Freezing water troughs

Put tennis balls/beach balls in the trough to keep the water moving a bit and to provide a weak spot for the horse to break. Have foam flotation devices on top of the water - partly again to create movement if curious horses play with them, and to provide a bit of insulation. I have read that adding a small amount of vodka helps but I don't quite dare try that.
 
Ample Prosecco said:
I have read that adding a small amount of vodka helps but I don't quite dare try that.
Click to expand...

When I was a teenager there was a family with a cob on livery at the riding school. Sometimes in the summer the mum would have a WKD blue (it was the nineties) standing outside his box. One day she put it down briefly and we all saw the horse push it over with his nose and start licking it off the concrete. I've never forgotten that!

(the horse was not unsupervised, we would not have let him drink it all, the bottle was not broken and no one was harmed in this mildly comical incident)
 
I've never managed to stop it freezing completely, but I usually find that if I break the ice am and pm, it will keep it weak enough that the horses can break it with their noses. However, I have to say my trough is getting a very thick build up of ice around the outside and I suspect I will need to chuck some boiling water in there this evening.
 
Plastic bottle filled with very salty water apparently helps ! It bobs around so helps break up the ice and the salt inside raises the freezing temp apparently so the bottle doesn’t freeze as easily.
 
Bernster said:
Plastic bottle filled with very salty water apparently helps ! It bobs around so helps break up the ice and the salt inside raises the freezing temp apparently so the bottle doesn’t freeze as easily.
Click to expand...
Have tired this today to see how goes!
 
Ample Prosecco said:
Put tennis balls/beach balls in the trough to keep the water moving a bit and to provide a weak spot for the horse to break. Have foam flotation devices on top of the water - partly again to create movement if curious horses play with them, and to provide a bit of insulation. I have read that adding a small amount of vodka helps but I don't quite dare try that.
Click to expand...

I will try putting multiple tennis balls in tonight, I put a single ball in last night but don't think one is enough as it was surrounded in an inch worth of ice this morning! Think I might stick with vodka as a beverage rather than a de-icer haha. Thank you for the suggestions!

Bernster said:
Plastic bottle filled with very salty water apparently helps ! It bobs around so helps break up the ice and the salt inside raises the freezing temp apparently so the bottle doesn’t freeze as easily.
Click to expand...

Will give this a go, thank you ?
 
As I have 2 very playful babies putting anything in a water trough just encourages naughtiness. Robin will happily tip anything over if he can. So I bring a few litres of hot/warm water with me in a morning to melt the ice instead. Hot from the tap is still enough to melt all the ice on the troughs by the time I get to them in a morning.

I've had success keeping the water buckets in the back of the shelter with straw bed banked up round it - not with 2 naughty babies though.
 
Widgeon said:
When I was a teenager there was a family with a cob on livery at the riding school. Sometimes in the summer the mum would have a WKD blue (it was the nineties) standing outside his box. One day she put it down briefly and we all saw the horse push it over with his nose and start licking it off the concrete. I've never forgotten that!

(the horse was not unsupervised, we would not have let him drink it all, the bottle was not broken and no one was harmed in this mildly comical incident)
Click to expand...

Back in the early 90's a prominent shetland pony breeder had his ponies in the pens at the local agricultural show. His dad sat with them all day chatting to people and drinking whiskey. The stallion he was sitting in with was getting a dram for every dram the human was drinking ... between them they polished off a full bottle! Both swayed as they made their way back to the box to go home ? pony was fine in the long run, old dad was not allowed to take a full bottle of whiskey with him again ??
 
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