Horses in the wild and on ranches travel for water (as do all the other grass eating animals,) and drink twice a day - morning and evening. It is not unusual, even in very hot places 100+. And in cold places where you chop through ice twice a day -0. Water offered 3 times a day is generous enough. Plus after being worked.
Drafts would destroy water buckets in stalls and the buckets wouldn’t hold enough any way.
Drafts can also learn to push on fences and gates - the just lean them over and walk through.
Your neighbors have figured out a horse management system that works for THEM.
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Yes. Because horses are livestock that can accidentally maim and kill you. Not Disney-fied pets.
And we love them anyway.
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Hmmm all the buckets I’ve ever bought have been the re-fillable kind
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Same.
Do they drink more than five gallons? Add a second bucket.
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Am I missing something?
Currently 82F here, sunny & dry.
I had to buy feed & when I brought it in, also had to add ~20gal to my barrel trough & top up a bucket in the horse’s stall - where he was lazing in the shade.
Pony & mini were out, but came in because my appearance = cookies.
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Referring to the comment that buckets don’t work for drafts because they don’t hold enough water
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I was taught back in my pony club parent days that a stall should always have two fairly widely separated and filled water buckets, primarily because it is more difficult for the horse to poop in both buckets or mice to drown in both buckets and there will be one left to drink from. This makes sense to me.
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Depending on what your weather conditions are in Winter and if you can have electric at your barn that is safe to use (to offer heated water free choice) will determine what is doable. Multiple buckets plugged in , or running cords to accommodate all horses can be a huge fire risk if you have an older barn.
The barn I mentioned was just like this. Older and there was no way to safely plug in 40+ buckets to have in each stall. 2 large troughs for hand watering was the only way.
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As others have said, horses in full turnout will go all day without bothering to meander back for a drink. Horses in all day will splash and drink from boredom. I would never withhold water , but I’m probably a little bit judgier about lack of turnout.
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Just because something CAN be done a certain way and the horse continues to survive doesn’t = best practice.
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I think we all agree about that. We just have to realize that some people don’t have the facilities/ infrastructure to do it our preferred way. The horses do more than “just survive” in many cases I am sure…
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Does the law specific access or unrestricted/continuous access? Because taking the horse to the trough to drink twice a day is access to water. It’s just not “free choice” access to water.
A quick google seemed to find that this would be fine in Michigan.
(o) “Water” means potable water that is suitable for the age and species of animal and that is made regularly available unless otherwise directed by a licensed veterinarian.
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when I was at Potomac Horse Center many, many moons ago, the Budweiser Clydes would use it as a stop over to give the horses a break. They used the hand watering technique and we asked why they did that and said the horses were so active that they would destroy them. They did turn them out in the big indoor arena daily and some were even saddle broke and one of the drivers rode one in a schooling show. It was pretty neat.
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we’re not talking about something fancy, we’re talking about WATER. Thankfully the practice as described by the OP is not legal in the state where I live
I actually just looked up the MD law out of curiosity and this came up:
“proper drink”
Proper drink shall mean clean, potable water available at all times for all equines. Exceptions shall be determined by veterinary consultation or professionally accepted practices for the safety and well-being of the equine. Equines that are being worked or are in transport shall be provided water as often as necessary for the health and comfort of the equine. Frequency of watering shall consider age, breed/type, condition, size and quantity of equine(s). Activity levels and climatic conditions must be considered. Equines that do not have free access to water, must be offered water at least twice daily. All water receptacles shall be kept clean and free of contaminants and be positioned or affixed to minimize spillage.
So now I’m not sure what the law actually is.
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So, according to MD Law, neighbors’ horses are being kept correctly.
OTOH, the dead fledgling starling I found floating in my trough this morning was an illegal contaminant 
I realize what you are saying and I agree that horses should have access to water 24/7 365.
You just need to see that in some cases that isn’t possible and that the horses still do just fine.
To be honest I don’t agree with the way they keep the drafts in the OP at all.
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I don’t either.
But - as always - not my horses.
Abuse isn’t the issue, it just makes me twitchy.
& I wondered if anyone else watered this way.
From replies here, it seems they do.
What’s that they say: You do You 
No I wouldn’t call it abuse either, just not my preferred method of horse keeping!
I think we would all be horrified at how some animals are kept in other countries where they don’t have the blessings we do. Yet the people do the best they can and the animals continue to live, work and provide a service to their owners.
How do you think horses were kept here in the good old USA before we had miles of piped running water and tank heaters??
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