Where do you think is the best place for automatic waterers in the pasture? Is your preference dependent on style?
I’ve never had them myself, but I’ve worked at so many farms with them in all sorts of locations. While I have my own thoughts, I’m curious to hear from those who have placed them and lived with the placement long term.
We do not have automatic waters but placed all of frost free hydrants in locations that were convenient to be accessed. Really did not want to place these in some out of the way location were we would not check the water troughs. We did place these hydrants in locations where the horses spent their rest time or in the wind breaks
Even though you are using automatic waters they do need to be checked periodically
Mine are placed on the fence line so 1 water services 2 pastures. I pick a spot close to the barn for convenience. I never put water in a corner.
Ditto being able to check and service easily is first on my list. I didn’t install my Nelson, but I like that it’s in a spot where the water can be checked without having to enter the paddock.
If you’ve got electric fencing you also need to take into account grounding and potential stray voltage. I can’t describe the specifics around this, I just know it’s important! 
If I ever get to put one in my front pasture area I’d definitely put it in the shared fence line.
Is your fence electrified? I totally agree with what you and @clanter said about convenience. And I know placing waterers in the fence line to share is a great way to be both convenient and cost saving.
But @Leather brings up a good point about stray voltage. I know many people who have had this problem from either nearby electric fences or from electric heating elements in the waterer. When I can, I always have the fence electrified because I own a cribber. Actually, her cribbing is less of a problem than the fact that she gets super itchy in the summer and will throw all 1200lbs of herself against the fence to scratch!
There is a farm I drive by occasionally that has auto waterers randomly scattered in these massive hilly fields. I have to assume they are built on wells and placed most conveniently for that, because they sure don’t look convenient for anything else!
For the more common scenario of needing to run pipe, etc, I usually see people putting them where they are convenient to check and hopefully need the least pipe run. If they are not against a fence line (like a trough would be), then they have a good amount of space on all sides so no one is getting caught between the waterer and the fence.
To add to the great advice above - pick a spot that lots of hoof traffic will not make a mud pit, so good drainage.
This is part of the reason for my question.
I’ve worked at some places where the waterers were installed close to the gate or where the horses frequently hang out, which seems completely logical. But these common areas often become a muddy mess during the wet season!
One farm where I worked had a shared Nelson in the fence line just beyond the gates for both fields. The mud would get so deep in the winter that it would come over the top of my boots when I walked out to check the waterer.
So I guess the question is, it it easier/cheaper/more practical to install the waterer out in the field where there is less regular hoof traffic, or to make land improvements to the common areas to reduce mud. The latter is definitely the “better” option, but can be quite spendy in some situations.
Edited: autocorrect typo
My waterers are close to my paddock gates but not right on top of them, on either side of a cross fence. They share one line with a splitter. Freezing is not a big problem in N. CA, but we can easily visually inspect them as part of our daily routine for other problems. Main meals are served away from the tanks, encouraging the horses to move back and forth. Colic has not been an issue with this set-up. There is just enough slope in the area to provide good drainage (we use rocks to level the tanks) so mud is not typically a problem.
Ground improvements do take some resources, but depending on the site, simply scraping down the dirt/mud and replacing it with aggregate can be quite effective without needing to spend on grid tiles. This was my experience with paddocks in a fairly wet climate where the gate and the water area were on a decently level area (not in a low spot and not servicing more than a couple of horses per paddock). If you’re paying someone to do the whole thing it still might be more than you want to spend, but if you have the tractor/equipment already you could just have the materials delivered.
No my fences are not electric
I had hot fence (electrobraid) in MN and an auto water in the fence to serve two fields. No problems with it, but the 6 ish feet around the waterer was wood fencing (the electric went over the waterer in an insulated cable, attached to the wooden fence) and it never really got overly muddy there (but I think we added screenings to prevent.) The waterer itself sat on a concrete pad that was large enough that the horses stood with their front feet on concrete to drink.
The waterer was near the gates out of the field, although they were rarely used to bring horses in/out, as those two fields ran into the sacrifice area via different gates, and that access was generally how we moved horses. Looking at the map, the waterer sat 25 feet in a straight line from each gate, and 20 feet into the field itself. There was also an outlet with easy access which was handy when the very cold temps froze the waterer and I had to thaw it with a heat gun (0 stars, do not ever recommend, probably never an issue unless you’re crazy and move to MN or someplace like that!)
Anyway, no problems with that setup and would happily build it again like that if I had the need. I’d rather spend the $$ mud proofing near a combo gate/waterer area than trenching further for the waterer–you’re likely to need mud proofing at the gate anyway (and probably the waterer, too!) so why trench more + mud proof the gate + mud proof the waterer, when you could trench less and mud proof ONE area?
That mud is not a foot-traffic problem, it’s a drainage problem. I mean, the traffic is revealing the problem, but it’s not the cause. I’d totally go with fixing the drainage vs putting waterers way out in the field.
Thanks everyone and keep it coming. This is all great info.
I’m asking because once upon a time, I would have told you that I never wanted auto waterers. Yet at this point in my life, anything I can do to simplify horse keeping is up for consideration. So I’d like to go into installing them armed with some good ideas.
The issues with electric fences usually has more to do with placement of grounding rods (or lack thereof) rather than having a waterer near an electric fence. I believe a big one is that that underground water lines within about 50 feet of the ground rods can cause issues, but there are a few more. So you can totally have a waterer in an electric fence line, you just need to know the watch-outs. I’d just have an electrician who is familiar with livestock/agriculture setups with electric fences and underground water lines check over the planned set-up.
Regarding mud, during the installation just plan for doing a high-traffic pad type set-up and it will be fine (provided it’s not in a low spot). http://sccd.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/High-traffic-Area-Pads.pdf
water run in PVC pipe is of no problem, the placement of grounding rods near water lines is only a question when the water lines are metal. The distance between metal water lines (or electrical grounds) is 10 feet… but really that is conditional to the conductivity of the soil
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