How do I get water to field for my horses - field not on mains?

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vanrim

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As the title really. I have the opportunity of a lovely field to rent but there is no water main nearby. How do other people cope? Can I collect rainwater?
 
Is there a shelter , you can collect water of the roof, but I think this would only work in winter. Generally you need to keep two horses or ponies for company so that is twice the vet fees etc etc.
 
Certainly not ideal for a long time but when corralling at TREC I use an Aquaroll. If you can fill it at home easily and then roll it to the field from your car it would be doable.
 
We fill up an IBC from our local réservoir, it's hitched to the back of a flat bed trailer and it generally needs filled once every 10 days for two horses and a pony as non of our grazing has water. You could collect rain water in one of these if you have a field shelter with a good gutter to collect from.

For the temporary parcels of grazing people in the village ask us to use at times during the year we tend to just fill up two 25ltr plastic bidons at home and fill up water buckets in the morning using these, once a day is usually sufficient, but in summer there are times we need to fill up morning and evening when it's been particularly hot. It's not an issue for us as we do two or three check daily though.
 
Its a pain in the butt! I wanted to go 'off grid' and collect rain water at my new place ..... it hasnt had a decent amount of water in it for MONTHS .. there was no rain over winter and there hasnt been much rain this spring. I was literally taking two 18ltr tubs of water to the fields twice a day and that was for two horses that weren't in work, didnt need washing, this was purely water for drinking and to mix a bit with their food. Complete nightmare!

If you have a trailer I would seriously consider putting an IBC on the back of it and doing as wildfox says. Doing water daily is time consuming, costly and NEVER enough! I've just had water installed at the yard, its damn well expensive (Anglian Water alone approx 1300GBP + your trence digging/ filling and equipment on top of that cost so near enough 2K all in!)
 
LovesCobs said:
i also have an IBC on a trailer and fill it up every 7-14 days for 3 ponies
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What size trailer and IBC container do you use? Have you any idea how much it would cost for a trailer and container? Will a car pull it? This is a serious option for me.
 
Get a plastic bowser. Metal ones go missing (from experience - the barstewards!). I would paint it all over with your name, postcode, etc. etc. to discourage theft.

The water feeds a water trough with a ball valve as usual, then every so often you take the water bowser home and re-fill it. Just looked at the link, there are ones with a built in trough, very posh easier and maybe even more cost effective than doing it separately.

Initially this will seem expensive, but otherwise your entire life will be spent moving water barrels and worrying about the water situation. You can get them second hand, but if so ensure that they have only been used for water, obviously.
 
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vanrim said:
What size trailer and IBC container do you use? Have you any idea how much it would cost for a trailer and container? Will a car pull it? This is a serious option for me.
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i'll try adding a photo
it's small trailer and I tow it but I have a pick up. I'm guessing full it will weigh 1tonne (as IBC tank takes 1000litres water) so you car would need to be able to pull 1t
you can get IBC tanks for about £50 (mae sure it's not had chemicals in it) then 2nd hand trailer from eBay and some straps
 
I put lots of 25l containers in the back of the car and fill them with a hose at home then leave them in the field for use during the week

In the summer I have decanted them in to wheelie bins fitted with a tap to make life easier, its a lot of work at weekends but does work quite well

In the winter I collect water from the stable roof in to an IBC tank and this works really well, it provides adequate water for about 6-7 months of the year but when its dry weather it is a pain as the stable roof gets dusty between rain showers and the water collected is too dirty to use so has to be disposed of - I use this for cleaning the stable concrete etc so it doesn't get wasted
 
I do not envy you. I've been there and got that t-shirt. We had no vehicle access so had to fill up in my bathroom and wheelbarrow it there and across a very bumpy field. Was two of us each doing it and it was a flippin pain in the bum.
 
WelshD said:
I put lots of 25l containers in the back of the car and fill them with a hose at home then leave them in the field for use during the week
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I have done this too but be warned, it can knacker a car's suspension. I now have a van which is more industrial although have just had mains water put in, I had no way of collectiing water where this particular field was. Bowsers are expensive, I did have use of a really massive one at another place but then was at mercy of farmer filling it (towable by tractor only).
 
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