Senior Horse Care  —  Water

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 How this Section Works

Topics on This Page

Water  Dehydration Symptoms  Senior Horse Drinking Behaviors

Pasture, Corral or Pen Watering Solutions for Senior Horses

Insulated Barrels Solar-Heated Stock Tanks

Deluxe Automatic Waterer May Save Work, Reduce Hazards

Traditional Stock Tanks

Stall or Pen Watering Solutions for Senior Horses

Electrically Heated Buckets   Heated Hose

Important Watering Management for all Senior Horses

Automatic Waterers - Push Paddle or Float for Older Horses

No Screws, Bolts, Sharp Edges, Wires, Nails on the Horse Side of Anything

Salt  Shade and Wind Break

Emergencies  Stream  Rain Barrel  Snow  Stored Water  How Much Water 

Power Independence and Savings

Other Resources

Topics on Their Own Pages (See Table of Contents on the Left)

Nearly 4 Million Pleasure Horses in the U.S.A.

Today's American equine population includes an historically high percentage of seniors.  We can attribute this to many factors, but it is a trend that has created a growing demand for attention by feed manufacturers, veterinarians, equine dentists, farriers, barn managers, trainers, horse retirement facilities, and all the other service providers.

Of the 6.5 million horses in the United States today, 60% are pleasure horses, according to the American Horse Council.  As the role of the horse in America has changed dramatically from laborer to recreational partner, so has the viewpoint of his caregiver.

These factual trends combine to suggest that we can look forward to learning more as the years progress about how to make our senior equines comfortable, happy, and healthy.  It implies more and better products will become available to help us in that task.  Many horses are now active well into their twenties, and are living comfortably well into their thirties. 

However, their needs do change, and good horsekeeping simply cannot slip when dealing with seniors who cannot "bounce back" from stress or inconsistent care as readily as horses in their prime.

As the baby boomers look forward to decades of "senior" living, so, too, do our horses.  Today's pony doesn't teach a generation to ride, but two generations.  An adult couple begin riding as their teenagers empty the nest, and are still caring for their horses two decades later.  The horses have replaced the children for many never married and divorced adults, just as dogs and cats do.

Except for one teensy, weensy, problem.  A horse doesn't fit in your "senior living" apartment.  A horse doesn't fit in your car.  A horse has big feed requirements.  You can't take him to the groomer, the groomer has to come to him.

The aging people learn to wear hearing aids, and eyeglasses.  They learn to wear support stockings and dentures.  They drink Ensure and take Senior Multi-vitamins and MSM and glucosamine and chondroitin and baby aspirin.  They learn to use a cane, buy a special contour support mattress and gel inserts for their shoes and rub creams on their achy joints. They are active and enjoy working much longer than their grandparents. Grandma loves to do her volunteer work, even if she has to give up her knitting and uses audio books instead of reading.  If they are horsepeople, when they can no longer ride, they learn to drive.

And so it is with our senior citizen horses.  They are loved and valued family members. They are useful well into their twilight years, because we didn't wear them out or break them in their youth or their prime.

One of the missions of Del Camino is to help horse owners find timely information that guides them through this journey.  We want to keep our seniors as fit, as active, as contented as possible, as long as possible.  It can be done.

We dedicate our work to a few of many beloved Del Camino horses:  Freckles, who left us at age 43, Miss Cricket, who delighted children until age 38, Captain Oliver "Ollie" who fought Cushing's until age 32, and Brandy's Prince, and Smokey, both of whom had Cushing's which caused laminitis at age 26.

Thank you for having graced our lives, and taught so many people the joy of horsemanship.

How This Seniors Section Works                (Top of Page)

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Clean Abundant Water                                 (Top of Page)

All horses need 24 hour access to clean, fresh, cool water.  The typical 1,000 pound horse at rest in 60 to 70 degree weather drinks 8 to 11 gallons of water daily.  His body is 70% water, and all physical functions depend upon it.  The primary cause of colic in senior horses is impaction, caused by not drinking enough water, or dehydration. 

