I need to put a trough heater on my big mares water trough next week. I will have to use a 100ft and a 20ft heavy duty extension cord (electrical taped at the connection
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I've done extension cords on top of extension cords on top of extension cords running all over the place. Its not my favorite thing in the world, but it gets the job done. We tied and duct taped the hell out of the connection points and tacked the cords to the fence. I had five fields worth of horses supplied with water this way. Ultimately we dug trenches and buried actual wiring meant for that sort of thing, but the extension cords got the job done until we could do it right
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I don't think running extension cords to the pony's field is viable. It's 300ft from the barn. I didn't do anything special last year with her aside from putting in hot water every now and then and smashing the ice open and pulling the ice out.
I thought if we built a box around it and insulated it with the sprayfoam and basement styro insulation it might help a little. I thought during the night it could have an insulated lid on it with a hole just big enough for the pony's nose to fit through. And during the day leaving it uncovered unless it's especially nasty weather.
We get as low as -28 during the winter.
I'm hoping next year to have proper wiring down to all the fields so I don't have to worry about this.
My horses are on 24 hour turnout all year round. The pony wasn't moved to a sacrifice area/dry lot in the early spring and did great on the spring grass. She's a big pony, 14hh..
I've done 5 100ft extension cords to get a heater in a tank. Its doable. Its a pain in the ass to link them all together and then getting it tacked to the fence, but it's possible.
I think the box thing would just end up being a waste of money. I don't think it'll help much, if at all.
Hmm... I can get a 30 gallon tub and my local tack shop sells tank de-icers similar to this one that goe into the pretty small sizes. I might switch out the big stock tank for a small stock tank!
Can they come inside at all? Honestly, we never heated our troughs. The horses had heated water buckets 12 hrs a day and we just smashed the ice on the trough and put out a clean muck bucket of hot water. They might come in thirsty, but none of them ever came in and drained their buckets.
Depending on how cold your area gets, solar pond pumps might keep it ice free. My friend's barn had them on some fields, they circulated the water in the troughs year round to keep them ice and mosquitoe free (if it was supposed to drop down below about 20 degrees they just pulled them out).
Unfortunately bringing them in is not an option. I have a barn but it's not set up for horses and anyway my big mare wouldn't fit in it (it's an old bank barn with 6ft ceilings, my big mare is 15.3hh with a high headset). Anyway, my new mare the big girl is still too afraid of life to be led anywhere safely. We're working on things
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I'm in a really sticky situation and I'm so worried that if they go together and something bad happens, I won't be able to do anything about it. Should I risk it and put them together tomorrow? .. I'm so worried that something will happen. The fence on 2 sides is electric (that I'm not even sure is working... -_-) and the rest is floating buck fencing. I don't want anyone running through the fence and not being able to catch them. I would likely be able to catch Luna (the pony) but not Mylie.
OK, so when I put up my post about heated water buckets, someone suggested tennis balls - apparently the wind keeps them moving which prevents freezing. Does it work? No clue.
lol, all points that make sense. Just repeating what someone posted when I raised the question about heated water buckets. I'm considering the tennis ball in a water bucket with a cozy on, but I'm afraid my gelding would try to eat it otherwise, lol.
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I thought if we built a box around it and insulated it with the sprayfoam and basement styro insulation it might help a little. I thought during the night it could have an insulated lid on it with a hole just big enough for the pony's nose to fit through. And during the day leaving it uncovered unless it's especially nasty weather.
We get as low as -28 during the winter.
I'm hoping next year to have proper wiring down to all the fields so I don't have to worry about this.
My horses are on 24 hour turnout all year round. The pony wasn't moved to a sacrifice area/dry lot in the early spring and did great on the spring grass. She's a big pony, 14hh..
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I think the box thing would just end up being a waste of money. I don't think it'll help much, if at all.
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Might save on the energy bills.
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Depending on how cold your area gets, solar pond pumps might keep it ice free. My friend's barn had them on some fields, they circulated the water in the troughs year round to keep them ice and mosquitoe free (if it was supposed to drop down below about 20 degrees they just pulled them out).
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