Is soft water okay for horses to drink?

[2468Chickensrgr8]

Here's a question for all you horse/livestock owners ....Can horses drink soft water?.....We have one water area coming from the house well and we just recently renovated a basement bathroom/laundryroom and thought it would be nice to run a underground line to water my gardens and for the horses from this side of the house ....only used during the warm months and then when everything was done we figured out it was hooked up to the house plumbing and is soft water .....I have also been giving my chickens this water to drink?.....thanks

 

[equine chick]

I don't see why not. I think hard water would be more rough on their stomachs and they tolerate that fine. I would think if anything it might taste different and they may need to get used to it. I would try a small amount and see how they do.

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

thanks so much for the information .....I have been worrying about this since we realized what we did....

 

[patandchickens]

Well, personally I wouldn't in general -- it's not especially good for *people* to drink either (it is pretty high in sodium) and watering the horses will considerably increase the burden on the water softener (i.e. you'll run through more salt, and create more mineral-laden discharge into, well, wherever your water softener discharge goes).

OTOH, if it turned out that The Water Line to my barn or paddocks was a soft-water line, I might go with it for a while, at least til I could plumb up a good alternative. What you should do is look up the maximum recommended sodium (Na) concentration in horses' drinking water, and compare that to typical water softener output. The information is available in books or online, I'd go find it for you but I have a very very very wiggly 1 yr old on my lap trying to push keyboard buttons at the moment

)

Pat

 

[Velociraptor]

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[2468Chickensrgr8]

Well it looks like I have some work cut out for me...well I should say my husband ...hahaha....the water comes from the same line that goes to the washing machine...I think he will have to make a call to his plumber friend again.....and here we thought we were making life easier for us and the horses....ahhh and my chickens !!.......thanks to you all ...even the wiggly worm....