Seniors especially need water when fed their hay, due to ageing or missing teeth.  Also, it is important that their water is not too cold (much less frozen) in the winter; not too warm in the summer.  Hot or cold water will discourage drinking.  Often it is more difficult to confirm that a senior is dehydrated from the traditional "skin pinch test" because he has a coarser or longer hair coat, and because the lack of elasticity in his older skin makes it spring back more slowly anyway.  Become familiar with other methods for observing signs of dehydration:

Dehydration Symptoms                                            (Top of Page)

Know how to check your senior horse for signs of dehydration:

	The skin pinch test:  Failure of the skin to return to a flat plane when pinched and held briefly at the point of the shoulder, then released, is the simplest method for most horse owners to check for dehydration, and the most commonly used method. The skin normally flattens out in one second or less. Dehydration is indicated when it takes the skin two to three seconds to flatten; over four seconds indicates the danger level of fluid loss is being approached. Senior horse owners notice that the less elastic skin of truly aged, less fit horses may typically take two seconds, and a heursite horse's skin is hard to see.  With these horses, owners may want to use the gum press test below regularly, so the horse tolerates it well and it can be done routinely.
	The gum press test:  Pressing the gum above the upper corner incisor tooth, the test for capillary refill rate, or blood volume, is another good test for dehydration. Press the gum using a finger and hold for a few seconds, then release and time how long it takes the color to return to the blanched area. Normal color refill time is one second or less, longer time indicates problems may be starting.  Test and record the time for your aged horse when you are certain he is not dehydrated, to learn what his "normal"  refill rate is.
	Jugular vein refill also demonstrates the effect of dehydration upon blood volume. A veterinarian can demonstrate how to obstruct return flow of the blood from the head to the heart by pressing on the vein in the jugular furrow. It should immediately fill with blood and “bounce” when it is stroked while being held off.
	Urine volume and color indicate available water in the body for waste removal. If a horse is dehydrated, urine output decreases and the color becomes darker because it is more concentrated. Very dark, coffee-colored urine indicates the potential for a life threatening condition involving muscle degeneration and mineral imbalance accompanying dehydration.
	The color of the gums and the inside of the eyelid are helpful aids in evaluating the hydration status of a horse. The normal color of gums and inside of the eyelid is pink or pink with a very slight yellow tint. Under increasing stress and dehydration the gum and eyelid lining become a bright brick red. The next step is progression to a bluish color which indicates oxygen is unable to be distributed to the vital structures of the body and carbon dioxide levels are too high (shock).
	The mouth becomes dryer as dehydration progresses and, in severe cases, sweating ceases.
	Critical symptoms:  sweating ceases in order to preserve water for heart and kidneys, panting occurs to cool blood through the lungs and nasal capillaries, refusal of feed, very dry fecal matter sometimes encased in mucus leading to impaction colic, dry dull sunken eyes due to lack of tear production, unusual listlessness and depression or panic.

Senior Horse Drinking Behaviors                             (Top of Page)

Senior horse drinking behaviors to take into account to monitor with your own senior, and to plan a healthful, safe stabling for him:

	Some geriatric horses drink (and urinate) excessively, which can be an attempt to deal with pain.
	Others, due to aching teeth, avoid drinking, leading to impaction colic.  Studies have shown that 88% of geriatric colic cases are due to impaction, compared to 29% in younger horses.
	Even some young horses "dunk" their hay to soften it.
	Horses make a straw by curling their tongue to "suck" water, rather than "lapping" like a dog.  With aged loose teeth, the pressure caused by sucking can be painful.

Three good horsekeeping practices that help ensure your senior horse does not become dehydrated, go off his feed, or colic are:

1. Schedule a veterinary dental exam every six months.  If you have checked his teeth annually in the past, and he needed floating at twelve to eighteen month intervals, cut the schedule in half.  Check him twice a year for lost, broken, or abscessed teeth, and float as soon as sharp points begin to form on molars.

2. Always check waterers at feeding times.  If water is too dirty, not flowing, too cold or too hot, this must be fixed so the horse can eat before becoming stressed.  Horses mostly drink when eating.

3. Get to know your horse's eating and drinking habits, and whether he is a slow or fast eater.  Visit him about ten minutes after feeding him, and again when he is normally finished eating.  This helps you establish a baseline.  When those habits change, for example, he hasn't touched his feed ten minutes after it is presented, you need to check his water, his feed tub, and his vital signs to determine why he won't eat.

Geriatric horses with poor or missing teeth cannot keep drinking from tiny push-paddle-style automatic waterer bowls for as long as it takes to get a deep, satisfying drink.  They tend to drink deeply when presented with a deeper bowled float version, or a bucket. 

