Thomas N. Trosin, CF, CTF, CJF

and water is for fighting, is an old very old adage. It goes back to one of the water wars in Americas past history, I’m not quite sure which one.

As I watched the Rose Parade with dread and the imagination of potential Yankee immigrants that might want to escape the clutches of winter (it’s true), I thought about putting on my Facebook page something to the effect of “Yankee’s stay home! We have beautiful weather, but no money, no jobs and no water."

Whatever the reason, California is running out of water. I know, but it’s true. NASA scientists recently gave a lecture using satellite imagery that showed beyond what we knew about the low level in our reservoirs that we are running out of ground water as well. The debacle over the Delta Smelt is merely inconvenient.

Danvers Child who is a farrier and current editor of the American Farriers Association’s “Professional Farrier” once said that proper horse care involves salt by the handful and water by the bucket, if you are one of the lucky few to had privledge to work for mama Carol you learned this. If we allow ourselves to put the question to thought, it takes a lot of water to take care of a horse properly. They need water to drink, water to bathe them, water to help keep their environment clean and as fly hostile as possible. Horses (especially race horses) need ice to help reduce swelling, water to keep the dust down in work and competition areas. Water to swim in during recovery, and perhaps soon at a vet clinic near you, water to wake up from surgery.

The horse business has problems enough. First and foremost there is already a negative perception of the business not only from the far left, but from people who had bad experiences as owners, we have no advocates in Sacramento, the horses that are bred here are perceived as being lower quality by the rest of the world add to that, all facets of the horse business have charlatans that continue to muck it up for those of us who have taken the time to learn and become true professionals. California’s water crisis is only going to complicate matters further.So what can we as a business do to stem this?

First thing is quit hose bathing horses. I realize sponge bathing horses takes more time, but in the grand scheme of things it takes only 10 gallons of water to bathe a standard horse (a little more for warm bloods of course) with a short coat versus a water horse that on average pressure can let out 5 gallons a minute. If you insist on hose bathing your horse, then turn off the water when you are doing things like scrubbing legs or manes and tails.

Talk to your vet about how much water your horse should be drinking in a day’s time and monitor that with buckets or water tubs and get away from the automatic watering devices.

Last thing is stuff that you do around your house. Check for leaking hose bibs, plant climate friendly plants around your barn, if you run an ice machine make sure that it is as efficient as possible.We as an industry need to be proactive about this, because when the environmentalists and the state come knocking, and they will, we want to show that we are a responsible people not only to our horses, but to our community as well.