Heated Water Buckets
There are two advantages to heated water buckets:
- Non-freezing. A heated water bucket will not freeze. This means that your horse will not deprived of water and that the water bucket will not be damaged by ice. Note that heated water buckets are normally rated to a given temperature (e.g. minus 20C), which means that the water should not freeze down to this temperature, but may freeze if it gets colder. Consequently, one needs to choose a water bucket with a rating which matches or exceeds the coldest temperatures you expect.
- Increased water consumption. In cold weather, horses may not drink sufficient water if the water is very cold. Warming the water increases water consumption and thereby avoids the potential problems (e.g. impaction colic) associated with dehydration.
These buckets are typically heated electrically, by an electrical heater in the base of the bucket (under the plastic bottom, so that the horses cannot reach it). The following photo is an example of this, with the electrical cable connection visible in the base of the bucket, under the bottom of the bucket.
The electrical cable should be carefully protected against damage (e.g. from a horse stepping on it or chewing on it) as a damaged electrical cable will not only affect the function of the bucket but can also result in an electrical shock to the horse.
Some buckets also have a connection for a water pipe, along with a float which refills the bucket with water when the water level drops. The advantage of such buckets is that they do not need to be manually refilled, while the disadvantage is that the physical connection to a water pipe means that they are less portable. A compromise solution is a bucket with a connection for a flexible water hose rather than a rigid pipe connection.
Suggestions
For the extension cable to the bucket, use a high-gauge wire. Water heaters require a lot of current, so low-gauge or low-rated electrical cables are unsuitable.
Placing the bucket in an insulated wooden box will reduce heat loss through the bottom and sides of the bucket, thereby reducing electrical consumption (and associated cost).
Be absolutely sure that the electrical cables are sound, replacing any which become worn. Small short-circuits can shock your horse even if the current is too small for you to feel (horses, like most animals, are much more sensitive to electrical current than people). A horse which has been shocked a couple of times from a water bucket may refuse to drink from it thereafter, even if the problem is fixed.
If night-time heating is sufficient to prevent the water from freezing, you may want to put the heater on a night time circuit to save costs (this only works if you live in an area where night time electricity is cheaper than daytime).
Some horses will pick up a bucket with their teeth or move it around, which can result in electrical cables being stretched and broken. Consider fixing the bucket in place to avoid this risk.
Heated Water Troughs
As a water trough is essentially just a very large bucket, the above discussion is largely applicable to water troughs as well. Some differences are:
- Water troughs are heavier and consequently less likely to be moved by a horse.
- Some water troughs are heated by solar power instead of mains electricity. This means that they can be placed in areas (e.g. fields) which do not have electrical connections. It also means less less of electrical short-circuits or shocks.
- Troughs have a larger volume of water and a greater surface area, so they require more electricity to run than water buckets, for a small number of horses. However, for a larger number of horses, a single water trough is cheaper to run than many separate water buckets.
- Troughs almost always have automatic water feeds, so there is no need to refill manually.
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