Making the most of water during drought – using it (and re-using it)
With drought already declared across the North and North West, access to water is high on the priority list for all horse owners. Sustainability experts from ADAS Equine share how equine managers can best use water - from reducing wastage on the yard and utilising rainwater that does fall through rainwater harvesting, to making their pastures more resilient to drought.
At the end of June, the UK Met Office announced that June 2025 was one of the warmest since records began in 1884. This warm weather has been accompanied by extended periods without rain, and what little rain we have had has made very little impression on the ground. Yorkshire and the North West are already officially in drought, and much of the South, East and Midlands are suffering from water stress as a result of a lack of rainfall. We are therefore through the next two months going to look at how we manage water on equestrian yards.
Water use on the yard
To use water more efficiently, we need to think about where water is being used on the yard, and how we can make improvements to each area. On a daily basis, yards will be supplying drinking water to horses, wetting feeds and perhaps soaking hay. Water is also used for a range of cleaning operations, from rinsing out buckets, to washing down yards and stables, and even bathing horses.
For all aspects of water use make sure your equipment is well maintained and does not leak! Also look to invest in automatic off valves for taps or buckets to avoid overfilling and water flowing all over the yard. You can also consider whether ‘waste’ water from one job can be used for another purpose. For example, stale drinking water might need replacing for fresh, but it might be perfectly good for washing out feed bowls.
The best approach is to think about each water use in turn, and make small steps to reduce waste in each area. This will have the dual benefit of reducing the impact on the environment while also reducing your water bill, especially if you are on a meter!
Drinking water
The average horse will drink about 25-55 litres of water a day. This may increase in horses that have health issues, are in hard work, or on very hot days. It is important to provide clean drinking water at all times for our horses, but how can we do this more efficiently?
When filling buckets making sure that all hoses and taps are well maintained and do not leak is the first step to reducing waste. If you have automatic water troughs, ensure they are well maintained and are switching off water flow when the tank is full. Also check for leaks, especially in older field troughs.
Use deep enough troughs to minimise evaporation losses. If you are going to clean troughs allow horses to drink the water down before you clean (turning off auto fill for a few hours), rather than emptying the whole of the trough to clean it. Remember, horses often like troughs that have a bit of algae in them, so don’t feel the water has to be completely clear all of the time!
For stable water, think about how much water you are giving each horse, and how frequently you are changing that water. If you find that you are pouring away a lot, then you are either giving too much or changing too frequently, can you make changes to your routine that result in less water being poured away? If you cannot change the management, think about whether that water could be used for other things before it is poured away.
Hay soaking
Hay soaking can be a massive use of water. First think about why you are soaking – if it is to reduce dust that is very different to reducing sugar content.
To reduce dust, you mostly need to get hay wet – you don’t need large volumes of water to do that. Running a sprinkler hose over the nets and turning them as you do that will allow you to dampen all areas and only use about half a bucket of water per net. Then leave nets to stand for half an hour for water to soak in and expand dust particles before feeding. If you do this in a container (or wheel barrow) you can capture any water that does drain out of hay and use it for watering grass or plants on the yard!
To reduce sugar this is more of a challenge. My first step would be to get hay tested, or buy analysed hay that has a known low sugar content, to reduce the need to soak. If that is not possible and you are left with high sugar hay that needs to be soaked, then you do need plenty of water to do that. Ideally look to recycle water, e.g. if emptying water buckets, are they clean enough to use to soak hay (being careful on large yards of hygiene!). Can you use rainwater capture off stables and barns to collect water for soaking hay? Again, capture all the water used for soaking hay and use it to water pastures or plants.
Arena
After the prolonged dry weather we have been having, many sand arenas will be getting very dusty and often deep. Water is one of the key ways of reducing this but when water is in short supply it is potentially both an expensive exercise and one that is not very good for the environment. Some ways to minimise the need for water in arenas.
- Minimise how deeply you harrow – to try and keep moisture in at depth. If you normally use a spring tine or similar to break up the arena surface, raise these up so they are just tickling the surface.
- Roll – giving a sand or fibre arena a good roll with a heavy grass roller can help to pack it down, level it off and make the surface better to ride on, without exposing any of the possibly damper sand at depth to the air and sun.
- If you do need to irrigate – especially on large yards with many horses using the arena in a day, look to invest in rain water harvesting and water storage facilities to allow you to collect rain water and minimise the reliance on mains water.
- When applying water, do so in the evening – preferably to a rolled even surface to allow it to soak in, rather than evaporate off. Avoid irrigating during the heat of the day, or in windy conditions as most of your water will just evaporate off.
Washing
At times of high water stress and low water availability consider how frequently you need to do your washing activities. Also consider how you go about the washing activity. For example, washing off your horse after work, using a bucket and sponge can achieve the same effect using significantly less water than a hose. When washing feed or water buckets can you reuse water from water buckets for the first wash and just rinse with clean water after if needed. Do you really need to hose down the yard, or could you just give it a good sweep instead?
Pasture irrigation
I have seen a few people thinking about watering their pastures to help with drought stress. The challenge here is that you need so much water to make a difference that unless you are properly set up to irrigate you are likely to just be wasting water. By all means use water that has been used for soaking hay, or waste water from buckets to water pasture, but do not use mains or borehole water. You would be far better off thinking about how to make your pastures more resilient to drought than trying to irrigate.
For further advice, contact the ADAS Equine team, sustainability partners of British Dressage, at equine@adas.co.uk