automatic waterers - yay or nay?

do you like automatic waterers? please explain your answers please!

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StormyMoments

StormyMoments

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the yard im at has automatic waterers which is great and labour saving but you cant tell how much they are drinking... which i think is important to know

also how many horses have rubbed their bum on it and knocked it off and drowned their stables? or pulled at the pipe work and soaked their stables that way?

i dont trust either of my beasties not to do this :o but im wondering if its common? or if i should just turn it off and use a bucket anyway?

so automatic waterers - yey or nay?

maybe i should make a poll?
 
Kal got along fine with his at a previous yard . . . and we manage equally well with a bucket now. I do, though, like knowing how much he has had to drink . . what I don't like is trying to coax water out of frozen taps ;).

P
 
I've had both in my stables. And to be honest prefer buckets. That way I can monitor water intake and don't have to worry about frozen or burst pipes
 
They have them where I work, it's a back saver from lugging buckets and they're pretty reliable. Plus the horses can't knock them round the stable, drown their bed and play with/break the buckets. Which is what at least 5 of them do given half a chance, even when the buckets are in tyres for some of them!
 
I was on a yard with them and i hated it! It was convenient but my mare's one was either always leaking and causing mini floods or wouldn't fill back up again. Plus I like to know whether they're drinking enough. Much prefer buckets :)
 
neither of mine can move their water buckets thankfully they are 60 gallon and they are always kept full and replaced daily but it takes quite a bit of time out of my day and the hose at the new yard is quite a way away (200 metres) which is a long way to either attempt to drag or carry those buckets!! but i dont trust them waterers although mum is conviced we are using them... hmmm maybe i will go with both?
 
Prefer buckets. Very easy to not think to check if automatic is working and lots to go wrong and no monitoring of intake.

Also lots of horses take so long to get it - like with grass muzzles, some go straight out to eat... and some just refuse to work it out!
 
My landlady wanted to put them in my stable. I said I didn't want them so could there please be a tap so I can turn them off. So far they've not been put in. :)
I like to be able to monitor how much my ponies are drinking.
One of the yards I work in has them and one pony rubs his bum on it all the time got in the other morning and had to take half his bed out as it had flooded. This wasn't the first time he has done this.
I've never heard of a horse drowning though so don't think there is any worry there.

Give me buckets every time :D
 
The ones I've used were very difficult to clean get behind to scrub so the water wasn't ever that fresh.
My old boy also dunked his hay so his was disgusting all the time, buckets much easier to clean out!
 
I do like them, they save me a huge amount of time and water but I only would ever have the tiny sip bowls as they are constantly refilling and freeze less and stay far cleaner. Mine never look dirty and take minutes to scrub and flush though whereas at work they have huge corner ones which get filthy and need to be emptied and scrubbed every other day but inbetween they are full of shavings and yuck. Its also hard work as each pot conatins two buckets of water to empty out....buckets any day than them!
 
well i used to have my own land with no water and had to carry 10 x 25ltr water containers a day! but im back on livery now so having a hose pipe would be a luxury but we have drinkers too and its wonderful!:D
 
I don't stable my horses but those with stables at my yard have automatic waterers. Most people use buckets as the drinkers either freeze or are broken. The stabled horses like rubbing their bums on them. Many owners come in the morning to find them full of poop or worse frozen poop.:rolleyes:

I've seen rugs caught on them and the drinker come off the wall so I don't think they are safe either.
 
I have an automatic drinker that holds just under a normal bucket of water. It's a godsend as last winter when our pipes froze and my horse had to have a bucket, his stable was soaked every day as he kicked it over, and around his stable. We put it in a tyre and he still tried to play with it - I found him one morning with his back foot standing in it! I couldn't wait to turn the drinker back on!
Our drinkers are pretty robust - just as well as my horse is like a dog that's just had a bath - he rubs himself up and down the walls if he comes in even slightly wet (he's a bit odd!) and he's never managed to dislodge/damage it. We have some homemade covers that we put over it for mucking out to try to minimise the shavings/dust etc that have a way of getting in there.
I love my drinker!
 
I like them, they're so useful.

I don't see that not being able to see how much water they've drunk overnight is a problem. I don't know how much they've drunk out in the fields either and its easy enough to check the bedding for their usual urine output.
 
I have the large ones-they are great although this weather we have to turn them off and do it the old fashioned way. If you want to monitor how much they are drinking, just turn it off-simples (provided they are set up so you can isolate one).
I dislike the wee ones personally.
 
We have autodrinkers but they freeze in weather like this, so the yard gives the horses buckets. So this morning saw me topping up my bucket with 2l of mineral water just to make sure that pony had enough to drink before the staff arrived and distributed water from their secret stash :o
 
I have automatic waterers in all my stables and have had for 25 years, never had a problem with them. The yard I apprenticed at (more than 40 years ago) had oak buckets that had to be scrubbed out every day, filled, carried 100 metres and lifted up to a bracket, enough to traumatize me away from buckets ever since. Yay for the automatics!
 
My mare drinks a lot so it saves me lugging water for her (I have bad ankles so walkign isn't the easiest)

You can get drinkers which monitor the amount of water drank.

I don't like the tiny ones as they can't get a proper drink but a decent sized one, well attached is good
 
At work I liked them as its a lot less work than buckets...at home I prefer buckets as I'm anal over my horses and like to know how much thet drink
 
Yay because mine is a serial bucket tipper, he'll drink a few inches out of a full bucket, then tip the rest so he has nothing else to drink!

Nay because you can't monitor how much they are drinking.
I don't like the shallow ones where they have to put their nose on the bottom to make it come out :confused: mine tried it once then scared himself to death because water came shooting out!
 
Small stable ones NAY... if they are large ones like troughs.. yes... but having just been at a yard with them with my horse refusing to drink from it,plus freezing, leaking, pooing in them and ending up using buckets anyway what a pain... I would however if i was going to the trouble of installing them maybe just put a protected tap design in the stables instead? would that not work far better? So that people could clean and fill their own buckets quickly especially on a big yard.
 
Automatic all the way. The pipes are well lagged and run under the floors so only freeze in really severe weather, even then they will free off with a watering can of hot water and run again.

If you really have to moniter how much they drink then an inline meter can be fitted.
 
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