Make My Horse Life Easier Tip #7

 Black rubber buckets!

These are, in my opinion, a lifesaver in the winter time.  Now, if you live in an environment that only gets below freezing for a few hours once in a great while, you can totally skip this one.  But if you live in a place where maintaining liquid drinking water for your horses is a royal pain in the winter months, read on!

Here's my totally unpaid endorsement for Fortiflex buckets like mine.

I don't care where you buy them.  Just make sure they are rubber and not plastic.  The plastic ones will definitely break when you smack them in cold weather; only the rubber ones are stomp-able. Read descriptions carefully when you are shopping online.

For years decades, I have been a strident believer in using black rubber buckets in the winter.  Now, I do have to say that since getting horses moved to this little place here, I use 'regular' plastic buckets in my stalls, even overnight.  But outside (since I don't have heated troughs yet) I use black rubber buckets.  Not plastic.  That's important: use rubber!

Why rubber?  Because you can curb stomp them to break out the ice!! Rubber buckets can be stomped and won't crack, split, or otherwise become leaky. This is why I use rubber buckets and not plastic ones for winter watering.  (They do wear out and start to get 'thready' and develop small leaks after years and years, but everything has a lifespan and stomping them for winters and winters and winters is better than whacking a plastic bucket the wrong way the first time it freezes and having it crack/shatter.) 

Iced over bucket

Turn it on it's side and give it a stomp, using your heel and pulling your foot back up as soon as you feel it make contact with the hard (iced over) part of the bucket. Turn and repeat as needed to break ice from around the bucket interior.  Dump loosened ice from bucket.

Same bucket as first picture, now empty.

Seriously, doing the bucket stomp is a learned art, but oh so very useful in the winter.  If you remove the ice before bringing the buckets in to thaw (loving my heated tack room for this purpose) there isn't so much thermal mass that you need to heat up!  Way more efficient.!

And if you don't have a handy dandy heated tack room, you can still do the bucket stomp on those black rubber suckers, get the ice out, and they will be ready for you to put fresh water into in the morning. Or to use in your stalls at night.  Several farms I worked at back before heated buckets became widely available used black rubber buckets in their stalls all winter long. Plus, there's zero fire hazard, zero accidental electrocution hazard (from horses getting ahold of the cord and biting/playing with it), and zero electric bill increase when you use a rubber bucket instead of a heated one.

Why black?  Because the sun is your friend on those colder than snake snot days, and black loves to absorb light and therefore heat.  Black will stay warmer longer than any other color.  And, honestly, I'm not sure these rubber buckets come in any other color.  

Last winter, and again this winter, I have also used my (empty) water troughs to hold my water filled buckets during turnout.  Putting the buckets down in the trough does a couple of things:

• It keeps them sheltered from the cold winds, thus delaying freezing.
• It holds them in a more natural drinking position that hanging them from the fence rails.
• It contains spills if your horse(s) play with them and slosh them.  All the water stays in the trough rather than going on the ground potentially creating a skating rink right where your horse stands to drink.

Another handy thing I have on hand for keeping these buckets drinkable in the winter is a nice sturdy tree root I found.  It's about the diameter of a broom handle, and has a nice bend in it.  I discovered it is perfect for sticking through the fence, into the buckets in the trough and swirling around to break up any ice that is forming. Or tap on a break any thin ice that has formed  That way I can do a mid-day check (and open) water without having to actually walk to and through the gates in order to reach the buckets.  Efficiency, LOL.