water can be easily teseted for sodium--the company that put in our well does it, or you can have it done through any water quality office, etc. Water softeners do add a lot of sodium, depending upon how "hard" the water is to start with.

For healthy, normal people, however, the sodium content of "softened" water is generally not too much of a problem. I have no idea if there's a recommended level for horses, but I personally wouldn't worry about it with a horse unless it already had significant heart or kidney problems.

We have some sort of "thing", I think it is along the lines of a gadget like this (http://www.equinox-products.com/HardnessMaster.htm), on our house water line (our well water is a little hard but loaded with iron as well) that filters out some of the minerals but is NOT a softener per se. If my husband were here he could tell me what it is, but it does not use salt and there is very little "scale" on our household fixtures, although the barn water (same well, different line, no filtering) is very prone to scaling stuff up.

[jumpymeister]

Not safe - water softeners are designed to pull the minerals out of the water. It will pull the minerals out of you and your horse as well....

[deltawave]

What an odd thing to say. Are you suggesting that water that has been softened is somehow no longer water but rather some sort of toxic chemical? Or are you proposing that people hook their veins up to the water softener and run their blood through it, like a homemade dialysis machine? :confused:

I have to say that this is one of the silliest things I've ever read. Water is water. Pull minerals out of it and you have . . . water, with fewer minerals. :rolleyes:

Somebody wasn't paying attention in 8th grade chemistry class . . .

[ironcowgirl]

Ask your vet about it but I don't think it hurts horses or people. I just moved into a house with a softener and it did change things like skin and hair texture (in a good way). It dose add salt and take out some minerals so if you hook it up watch the horses and make sure they have free choice minerals around.

[GallopHer]

My family, as well as my horses, have been drinking "softened" water for 20 years. And I have lived to tell about it...

[TheJenners]

Used it for years when I owned my own barn. Never had a problem, never heard of a problem from anyone else on a well with a water system. Current and past places where my horses have lived have all been on wells with water systems; I know because it doesn't smell :dead:.

[Stonehedge]

Thanks everyone I appreciate your replies... calling the water guy today.... I recently read an article in which A woman without a softener/conditioner had her water tested and there was very unsafe levels of iron and a few other minerals in very high contents .... She has an IR horse .... she had blood levels drawn on her horses .... their iron levels were through the roof... She had a system put in about 4 months ago and everyones blood has stabilized and jher horse is NOT Insulin Resistant. I had only thought of the damage I may cause with a water softener not without one. Just an FYI for all of you.:eek:

[Watermark Farm]

We bit the bullet and ran both hard water and soft water lines to the barn. The barn is on hard water with the exception of one horse who had a bladder stone removed ---- he drinks mostly softened water per surgeon's advice.

It's good to test your water every year or two. We test it for minerals and also certain kinds of bacteria.

Interesting about the hard water and iron and IR. If you can, would you please post a link to that info?