Insulated Barrels                                                                 (Top of Page)

To protect water from freezing in winter, and keep it cooler in summer, you can make an insulated water barrel.  This also contains splashes and spills, minimizing muddy spots that can freeze and cause slips and falls.  This one was made with everyday tools to be shared by horses in adjacent pens by upending a plastic 55 gallon drum, and cutting large holes.  The regular water barrel is inside.  The drum can be weighted on top if free-standing, or anchored by a fence rail.  The drum does not need to be removed to refill the water, but can easily be lifted off to dump and clean.

Solar-Heated Stock Tanks                              (Top of Page)

A heated water bucket isn't practical for horses living on pasture.  Stock tanks are traditional water dispensers, whether filled by a hose or automatically by a float from an underground pipe.  As solar collection panels have become sturdier, less expensive, and easier to maintain, this option is becoming a more viable solution for senior horse owners — in fact anyone keeping any horses at pasture in climates where water can freeze.  Stabled and penned horses can also benefit from solar heated water, compared to traditional electricity sources, when power from the electrical grid is too costly or interrupted by a brownout or blackout.  See the Emergency Supplies section on this page, or our Emergencies page for more information on how to prepare to care for horses in difficult situations.   Visit Sun Tanks online to learn about their solar stock tank offerings that come in several sizes.  Pictured here is the red 25 gallon model.                                                                                               

Deluxe Automatic Waterer May Save Work, Reduce Hazards

Bar Bar A Horse and Cattle Drinker  
Fully Automatic Non-Electric Horse & Cattle Drinker .  Fills with fresh clean water when your horse puts its nose into the drinker.  Afterwards, the excess water drains away, leaving no water to freeze, get dirty, grow algae, breed mosquitoes spreading West Nile Virus, or splash a muddy, slippery puddle, and the valve does not freeze. These are initially rather expensive, but, once installed, are durable, extremely low-maintenance, and just about ideal for senior horses and stables that want the healthiest water.

Traditional Stock Tanks                                  (Top of Page)

If your senior horse drinks from a traditional pasture or corral stock tank, ensure it is kept clean, and free of mosquito larvae, as well as controlling the temperature of the water. 

Stagnant water isn't potable for animals or humans unless filtered and treated for bacteria.  In warm climates, open stagnant water breeds mosquitoes that can spread horse and human diseases such as West Nile virus.

Some people use tank goldfish to eat the insect larvae and use the fishes' movement to aerate the water.  There are also water treatment products on the market.  In sunny warm climates, algae grows quickly, too.  A stock tank is not "set it and forget it" for horse watering, seniors or others.

TIP:  Provide a grid or gravel traction around the area where your aged horse drinks so the mud doesn't become slippery.

 Automatic Waterers — Push Paddle or Float for Older Horses?

Both push paddles and floats have mechanisms with parts that wear out or break, so both require maintenance.  If you are choosing one of these styles of automatic waterer for a new group of stalls, pens, or paddock railings, which will your senior horse(s) like best?

A study by the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University addressed this question. They wanted to discount the possibility that a horse will use what it is already familiar with, so they studied young horses that had never used an automatic waterer, only a water trough.  Then they measured how much the horses drank from the different types presented, and moved them around so that the horses did not just use a familiar location. 

If you have ever taught a horse to use either a float or push paddle automatic waterer, the results of their scientific study will be no surprise.  The horses preferred the float version with the widest (most open), deepest bowl.  It had water in it all the time, and they could get a deep drink before the noise of the water refilling occurred. It took them longer to learn to use the paddle, which startled them more when filling the bowl.  All of the paddle-types were smaller than the float styles.

Reference: Applied Animal Behaviour Science (2006) 100, 309-313. PD Krawczel, TH Friend, R Johnson.  A note on the preference of naive horses for different water bowls.

It makes sense, then, that older horses, regardless what style they are accustomed to already, will prefer a float automatic waterer with a wide, deep bowl. 

No Screws, Bolts, Sharp Edges, Wires, Nails on the Horse Side of Anything

If you hang a bucket, be careful that it is placed and secured so that it doesn't tip over, and the horse cannot get a leg caught in it. Chest high is about right.  Make sure that he can't scrape his face or rub his eye on the metal handle of a bucket, or any screws or other mechanisms.  Many older horses have cataracts, and are much more prone to bumping their eyes.  If you normally clip your show horses' long eye guard hairs, skip this for your senior horse.  Even if he still competes, make the choice to protect his eyes.  These "antenna" compensate for his lack of depth perception of his peripheral vision. With a fuzzy spot in his field of view, he needs these like a cat needs whiskers, to "feel" where his face is in the feeder or bucket. 

