how do you keep ice out of your troughs?

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Groom Mum

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im removing huge slabs of ice in the morning from my trough. Does a tennis ball work or a small football.? My baby will probably try to eat the tennis ball. He's naughty.

I think there is a lot of water on the field right now but its a pain to release the water.
 
I put tubs out - I wrap a smaller tub in hay, then place it in a larger tub and fill the inner one. Seems to insulate them OK but if the temp drops lower than minus 5 it will still freeze
 
Im currently using a plastic food trug, with an inch of water in it, sat in the trough. Took it out this morning, left a nice, horse nose sized hole.:)
I break the ice up and scoop it out with a (dog)pooper scooper.
 
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Footballs in the trough do help. If the wind moves them it delays freezing. If they don't move the ice underneath is thinner and easier to break. Make sure the ball isn't fully inflated.
I keep water storage containers ( any bucket or trough not used by horses ) full and cover with layers of plastic feed bags.
One year in advance I filled every container I had and kept them in an unused stable.
Colanders or sieves with long handles are good for ice removal. Saves frozen fingers!
 
My little pony does it first thing in the morning, I turn him out and he goes stright over to his water and breaks the ice with his foot then plays with it. Been doing it for 12 yrs.
 
The only thing that works is insulating your water container, or heating it. The more you can protect the trough and the surface of the water from radiating off heat, the slower the water will freeze. IMO, the reason floating footballs make any difference at all is less because of the movement, and mostly because less of the water surface is exposed to the air. You can use foam mats to float on the water, leaving a hole to drink through. The hole might still freeze over eventually, but it will keep the rest of the water from cooling off quite so quickly. Also, taping/tying foam pads around the outside surfaces of the trough can help.

If you have access to hot water and pipes are frozen, chucking in a few buckets of hot water will help to melt ice, and you don't have to remove it. Each bit of ice you fish out means that you lose that much water and will have to carry more to replace it.
 
As I regularly post on this subject, if you don't pay water rates (we don't in this part of Scotland), simply fit an over flow to the trough and pipe it to the nearest ditch. Keep the over flow running at a steady trickle and the trough won't freeze.
 
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