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[RC] Horse water thawed w/out electric - Kimberley WoolleyHey Chrystal, Although not cheap, there are lots of non-electric waterers on the market, the problem with them is you have to have enough horses drinking water to keep it viable. Our cattle farm has water and electric fence without hydro - we have solar panels, a deep cell battery bank, and a back-up generator for those shorter, grey days. We have 20 head of cattle and they drink a lot of water to process their food - way more than horses. When we started, we only had 8 head of cattle which was considered barely enough to keep the waterer functioning (calculating what a horse drinks, our 7 horses are not enough to keep one functioning - there may be new ones on the market now that will work for that small a herd of horses). The box is about 12"x24"x24" tall and we dug an 8" tube 6 feet down directly below the waterer (around here, the ground freezes to about 4 feet, so below that brings you a little heat) - we ran the pipe to the well through this tube to help keep it warm, and insulated the heck out of it where it came out of the ground. The water box is insulated and has a plastic door flap on the top with a full bowl of water underneath. If the cattle don't come to drink for a day, then the bowl of water freezes and no fresh water comes out - the mechanism relies on the drinking of water to keep fresh, warmer water flowing which heats the bowl which allows water to flow, etc, etc. In order to make this work, we also had to have a water pump and pressure tank that we keep in an old freezer with a light bulb to keep it from freezing. We have used this set up for several years and have only had a problem when ice built up around the door flap so it froze open and then the bowl of water also froze. Hydrant style would work OK too, except that for cattle, when they are thirsty, they drink as a herd and they will butt a waterer off its cement footing if the water isn't coming fast enough. For horses, you have to teach them how to push something to get water to flow - not all of them are smart enough ;) Whatever you look at, check the number of animals it says it will support carefully, place the waterer in as sheltered an area as possible, and know that you will have to monitor your animals for a while to make sure they have figured out how to use it. We thought about building our own version of the waterer, but the price of all the pieces and putting it together was about the same as a ready-made one (plus, we could take it back if it didn't work). Oh, yes, and we keep our hose in the basement when it gets down to -20C (we were at -28 this morning when I got up). Kimberley Woolley -----Original Message----- ------------------------------------------------------------ From: "Dyane Smith" <sunibey@xxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: [RC] Horse water thawed w/out electric Chrystal, I live in N. California--much warmer than -30, although we = have had days and days with highs of 12 degree F. Anyway, when I installed my heated waterers in my barn (read, run-in = shed), I had to dig down 9' to access the ground heat. So....I doubt = that 5' will work for you. Dyane ----- Original Message ----- From: Chrystal Woodhouse To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 12:36 PM Subject: [RC] Horse water thawed w/out electric A couple of years ago this was a topic of conversation on RC, someone = mentioned digging a 5 ft hole underneath the water trough in order to = keep it from freezing over. Before I go digging an enormous hole can = anyone tell me if they have tried this and if it works in temp's that go = down to -30??? Any other ideas of how to keep horse water .......well water not ice, = without electricity in the winter?????? Thanks Chrystal :-) P.,S if you are from the south do not bother telling me what works for = you,it won't work up here, I know you THINK you know what winter is = 'cause hey! your water buckets had a layer of ice on = them..............................once . :-) ;-) :-)if you can leave = your hoses outside after October or have access to water taps in the = winter that work without heating tape or do not know what a water = hydrant is .....................you are too far south to help!!!! :-) = lol ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------ From: Cindy Collins <c_collins@xxxxxxx> Subject: re:[RC] Horse water thawed w/out electric - Chrystal Woodhouse "if you can leave your hoses outside after October" I had to really laugh at this one...I'm in Wyoming and my horses are outside all winter, even when it's 18 below 0 like it was last week :) Cindy Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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