Electrically Heated Buckets                                        (Top of Page)

If the bucket is a heated flat-back, be certain the electrical cord is in good repair to avoid shock.  Make sure the cord is also completely protected from chewing by your horse and mice, as well as secured so that he cannot catch his lip, head, or leg in it.  Do not staple it, or any extension cord to a surface.  Use proper guides to channel or cover the cord.  Also ensure any electrical device is properly grounded, especially around water.  A 110 volt current will shock your horse, and he will stop drinking to avoid being repeatedly shocked.  If he is standing on damp ground, he can be fatally shocked.  Do not plug multiple buckets into a single circuit or you can easily overload it. 

Note that while almost all the instructions state that the heating element is protected and will turn off when the water reaches a specific low level, not all will turn off when that low water level reaches a high temperature.  Most of these buckets are 120 volt and are not energy-efficient.  You could be wasting electricity dollars by heating buckets for more hours than necessary if they are not on outdoor heavy-duty timers.  You will probably waste electricity even running them for a few hours since most of them use 1000 watts.

Some manufacturers reduce their liability in the event of a problem with the instruction that the buckets are not designed to be left unattended.  That should be a red flag warning.  Don't hook these things up and walk away for the night!

For more safety advice, visit Laurie Loveman http://www.laurieloveman.com/21-heatedbuckets.html

Between the cost and the safety issues, we opted for heating the water at meal times and then transferring the heated water to the insulated buckets of our seniors and other horses that were unlikely to drink freezing cold water or whose outdoor automatic waterers would freeze.  Yes, it is hard work if you are not set up to do it efficiently and comfortably.  But we were able to measure how much water each horse was drinking, and ensure they were getting enough, especially during meals to ensure they ate and avoided impaction.  It was worth it.

 Heated Hose                                                            (Top of Page)

Here's a tool that is very useful in cold weather on any horse farm:  a grounded outdoor electrically heated hose.   The manufacturer says:  "The PIRIT® Heated Hoses solve a myriad set of problems for anyone who needs to deliver water outdoors in below freezing temperatures. Farmers who need to water livestock, horse owners, gardeners, RV owners, and outdoor contractors are only a few of the potential users of PIRIT® Heated Hoses."  The hoses come in 25 and 50 foot lengths, and while expensive in comparison to an ordinary heavy duty hose, may be an excellent tool in areas where you have access to electricity, such as your barn.                                                                                                                                                         (Top of Page)

Caution!  Wet Spots that Freeze are Dangerous       (Top of Page)

Any horse can slip on ice that forms in freezing temperatures.  Arthritic horses, and horses with poor vision, are at higher risk.  A fall can sadly result in a broken leg, hip, shoulder, or pelvis.  One of the saddest stories I've ever heard was about a farmer whose beloved Percheron slipped on ice while pulling a wagon up a hill one winter and went down.  If you could slip on the ice, a horse whether or not he's wearing metal shoes, could too.  You know the old saying, the bigger they are, the harder they fall - please be careful on those crisp mornings when there has been an overnight freeze, but no snow on the ground to give you an obvious warning!

Avoid walking an older horse on slick footing if at all possible.  Try to prevent puddles from forming in areas they must walk, such as near their water source, in their paddock, just outside the barn door, on the path to the arena from the barn, etc.  Provide a grid or gravel traction where he drinks so the mud doesn't become slippery.

If you must walk your horse over a slippery spot, sprinkle it first with salt or sand to provide traction, give your horse his head and neck to balance, and let him pick his way as slowly as he likes.  Do not use cat litter for traction if it is clay-based.  The clay becomes gummy when it absorbs water. 

Salt                                                                  (Top of Page)

Salt is one mineral horses actively seek as they travel their normal territory to graze.  Salt is important to many physical processes, and is lost in large quantities, along with other minerals (called electrolytes) when a horse sweats in heat or strenuous exercise.  While there aren't really enough minerals in a "trace mineralized" salt lick to do much good, a plain salt block should be available to all horses all the time.  This "free-choice" salt enables a horse to add sodium to its diet when needed. 

If you place a large salt lick (50 pounds) at ground level,  use a rubber or plastic pan with drainage holes to minimize waste and make it last longer.  If you use a small individual salt lick (2.5-5 pounds) put it in your senior horse's feeder, or another mineral feeder or salt block holder that is safely secured at shoulder height near his regular feeding place. 

