Let me know if you've heard this one: a draft cross mare and a OTTB gelding walk into a bar, the mare orders a pitcher of beer knowing she can just relax and sip all evening, the gelding orders a shot of tequila knowing he can down it quick and instantly get the buzz he needs. Horses are never this transparent with their preferences; oh if only! Everything to do with a horse has a learning curve! And it is based on this curve that I learned that my senior gelding requires an IV bag plugged into a vein for him to get the proper amounts of fluids and that my draft cross mare will suck down anything (including feed or a hand) even if it comes from a mud puddle! Water is an essential element for every living thing but that doesn't mean all living things willingly accept it or in the usual ways. We equine lovers are forced to cater to the water whims of our hoofed babies. It took me awhile to figure out the water tank drama Dar and Calypso star in every day.
"Water is an essential element for every living thing."Due to the challenges of keeping weight on Dar and forever trying to slim down Calypso it stands to reason I feed my horses separately. Their paddocks are side by side because Dar is rather buddy sour and only has eyes for Calypso. Each has their own water tank. It's such a simple premise; two horses, two water tanks. Despite the simplicity I have to orchestrate a movement of the troops the likes of which would cause General Patton envy! Horses like to be friends; they're herd animals and I try very hard to encourage normal horse behavior. With visions of wild horse herds running free on a beach somewhere I put my horses together but god help me they don't stay that way! They make demands that completely botch order in the equine world!
Calypso and Dar are not ambitious horses. Neither is an escape artist. They can't be bothered to break out by stepping over a hotwire if it were an inch off the ground. They would, however, trip over it every time. When the sun comes up and the birds are singing Calypso and Dar start off in separate paddocks, breakfast is fed and I leave them to enjoy their vittles. After this the drama begins. A few hours later breakfast is in their tummies. Dar takes forever to eat which is why I permit a couple of hours before I move "the troops". I dream of opening the gates so they have access to both paddocks and each other but, alas, my dream has never happened. Dar won't drink his own water; only Calypso's. He's convinced she has some sort of magical brew that has to be far and away better than his. This requires me to add the weight of water to his already hefty food ration so he doesn't dehydrate and shrivel into a shrinky dink. Because of this I'm beginning to look like that Russian guy in Rocky. Dar is also notorious for leaving his hay which causes a dilemma since Calypso can put a Hoover vacuum to shame. If I open the gate between the paddocks so they can just play nice and share their space Calypso eats all his hay. He has to be in her paddock so he'll drink but she can't be in his or she'll eat all his food. It's like a chess board except that I don't know how to play chess. I put this gelding over here and that mare over there! So, in Calypso's paddock they share the water tank and not her food. There will be hell to pay if Dar even tries to sample her hay straws! Where does that leave his left over hay and the untouchable water tank in Dar's paddock?
They could invite the guys from Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Lockdown, Supernatural, heck even X-Files when Dar's water tank stands untouched for days in the Florida Sunshine and heat. I'm convinced I saw the Loch Ness monster breaching in the slimy, green waters the other day. One hundred gallons of mosquito nursery is way too much for me to just push over and clean. Some tanks come with a drain plug; Dar's doesn't. This means the water in that tank will continue to simmer getting nastier and nastier. You may be thinking "well of course he doesn't drink it, Angel! It's dirty water!" Yeah. Trust me his tank can be sparkly clean with water from a Highland spring and he won't touch it; it isn't Calypso's! So the tank festers and evaporates in our Florida humidity. The only water he gets in his own paddock is soaked with his meals and topped off with each feeding. He is forced to drink the water to get to his feed. He gets fed three times a day which means he is moved three times a day. Now that I think about it, it's obnoxious! It would be nice to leave the gate open for them to share at the lunch time feeding except I recently learned that Dar won't eat his hay unless it's fed at his dinner feeding. Insert rolling eyes here. Because Dar is a nocturnal hay eater and will only drink Perrier from Calypso's tank I move "the troops" here, there and everywhere!
Run free d'Artagnan (Dar), 1988-2021.
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