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be checked too. It is often better to turn off the water to the waterers and install buckets in each stall during the coldest weather. But we must also be careful to make sure that the buckets don't freeze in the stall too. Heated buckets help but not everyone can afford either the buckets or the electricity to run them, especially in a large barn. Heated buckets should also be checked daily to ensure that the insulation isn't worn, presenting the risk of electrocution.

The alternative to heated buckets is to monitor the buckets and waterers throughout the day and especially last thing at night. In a cold barn, water will freeze at night in the cold regions. Fortunately horses will also be at rest at night so their need for water intake is also reduced, but clearing ice and topping up buckets last thing at night is a very valuable activity.

So let's think about the opposite side of the equation. Living in Pennsylvania, I get both freezing nights in winter and hot, humid days and nights in summer.

Horses sweat. That is a fact of equine life. In the summer, working the horses causes them to lose water in the form of sweat. Working a horse with a thick winter coat will also cause them to lose that valuable water. Apart form ensuring that the horse has plenty of fresh water available, if your horse has been sweating, make sure you add electrolytes to his water to support his system in making best use of that water to rehydrate the cells.

You can buy electrolytes in any tack or feed store and you can also provide a salt and/or mineral block for free choice usage in the stall or the field. And talking of fields, what should we do for the horse that is turned out?

The same principles apply in the field as for in the stall plenty of clean, fresh water at all times.

Field water tubs need not be dumped out every day, but they should be checked several times each day. If the water becomes contaminated, dump it out, scrub the tub and start all over again.

Even if the water is clear, the tub needs to be dumped and scrubbed at least weekly. My mare contracted Potomac Horse Fever when she was in New York State and I believe that it was caused by mosquito larvae in the water tub. Those little critters appear from nowhere and what was perfectly good water this morning may be teeming with life this afternoon, particularly in warm areas. Most horses won't drink the contaminated water, but if they are really thirsty (remember, my mare doesn't drink in her stall but waits until she

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