You can also add a small amount of salt (about a teaspoonful, one to two ounces) to feed to bring out the flavor for a picky eater, and to encourage drinking plenty of water during cold or hot weather.  Avoid overdosing with salt, this can have the opposite effect.  Commercial electrolyte products are generally flavored, and include other minerals, but you can make your own by mixing table salt and low-sodium salt replacer from the grocery store.

Once a sweaty horse has lost too much salt, he may actually refuse water when you offer it.  The presence of salt in his system encourages him to drink, the absence discourages him.  If your horse was heavily exercised, over-exposed to heat, or over-stressed by some environmental factor causing a frenzy, you may need to squirt an electrolyte paste into him to get him to drink, or get your veterinarian to intervene with a direct treatment into his system immediately.  Don't wait!  Colic, founder, or shock can be minutes away.  This is a good reason to keep a tube of electrolyte paste in your senior horse's or stable's emergency supplies kit.

Shade and Wind Break                             (Top of Page)

If you position water supplies and salt licks so that a horse can enjoy morning sun that thaws cold water, but has afternoon shade to cool warm water, you will stretch forage and water dollars and encourage your mature horse to drink.

The exterior wall of a run-in shed, or a tree line or hedge row can provide this type of protection.  In nature, horses will seek the shady side of a hill to wait out the afternoon heat, or the protection of the hill from wind.

TIP:  Avoid placing a lone tree or run-in shed in a flat pasture.  During storms, lightning seeks the tallest object around.   Many lightning strikes occur miles away from the storm clouds you can see and where rain is falling; thousands of lightning strikes occur around us during a year that we never notice.  If you must put a run-in shed in a wide open expanse, don't forget to add an inexpensive horse-saving accessory:  a lightning rod. (Thank you, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, for inventing this device that has saved millions of human and animal lives around the world in the last 230 years!)

The fewer calories your aged horse has to burn to stay warm or cool, the further your feed and water dollar will stretch, especially in inclement weather.

Some shade trees can also provide a bit of forage for horses in drought or desert conditions.  Check carefully to be certain the tree you plant does not produce a harmful sap, flower, seed or leaves. 

TIP:  Experiments in recent years with certain strains of hybrid willow, are quite promising.  It is edible and palatable, highly drought tolerant, grows rapidly, and can be pruned as a shrub, hedge, or tree to provide a windbreak, shade, or retard erosion.

Emergency Supplies                                       (Top of Page)

Stream

If you rely on a stream, creek or pond for some or all of your horse's water, keep water from becoming stagnant and breeding mosquitoes, and provide a grid or gravel traction where he drinks so the muddy bank doesn't become slippery.  In the event of a serious storm or flood, a stream can become contaminated quickly with runoff from manure, fertilizers, septic system leach fields, oil and other chemicals from nearby vehicles, driveways, or roads.  Do not let your horse drink this contaminated run-off or flood water!

If, on the other hand, your horse has always used an automatic waterer or a bucket, you should use any good opportunity, such as on a trail ride, to teach him to drink from a stream.  Some day he may have to, and he can learn in a non-emergency by watching a seasoned trail buddy.

Rain Barrel                                                              (Top of Page)

If you have rain barrels, their catch water can irrigate gardens and pastures, but stagnant water isn't potable for animals or humans unless filtered and treated for bacteria.  In warm climates, open stagnant water breeds mosquitoes that can spread horse and human diseases such as West Nile virus.

Rain barrels can be attractive, even decorative, to blend into your farm's style.  The rain barrels can also help reduce the puddles and erosion around your buildings, arenas, and paths.  It is fairly easy to make your own rain barrels, or to buy ones already fitted with screens, valves, hose couplings and even nice exterior casings or with flat backs or shaped to fit in corners.  While this environmentally beneficial horsekeeping is responsible everyday stable procedure, it can also be an extra cache of water for your horses in an emergency, if you can filter and treat it.  To check on how much water or snow has fallen on your farm,  you might want to install a rain and snow gauge, like the professional one shown here.

If your senior is boarded at a larger farm, a catchment basin or underground cistern may even be advisable.

Brad Lancaster has written two excellent books on rainwater harvesting in  arid climates based on his experiences vegetable gardening on vacant lots in Tucson, Arizona. 

Also an expert in the field of rainwater harvesting is Arnold Pacey, and his book provides plenty of how-to information.

