Horses that live out - feed and water

Two of our troughs have frozen pipes, one is still in action. The water supply on the yard is frozen, so having to bring water from home because one of mine is not drinking enough water. Currently doing extra trips to stable two of them for a few hours, putting salt in feeds and apple juice in warmish water to increase their fluid intake. Interestly, the rescue horse, never passes a bucket of water or trough without drinking his fill. It would appear he values the opportunity to drink more than the horses who have never known hardship.
 
'soup' feeds (normal rations with lots of added water) added at the time of feeding so doesn't freeze! Increases moisture content intake, important when the water freezes up so quickly, then I add enough water to a bucker for the morning and again at night for drinking , Leaving too much water than they will drink results in it freezing quicker. Plus adlib hay.
 
my little new forest and his 2 hairy mates are living out and get a big pile of haylage morning and evening. Problem is with the water though - They have water in a bit trug tub and last night it was frozen solid - not just ice on the top but the entire full bucket was a solid lump of ice!!!!

I had to boil the kettle 4 TIMES! To defrost the tap (and we have an abnormally slow kettle) so that I could lug water all the way down the field to them. What should be a 10 minute visit took nearly an hour and a half.

Hmmmm, good times!!!!lol!
 
Mine are all out at the moment. They have plenty of hay out in the field and I have halved the big boy's bucket feed as he is not working now due to the weather. Old girl is still on her same rations as is porky pony. All feeds are soaked anyway.

Two of them are in a field with a metal trough and I just break the ice on that and sieve out the bits - seems to stay unfrozen for quite a while after that. The other one has her water in a tub trug, which frozen solid at first, so now I have one trug inside another with bubble wrap in between, and top up with warm water from the house and that seems to work!
 
Two good feeds a day , as much hay as they will eat.

The troughs are frozen so the ice is broken and removed (Most important) and filled up as necessary x three times a day if need be.

They can get into the stables and field shelters (All with good beds in them)
 
Too small a bucket and it will freeze solid. My ponies break the ice themselves when I'm not there - I remove all the ice (incl that around the sides of the trough) once a day. Ponies are also happily digging for grass - as was my TB yesterday. I only gave more hay than normal before the snow had settled down, when it was 8 inches deep. Now it's not as deep, they're fine.
 
ad lib hay

small scoop of fibre nuts and small scoop of No4 + chaff twice a day as a feed (was feeding fast fibre but she decided she was bored of it and stopped eating it :rolleyes: so no more warm soaked feed for her!)

water = pack as much snow as you can round the water buckets - this insulates them and helps the not freeze - to give you an idea - last night it was -18 here and the water only had a thin layer of ice over it - i'm lucky though as mine all break the ice to drink too
and yup - remove broken ice
top up with luke warm water twice a day - not hot as it then freezes quicker
 
agree, as per all the other posts, mine will happily dig for grass under the snow as well before they eat their hay!! but ensure you break the water and remove ice at least twice a day, ad lib hay , two feeds a day made nice and sloppy with warm water ! (although sure that is so i feel better, rather than the horses being that botherered!!) I actually have just taken on a new pony, on loan, for my daughter, who comes in each night, as per owners request. but, due to me only having one stable available at the moment, my own horse, who is fully clipped, has for the first time ever, been living out 24/7 ( very well rugged I might add) and is coping perfectly with the weather on this regime, he looks fab and hasnt dropped any weight at all, interestingly he is also far more chilled out than when stabled at night especially since we arent able to ride at the moment either !! I never ever thought I would feel happy just leaving him out, but, just goes to show you, maybe we worry to much sometimes???
 
Roll of haylage out in the field and water trough is frozen solid so water is giving in a big trug, ice is smashed daily and ice removed then topped up again. surprisingly they are acutally not drinking as much this year as they did last year in the snow, which i find interesting?
 
diablos gold...LOL yes I totally agree, think we do tend to "humanise" our horses at times. mind you I haven't got through the whole winter yet, so I guess, will reserve judgement till then !
 
Feeding lots and lots of hay, nothing else yet. With water, I'm wheelbarrowing up very hot water three times a day to go in the water trough. Because it's so hot, it stops it freezing for a few hours. It's killing me though - it's too heavy to carry and too heavy to push through the snow :(
 
The ice is being broken twice a day and ive increased the sugarbeet to help keep their fluid intake going.

We are haying once a day, but they soon get bored and go off grass digging like a bunch of people from Time Team!.
 
Taking water down everyday and breaking ice off. The main water is frozen solid so have to fill up other bucket with luke warm water.

Excessive hay, one now has a rug on, 2year old is unrugged and very warm still.
 
Been putting out hay which they are hardly touching preferring to dig up snow to find the little bits of frozen grass and the water yesterday had 2 buckets of nice uniced water which Archie ignored and decided to eat the snow off the trough instead!
 
Funnily enough the only water working at our yard is the field trough so shows they are all drinking enough to keep it moving!!! Ours are just getting hay and haylage continuously throughout the day and those that get hard feeds are coming in for a few hours to get them. All are perfectly warm and toasty everytime checked so obviously are happy. Have to say they are looking alot healthier and happier than the one's stuck in 24/7!;)
 
To keep water from freezing I put a bucket inside an empty shavings sack, pack hay between the bucket and the plastic and tuck in the top of the plastic sack around the rim of the bucket (to keep snow getting in the hay). Then fill with warm water 3 times per day.
Echo the feeding soup comment too
 
Christmas Apercrumbie Tree said:
Feeding lots and lots of hay, nothing else yet. With water, I'm wheelbarrowing up very hot water three times a day to go in the water trough. Because it's so hot, it stops it freezing for a few hours. It's killing me though - it's too heavy to carry and too heavy to push through the snow :(
Click to expand...

I know what you mean....

Before I got my 4 x 4 pick-up, that's what we had to do to get barrels of water to the horses.

Now, we defrost the tap (have to take off all the straw, towels and padding around it first!) then fill two huge 150 litre drums (with lids) that we got given! They have been a life-saver this time round. We just use a short hose to fill them in the pick-up, slap on the lids and go dead-slow to each paddock, then I just bucket it in once the ice has been removed from the water in the horses tubs.

Edited to say - Try using a bit of tarpaulin, I'm using it to drag hay through the snow, and I do remember using it to tow a barrel too, hard going, but easier than carrying or pulling!
Doesn't take long now at all, and with having my knee ligament torn, it's saved oodles of pain too....

I feel for you, I really do.... :( ~Hugs!~)
 
I go twice a day, and break and remove ice from troughs both ends of the day. Both horses come for a drink first thing, although you can see where they have drunk out of a small hole before it freezes over!

They have wet feeds, which are put to soak in the morning, and fed at night. I pour a boiling kettle over the top which melts the bits of ice that have formed during the day. When I soak the feeds I put covers on the buckets, stand them on layers of cardboard on pallets, then wrap in empty paper feed sacks and cover in hay and a rug!

Lots of hay a.m. and p.m.
 
We are having to take water up twice a day and break/remove ice from buckets before topping up, both horse fields have natural running water so TG we don't have to worry about theirs as they are all drinking loads because of the hay/lage. They are split into 4 groups this year with the horses well rugged, access to a large haylage bale 24/7 and a forage feed at night, the ponies all naked and stood around large bale hay because of freezing conditions, but no feed at the moment (and they are all cosy warm, too fat and not losing anything).
 
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