# mare pooping in water trough! how to stop it?



## gogohorses25 (Oct 20, 2015)

my QH mare has been pooping her her water trough. any idea why she does this? its VERY irritating and she keep doing it! ive tried moving it around some, and at first it seemed to be working but then she started going in it again. its a big tall trough, not quite how she does it but im pretty sure she does it on purpose. with it being winter the hose is very hard to use with it freezing and all, and dumping and refilling the trough every single day really isnt making it any easier. any ideas on how to stop her from doing this? moving it to different spots in the stall isnt working so i just dont know what to do. please help!


----------



## AnalisaParalyzer (Apr 25, 2012)

Get a couple of small buckets and hang them in her stall instead of using a big ground tub. It worked for a mare i used to work with.


----------



## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

Agree with AnalisaParalyzer, troughs are for outside use and it's better to hang buckets for indoor use. As for your hose freezing disconnect it and drain after each use. I do this by starting at one end and holding it up over my head in one hand while using the other hand to feed it through the still hand (surely I could think of a better way to describe this but it escapes me at the moment lol). Some people toss them over a rafter in their barn to drain. Some are lucky enough to have a handy slope to lay them out on. About the only time I have trouble with the hose freezing is if hubby has used it.


----------



## churumbeque (Dec 20, 2009)

Build something around it so she can't get as close


----------



## MrsKD14 (Dec 11, 2015)

My guy manages this. Or used to. Turns out he just liked to poop there. Moved the buckets and problem solved. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

Retrain her. Clean her water bucket, offer her water in the morning, then, after she looks like she has drunk her fill, remove it.
In the evening, fill it, keep your paint bucket there to refill it, or however you move the water to your horse there, give her time to finish drinking, and then remove it and any extra water. Do this for a week. I'm pretty sure that she will understand that the water bucket isn't there for her convenience.
My mare tries very hard to keep at least 1/2 of her stall very clean at all times. Her stall is 8 x 13 ft, odd but all I needed to do was measure and put up a fence gate to complete it, for she keeps at least 8 x 6 of it clean and dry so that she can lay down in clean and dry. Perhaps your mare is trying to do the same thing. You might look at your stall cleaning practices. I also say, move where you put her water bucket. I've only had one horse poo in his water bucket, and that was my QH, and he did it shortly after he finally got a stall, so I suspect he didn't mean to do it. Hasn't done it since then. Good luck!


----------

