>When I was living in Wa. I hated having to go break ice so that
the horses in the pasture could have water. You knew that after a couple of
times of breaking ice and removing it from the tank you were going to have to
bring the water hoses out of the tack room (that you had just started warming up
after building a fire in the wood burning stove to thaw out the hoses) fill the
tanks, unhook the hoses, drain them, then roll them back up and put them back
into the tack room so that they would be able to be used again the next time and
not be frozen solid. Now I "got" to do this about ever third day.
Naw, just get good heated automatic
waterers. We put in two Brower waterers this fall, and they are worth
their weight in gold. One big one waters all the fillies and dry mares;
the other waters all the mares with foals (due to be weaned soon) and the
geldings. The water is a nice 50 degrees or so, even in this sub-zero
weather. We do have to still hand-water the stallions (hope to gradually
add automatic waterers for them as well) but we do it daily so they get at least
one opportunity every day to drink warmish water, which means we drain the
hoses daily, but it is far easier to keep the hoses open if one leaves them
stretched out more or less in place after draining, on a bit of a downhill
slant. It is a rare occasion that we ever have to bring one in to
thaw. We also water in the winter in cattle supplement tubs, which are
black or dark blue in color so they tend to thaw a bit from the radiant
heat when the sun shines even when it is well below freezing, and it is a
simple matter to flip them over and pop the ice out of them if there is much
buildup. By not putting in much more than you expect the horse to drink,
you don't get much buildup. Takes about 15 minutes to water all 12
stallions and colts if one doesn't have to pop ice--only adds about 5 minutes if
one does have to.
