# alternative to heated water buckets?



## andimax (Jun 26, 2011)

The rescue here uses a piece of wood or tennis ball. Something that floats so it keeps the water circulating
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## Skyseternalangel (Jul 23, 2011)

ThursdayNext said:


> Now that New England is finally on the Winter page, the BO has replaced the horse's regular buckets with heated ones to make sure they have something other than ice to drink. My horse, however, is One Thirsty Guy and goes through two buckets of water overnight. BO doesn't want more than one heated bucket in a stall (partly because of electricity costs, partly because of maintaining the right load on the electrical system).
> 
> So, he's got one heated bucket, but needs more water than it will hold. Any ideas for ways to keep the water from freezing without having to plug something in?


You can get him a big tub (like a manure bucket, we did this at my old barn) to put in the corner of his stall for water, and put one of those water heaters in there. It looks like a big coil. Then he'd get enough water to drink and it'd be easier on the BO too.

(I might do this for my boy... he drinks SO much. Haha)

http://www.shanestack.com/shop/index.php?page=shop-flypage-25244

Or you can find another kind of water heater (the one I was describing is a little flatter so it doesn't mess with the horse)

EDIT: http://www.google.com/products/cata...=X&ei=nn3nTo2IOcrd0QH7tc2eCg&ved=0CKIBEPICMAI Like this one


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## Left Hand Percherons (Feb 1, 2011)

Give him a second bucket that isn't heated and hopefully he will drink it first. A rubber one will not crack if it does freeze. The key here is if you add more heaters onto the circut breakers, you will trip the system and none of the horses will have heated water overnight. 

Another alternative is to make his feed into a slurry mush (add more water than it will hold) that will get a few extra gallons of water into him.


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## ThursdayNext (Oct 18, 2011)

Left Hand Percherons said:


> Another alternative is to make his feed into a slurry mush (add more water than it will hold) that will get a few extra gallons of water into him.


This may be the solution that works! He is a total pig, and would probably love it if he had a big mushy dish of grain. 

He only had one bucket last night (because of the circuit breaker issue, I'm sure) and by the time I saw him at 9 this morning, his bucket was bone dry and he wouldn't touch his hay or grain until he drank a half-bucket of water. Poor baby!


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

ThursdayNext said:


> This may be the solution that works! He is a total pig, and would probably love it if he had a big mushy dish of grain.
> 
> He only had one bucket last night (because of the circuit breaker issue, I'm sure) and by the time I saw him at 9 this morning, his bucket was bone dry and he wouldn't touch his hay or grain until he drank a half-bucket of water. Poor baby!


9 this morning? What time are they fed at night? What time in the morning?


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Left Hand Percherons said:


> Give him a second bucket that isn't heated and hopefully he will drink it first. A rubber one will not crack if it does freeze. The key here is if you add more heaters onto the circut breakers, you will trip the system and none of the horses will have heated water overnight.


This is what I would do too.
A second not-heated bucket.

I like the wet food idea too. If your barn owner is willing to feed him wet meals that is a great way to get extra water into them in the winter.

They do sell insulated bucket holders.

Linky

Another Linky


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## Corporal (Jul 29, 2010)

Here you go~
High Country Insulated Bucket - Horse.com
I know that $80 sounds expensive, but consider that you're paying for electicity to heat the others and I always worry that the cord will short and hurt my horse. =(
BTW, this concept has been around for many decades. The old models were heavy metal. This is a lot lighter. Let us know if you buy one, bc I'd like some feedback. Too horse poor this year to get them. =(


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## rosie1 (Feb 28, 2011)

All I do to keep my horses water from freezing is add hot water to the buckets at night. I don't know if your schedule allows this or how cold it is where you are but its works for me in the stalls. Same thing for the paddock water only I pull out the ice and fill the buckets with warm water in the morning. Its certainly not the easiest options but its free!
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## ThursdayNext (Oct 18, 2011)

mls said:


> 9 this morning? What time are they fed at night? What time in the morning?


He's on full board, so he's getting fed and watered on the barn schedule. All the horses come in from the turnout around 3:30-4pm before dark. They get watered then, and I think they get a flake or so of hay at that hour, and then they get watered and fed the evening grain ration and more hay somewhere between 8-10pm. In the morning they get fed grain and a flake or so of hay in their stalls before turnout. This is usually done early enough that they're done and turned out by 9, but I think the barn help was running late this morning.

He does go through a lot of water, but his bloodwork doesn't indicate a kidney problem or diabetes, he seems like he's just kind of...wet.


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## ThursdayNext (Oct 18, 2011)

rosie1 said:


> All I do to keep my horses water from freezing is add hot water to the buckets at night. I don't know if your schedule allows this or how cold it is where you are but its works for me in the stalls. Same thing for the paddock water only I pull out the ice and fill the buckets with warm water in the morning. Its certainly not the easiest options but its free!
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


I was wondering about this option, too. The barn does have some of those immersion heaters that you can just drop into the bucket and heat it up in case you need to wash a wound or something, and I was thinking that if the barn help heated up a bucket while they're doing the evening rounds, and put the warm water in his stall along with the heated bucket, that might do the trick. 

Also, those insulated water buckets look like a good idea! I will check them out!


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## Pyrrhic (Dec 11, 2011)

Back home in Scotland we would use a rubber bucket, fill it with warm water put it in a tire so it was off the ground, put lots of packed straw inside the tire ring and around the bucket to insulate it then apples in the water to keep the water moving and to encourage the horse to drink from it.

Ours were outside 24/7 though.


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## ThursdayNext (Oct 18, 2011)

Pyrrhic said:


> Back home in Scotland we would use a rubber bucket, fill it with warm water put it in a tire so it was off the ground, put lots of packed straw inside the tire ring and around the bucket to insulate it then apples in the water to keep the water moving and to encourage the horse to drink from it.
> 
> Ours were outside 24/7 though.


Heheheheh...the apples sound like a good idea to keep the water moving, and I know Huey would love them! A toy! That he can eat! And it's APPLES! I am pretty sure that within 5 minutes his head would be soaking wet up to his ears, just from the apple-bobbing. :lol:


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Trough heaters are not a really efficient way to heat up water in a manner that would make for adding hot water to your bucket. They do not tend to make water what you would call warm, they just keep it above freezing.


ETA - Bobbing for apples is a blast to watch though. Not sure it will help your water issue too much but well worth the fun of watching your horse play and try to get the apple.

I do not find 2 buckets of water for that many hours to be an amount that would concern me that a horse was drinking too much.


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## usandpets (Jan 1, 2011)

I would opt for a bigger bucket with a drop in heater. 

Tidbit for thought: hot water will actually freeze faster than cold water. So unless he drinks that first before the heated bucket, it will freeze quicker.
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## Chardavej (Mar 13, 2011)

I had seen somewhere where they took two buckets, one smaller than the other (when placed inside each other, there is about a 2 inch gap between them). 

Get a can of the spray insulation form, can't think of the name, and spray it between the buckets. not alot as it expands and you don't want to distort the buckets. Put a board and weight on top so the inside bucket isn't pushed out. Then you have an insulated water bucket. Put a small ball or a round piece of wood to float on top. The push the wood down or the ball out of the way to drink.


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