Q. I have a question about my 11-year-old Warmblood mare. She’s ridden six or seven times a week and lives in a medium-sized boarding stable in a 12-by-12-foot stall with straw bedding. She’s been there for more than a year now.

Last June she started pooping in her automatic waterer. We would clean it out but find it again full of poop the next day. This became a daily occurrence until she was put out to pasture for six weeks.

In late August she came back to the stables, to her same stall. At first, all was fine. But in the past week she has picked up the habit of pooping in her waterer again! The stable keepers are sometimes cleaning it out twice a day. Today my mare had an episode of colic that the stable owner fears is related to not getting enough water.

Is there anything we can do? She actually seems quite attached to her water, as she has a very regular habit of dipping every other mouthful of hay into the water. I think the stable owner could be right that her colic is related to this, especially as she is so fond of this hay-wetting habit