Ice water anyone?
Watering horses this time of the year in a cold climate can be a challenge. Recently, Merri at The Equestrian Vagabond posted about getting water heaters installed in the water troughs in Idaho. She waited too long and had to do it after things froze!
I use the plug type water heaters for my troughs (like this one). I have two troughs that are heated, and one that isn’t (can you tell them apart in the photos?) 
The horses have their choice of regular water or ice water (ha!). The big trough also has a few large fish, so everybody is happy that it has the tank heater in it. I don’t like to use the tank heaters that float on top. Especially now that I have Bo, who is kind of prone to chewing and playing with things. Even with the circuit breaker switch in the barn something about water, horses, and electricity makes me nervous! With the heater that goes in through the drain plug in the bottom of the trough I feel safer knowing that the horses can’t reach any electrical cord to chew or play with it. The nice thing with these is that they stay in the troughs all the time. They are thermostatically controlled so just leave it in year around. They usually last for several years.
I have three troughs because the horses can drink a lot even in winter, especially when they are getting worked — and actually I expect the non-heated one to become a big ice cube pretty soon, and may actually dump it out before that happens. I like having two heated tanks that way if one of the heaters does happen to fail I still have another one. Of course, should the power go out then I’m out of luck all the way around – and why I keep the troughs as full as possible at all times. I am amazed at how quickly the horses go through water even this time of year. The horses all seem to love drinking from the fish trough the best.
One of the heated water troughs
How I keep the water hose unfrozen in winter!
You can see in the photo with Bo in it that everything is dry here. Frozen, but dry. There are some areas that have snow but it has pretty much evaporated off of most of my property. Lake Tahoe and the surrounding areas got quite a bit more snow than we did, which is nice. It’s been cold here (was 4 degrees this morning) but hasn’t been windy so I’m not complaining. The horses have been getting worked consistently and often enough that they are both in shape (Chief and Bo) for DVE, should I decide to take more than one horse. Haven’t decided yet, maybe just Chief will go, but I’d kind of like to ride Bo too. Decisions, decisions!
During the winter I have a special trick that I use for filling water troughs. I have a water hose that is strung up through the rafters of the barn (see photo – click to enlarge). It has a high peak in the center of it – each side drains down – one towards the spigot and the other one towards the water troughs. It makes it really easy to thoroughly drain the hose with little effort on my part. It doesn’t take very much water at all to clog the hose up when the temperatures begin staying in the single digits at night so this has been very effective for me in the winter. I hate draining hoses the old fashioned way!
How does everybody else in cold climates manage watering their horses in the winter? Got any tips or advice?
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Yup, looks like my water tanks. Unfortunately, we don’t have electricity so breaking ice three times a day with a shovel is all the winter advice I have! If anyone has any good DIY ways to keep tanks thawed without electricity- I’m all ears!
I use coiled hoses for watering (they look like a spring). They are very portable and easy to drain. I can easily put two 75 foot hoses in one muck bucket and haul it back into the garage where it stays warm. They are connected with quick connects so I can quickly drain each hose individually and pack them into the muck bucket.
We also use an extension cord with a lighted plug for the tank heater. I can look outside anytime at night and see the little light glowing in the plug and know that the tank heater is on. If the circuit breaker trips, then the light goes out.
Paula – in cold, cold Missouri.
Here is an artical with other options for winter watering.
http://www.acreagelife.com/articles/acreage_life_articles/dec_05_winter_water_issues.cfm
For those breaking ice…you can take two heavy duty sticks (old broom handles work great) and lay them accross the watering trough at the ends. In the center of each stick have a chain hanging from it that lays in the water. When the water freezes, all you have to do it pull up on the sticks and because you have a chain hanging in the water…your sheet of ice will lift up with it! You will still have cold water, but not all of the broken up ice floating around.
I like Paula’s idea of the extention cord with the light as well.
I have learned that having something other then myself to clear the ice from a tank is worth whatever the initial cost is in purchasing something that keeps ice off your tanks. Fortunatly I do have electricity and so I have one of the plug type of heaters. I also have heated 5 gallon water buckets around my house and barn for my dogs to drink from.
I’m kind of wondering about all the hoopla re:global warming!It’s freezing cold in so many places right now! Where I live in WI. we’ve already seen temps down to -15df. I use a combination of heated buckets and buckets with bird bath heaters in the barn. Outside I use muck buckets with bird bath heaters.They are unobtrusive to the pranksters and energy efficient.Some tank heaters use A LOT of electricity to run.Mine have a thermostat sensor. HOw about writing an article about riding in cold temp?Stay warm,well and Happy Holidays!
I did a post on my blog site about building insulated boxes around our stock tanks. We live in Northwest Montana and we get high winds at our place. The boxes combined with the plug in tank heaters really do the trick. This past week we had 15 below and 3- below iwth the wind chill. The water didn’t even have a lick of ice on them… check it out on my blog – the post title was “Well, it ain’t pretty…”
Seems like everyone is talking about trying to keep their water de-iced. I haven’t done my post yet, but it’s coming. Having the horses in stalls has its own issues on this subject.
[...] Watering Horses in the Winter – Karen’s Musings and Endurance Ride Stuff [...]
Be careful with the heated 5 gallon horse water buckets! I had them…used them faithfully 1 1/2 seasons. Last winter I had one start on fire! Nearly lost my little barn and 2 horses. My husband saved the day! he saw the flickering light in the barn and realized quickly that it was a fire. He had just been down there and filled the buckets, then turned them on. He grabed a fireextinguser from the garage and was able to put it out. Only the cord, bucket and wall on which it was hung and the mat below were damaged. In just a few minutes all would have been lost!
I had the fire inspector invetigate. He determined that these buckets are a problem becuase they hang in the stall and we clean them daily, each time we are lifting them and flexing the cord at the base of the bucket to dump the remaining water and debris into the wheelbarrow. The constant flexing of the hose will cause an eventual break in the wires inside the rubber coating and that will eventually lead to a short AND a potential fire. I have pictures of the burnt bucket if anyone would like to see the damage. JASchmidt@netwurx.net
I am currently on the hunt for a safer solution to having reasonably warm water in the stalls for the show horses!