I have some fairly extensive gardening on our property, including numerous sun and shade borders with perennials and shrubs. This year I’ll be installing a drip irrigation system with a four zone electronic timer and 1/2 inch mainline tubing running to the various beds.
My mind rambles when I’m working with the horses or in the garden, and the results are not always pretty — so this idea may be totally crazy.
I was wondering if I could dedicate one of the zones on the electronic timer to keeping the horses’ water trough full. I would start with an adjustable emitter (the timer allows me to set duration and frequency of the emitter), aiming to keep the trough between 3/4 full and full at all times. I would not use the timer in winter, so freezing would not be an issue, but it would really ease my mind in summer. Our corrals about 100 feet from the spigot where I would attach the timer, which is well within the tubing length limitation per zone.
One nice thing about drip irrigation is that it is so flexible and adaptable, and 1/2 inch tubing costs very little, so if it worked it would be an inexpensive alternative to a dedicated automatic waterer. And if it didn’t work I could just redirect that particular zone, but I was curious if anyone has tried this.
Not sure how the setup would look? Are you talking dripping from a garden hose, or rain water? Where would you store the rainwater if that’s the case? I would worry about filtering it and stagnation while it sits?
I stick a bucket or two under my metal carport when it rains for the bucket(s) to fill up from the rain where the top drips really hard off it in a couple spots. I did this with my metal barn too until I got gutters a month or two ago. The carport and barn are nowhere near trees or junk to get the water gross and it is not their only water going in their buckets. I use it to top off their stall buckets or their trough. Dh pays the water bill so I try to avoid running the bill up higher than it already is lol.
I also have a creek next to the house that runs good for 3 seasons, there is a portion that the waster runs thru the creek, into the land and back out of the ground and over a stone formation part. I use that water to fill buckets and usually just put ponys hay net in it for about 30 min to soak it and the sugars to run off n out down the creek. If they can drink that and survive fine I do not see why a drip system wouldn’t be ok to use? In the wild they drink from puddles or non filtered ponds/streams and those horses do not get the worming and shots that ours do now, and my guys even choose to drink from puddles in the limestone dust in their drylots sometimes, silly ponies.
Tell me more about your setup and the water you will be using, I am intrigued and always am looking for ways to mitigate bills!! Damned fixer upper house I begged for to buy for 2 yrs has already has a septic line bust, too small of a heatpump, and now the roof is leaking…our inspector sucked!!!
**I pick their fields and lots daily though. And they do not have free access to the creek to poop in or around it and muck up the water.
And then hook that up to whatever water supply you want. It will keep the tub from ever overflowing, and you can adjust the timer from there.
I call it my flood abatement device. The rule around here is that every hose has to have something on the end (a sprayer, a float) and that all hoses get hung up so the end is visible when not being used. That way anyone walking around should notice if one has been left on.
I use these floats with quick-connects and Y-connectors so I have a hose with a sprayer and the stock tank connected to the same faucet. I do not leave the faucet on all the time, I just connect it to fill the tank or spray off the horse.
Might work, worth a try. The only thing I wonder is whether the system would keep up with demand, are you using drip irrigation tubing to the tank or just running the half inch mainline out to it? Drip tubing would be unlikely to supply enough water it seems to me. But the half inch line would.
I have got to figure out a handy reminder system though, or a timer…doing the horses last night, got distracted from the routine of turning the pump off (it is around the corner and not visible from anywhere) by tenant drama…and sure enough along about midnight I woke up and went ‘oh s—t!’ and ran out in my bathrobe to turn the water off! Thankfully the overflow just dumps down into a swale beyond the paddock, so no flood. But no good for the well!
The system and timer would connect to our hose spigot, which is connected to our well, not a rain barrel. The timer turns each zone on and off for designated periods of time, so I’d have to find the right timing to keep the trough full but not overflowing. I’d be running the 1/2 inch mainline tubing directly to the trough.
B and B, one of my great talents is getting involved in other tasks while I’m filling troughs, and then forgetting to turn off the water. Definitely not good for the well! The flip side is worrying about not enough water if we’re gone and have someone coming in to feed. They check water, but are not here all day.
wsmoak, a stock stank float may well be more practical, although I think I’d have to finally ditch my leaky hoses…
This would be my suggestion as well (I just got beaten to it ).
I have a very small water feature in my back yard. It’s got a float attached to the 5/8 (not 1/2 ) poly line coming from the valve. When that station runs and irrigates my plants, the water feature also gets topped off.
Only thing I wish was different in my setup is I have to make my seasonal irrigation adjustments based on making sure the small water collection part of my water feature has enough water that the pump doesn’t run dry (I have a small waterfall). I’d rather be able to adjust the water feature top off schedule differently than the plant irrigation schedule.
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