How much water to put out when trough freezes?

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kit279

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I'm sure I'm not the only person who's suffering from frozen water troughs at the moment.

Are people putting water out in the field at the moment or just giving the horses water in the stables? If so how much water are you putting out for them? At the moment, the temperatures are so low that tubs of water in the field freeze very quickly so just wondering how much water people are giving per horse per day?
 
Ours get a large (40 - 60l?) bucket between 5 of them during the day. The stabled ones get water at night, and the ones out 24/7 get a 30l bucket between them.

Its a pain getting water there atm, especially this evening when it had to be dragged on a sledge 500m to the stables - I would say the additional exercise would get me skinny, but I'm eating to compensate :D
 
The horses in the stable are getting 2 buckets am and 2 buckets pm - they are turned out for around 5 hours each day with no water, but are not draining their buckets when they come in.

The ponies who are out 24/7 are getting offered a fresh bucket of lukewarm water am/lunchtime/early evening, with about 1/2 of it being drunk in between being filled up.

Suppose a lot depends on the size of the horse and what they are eating, those on hay are wanting significantly more than those on haylage. Also if they can get to the grass they will be getting moisture from that too, so depends on the depth of the snow.
 
I have a 75ltr trug that I fill up for my lad in the stable, which lasts a couple of days. I don't put water in the field for him as he tends to just eat snow anyway!! he's out from 9am - 5pm, the 2 that live out get a 25ltr trug filled twice a day - although they don't drink much in this weather and never drink more than half a trug at a time, I assume they too eat snow - they aren't dehydrated and their pee is fine, so I'm not worrying about them!!
 
mine has a field to herself(others next door) and i have been lugging a full bucket of water to her field every day and then tipping it away at 4pm when she comes in.. she seems to be drinking the normal amount in the stable but is not drinking at all from the bucket that i take the trouble to provide..it makes me feel better knowing that she has the option of drinking during the day if she wants to but i think i am really wasting my time and energy.
 
My little one is the opposite, shes now drinking a whole tubtrug (the second biggest size I think) during the night, and will have a whole trough (took 2 80l bags to fill up today) during the day.

If they were out and coming in at a reasonable time every night, I wouldnt worry too much about what you can give them. Particularly where there is snow on the floor as they will eat that!
 
mine have their big trough topped up to full every morning once ive chopped the ice out of it & repeat the ice chopping & removal lunchtime & just before dark (putting all the ice into a second bucket so its not wasted when it finally thaws out) they never rush to get a drink when i do fresh stuff & seem to like eating snow & licking the trees.
 
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