Reusing Gray Water Saves on Clean Water

Another eco-friendly way to conserve and recycle water is to use "gray" (not "black") water for your landscaping.  Gray water comes from cleaning feed buckets and hosing off equipment, doing horse laundry, bathing horses, and so on — it doesn't include toilet or human bath water.  Though, neither you nor your animals can drink it, saving clean water for drinking by recycling gray water for plants, hedges, trees, and crops is beneficial and economical.

New on the market is a book especially for horsepeople from Lucinda Dyer, Eco-Horsekeeping.

Snow                                                                                 (Top of Page)

Some folks mistakenly believe a horse can eat enough snow to meet its daily water needs.  If you  think this might be true, do an experiment, if you like, to settle the matter.  Shovel snow into a 10 gallon container until full.  Then melt it with the warmth of your own hands.  After your hands are frozen by the job, you'll have, at most, 5 gallons of water from hard packed snow, much less from light fluffy snow.  Young fit horses will force themselves to eat some snow, though not enough for proper digestion.  Even then, because so much energy is spent keeping warm to offset the cold snow ingested, a cycle of not eating, dehydration, and burning body fat sets in.   Aged horses, whose teeth are sensitive to cold, won't eat more than the occasional mouthful, it is just too painful.

If you are reduced to using snow to water your horses due to an emergency situation, use the cleanest snow you can, and melt it for them with a safe heat source, trying to warm it to body temperature, if possible.  This is a big, time-consuming job, to shovel and melt enough snow for each horse for a few days.  If weather conditions are severe, you will wish you had stored water.

Stored Water                                                                     (Top of Page)     

You should have a backup 55 gallon water drum in the event of fire, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, flood, or other loss of water supply leaves horses in danger.    Don't store water in inappropriate containers, such as used fertilizer drums, either.  Get proper water barrels.  In severely cold weather, wrap your stored water drums with insulation, to prevent freezing.

This is part of your comprehensive emergency plan. If your stable does not have a disaster plan and the appropriate supplies, give them our website or e-mail address so we can help pull it all together for them.

How Much Water                                          (Top of Page)

Why such big drums?  Because the average size horse at rest in mild weather uses 10 to 15 gallons, of which he will drink about 8 to 11 gallons, about 2 to 3 typical bucketfuls, of water daily, mostly around feeding times.  As temperatures drop, the horse eats more for fuel to stay warm - and thus needs more water to wash the dry fiber into his system and to help digest it.  As temperatures rise, or the horse exercises, he sweats to cool his body, losing not just water but electrolyte minerals (salts).   An average size horse exercising strenuously in warm weather can require as much as 20 gallons of water in a day, and sweat out several gallons in a half hour exercise session.

You will use the extra gallon or two your horse doesn't drink to sponge bathe him in hot weather, or hot damp towel him in cold weather.  If there has been smoke and ash from a fire, or mud from a flood, the fine particles are bad for his eyes and respiration.  They also mat his coat, reducing its insulating properties, and hide injuries that may need to be treated.  You also need some clean water to gently rinse scratches and scrapes of debris.  Then too, you need some to clean feed buckets, or to soak/rinse hay or beet pulp, or moisten his senior or other complete feed.  You may even need to drink it yourself!

Thus, in the event of an emergency, a three-day supply for one average size horse in any season is: 15 x 3 = 45 gallons of clean, uncontaminated water.

For three horses kept at home on small acreage, you should have 2.5 55 gallon drums of water safely stored at all times.  The water should be treated with a touch of chlorine when first stored, then aerated to refresh the flavor when used.  If it is not used after a few years, the contents should be refreshed.

Quakekare has many items.  Here's the link to a water drum.

911supplies.com also offers products for your kit

Del Camino web page on Emergencies of different kinds, financial, horse health or injury, fire, theft, and weather disasters. 

Del Camino article on Equine Disaster Planning

Power Independence and Savings                                  (Top of Page)

If you lose power to your well pump, your barn, or your home during a storm, flood, earthquake, blackout, or construction in your area, what will you do?  If your energy bills keep rising faster than your take-home pay, where can you turn?

You can make your own solar and wind energy at a fraction of the cost of retail products.  It is easy to do -  you do not need to be a handyman or electrician.  School children do it as an after-school or school break project.  Learn how to find inexpensive materials and follow step-by-step instructions from this leading figure in the solar energy field. Click Here!                                        

Other Resources                                      (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses.

Horse Welfare Statistics

Equinezone Horse Supply

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