She did say she’d be moving in the spring, so would have several months to figure out a way to prevent freezing before the next winter, which is why I suggested building insulation around it if electricity is not available. Hoses should always be emptied of all water in the winter to prevent freezing and thus breaking, whether attached to a tote or a spigot. I am from Ohio and know all about sub-freezing temps.
During the two weeks when a blizzard took off our grid, I had to get a 100 gallon tank on the bed of the truck and haul water that way. It’s totally pain in the butt, but with two horses, you may be able to get by until your well is up and running. What I would suggest, is to see whether you can find a high water pressure source to fill your tank. I was fortunate enough that I got assistance from my then company in that regard so filling that tank took only a couple of minutes. Otherwise, it will be a drag filling your tank…Once the tank if filled, it is a simple matter of letting gravity do its work, into our 100 gallon water trough.
you could build a cristen onsite … which is no more than a vault to store water… or just bury a large plastic tank then transfer pump the water to the trough … either would be much,much less than a well’s cost
you could build a cistern onsite … which is no more than a vault to store water… or just bury a large plastic tank then transfer pump the water to the trough … either would be much,much less than a well’s cost
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistern
https://www.ntotank.com/underground-water-tanks
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Except that snow is up to 95% air, so fill the 100 gallon tank with snow and it will melt down to 5 gallons of water
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How close would a neighbor with water be? I ask because I’ve been the neighbor with the water supplying a water trough for someone without a well. Keeping that large trough full for my neighbor’s mules wasn’t even a blip on my electricity cost (we’re on a well, so pump our water) and I didn’t mind. He was a good neighbor in other ways (allowed us to ride over his land, etc.), so I was happy to reciprocate.
I know you’re in a cold climate, so perhaps this wouldn’t be doable but, if you got a large enough trough (thinking stock tank here, maybe even insulated) and could reach a water supply with a couple hundred feet of hose, perhaps this would be an option.
On the other hand, personally, I wouldn’t purchase raw land without predictable water - we did buy a property once before the well was in, but the purchase was inclusive of the well (whatever that cost would be, so a good deal for us), and we ended up with an excellent water source.
Hey Kegger, sorry to hear about the change in your boarding situation. If you can get electric in, you can do it.
Stay with smaller containers that you can handle easily. You can fill them at home and easily transport. Maybe several of these. I can’t imagine how you would manage something big in this weather without a tractor.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Aqua-Tainer-7-Gallon/872426
For 2 horses a couple of the heated tubs would be easier to manage than a tank with a heater. You would be filling more often, but it sounds like you would be close enough to fill regularly. Unless you just want to fill a big trough and not have to do it very often. The tubs are just so trouble free and don’t use a ton of electricity.
The large containers sound good, but for the winter, where would you keep it that it wouldn’t freeze? The large ones might be nice for the summer, giving you water for bathing, etc.
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Electricity to the site first is reasonable. You’ll need it to build a house and live there. Re check the cost of drilling a well. Almost all wells over 150’ are drilled through rock so your area being rocky doesn’t make sense. The well cost must be inclusive of something else besides the actual bore hole. Perhaps well casing is the cost difference.
This seems like an enormously costly and labor intensive program to board two horses.
What does land go for in your part of WI? Will you buy for cash or mortgage? Any investment potential? With bare land you’ll have to fence, set up supporting facilities like run ins and a storage facility of some sort, get in electricity, and then undertake the effort of running water out at least every other day. Then you’re still looking at a big bill for a well.
Then there’s the routine care issue. How far will you be from this field? If your horses require medication, supplemental feeding, care after an injury, etc. how will that be handled? Whose going to break the ice on the water tank when (not if) you get a snow or ice storm that takes out the electricity and renders the roads impassible? Life, and equine husbandry, can quickly become a lot less fun.
Is there NO alternative within, say, an hour’s drive or just no alternative you want to use?
Remote keeping of horses with no humans around to count noses every day is not a fun thing. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, wore it out. Having almost 9 years experience with WI weather I’m not sure I’d do this.
G.
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Hauling water to livestock in winter conditions is no joke. Water is quite heavy and sloshes around so heavy tanks aren’t a piece of cake to haul around. I nearly had an accident once just driving a water tank slowly around the farm, not even on the road. This was in dry summer conditions–no ice or mud involved. Dealing with water tanks and spigots, hoses, and connections is miserable in winter and far from foolproof. And the stakes are high, water is essential. You could haul out smaller containers of water every day, but that seems problematic to me as well–just a ton of work and a lot of physical labor on a daily basis. If you put smaller water tanks into the back of your truck on a freezing cold day, they could start freezing up before you get them to your farm.
Also, you may think you have a plan, but your plan needs to be something that will work even if you are sick or injured or have to travel for a family emergency. You might be willing to go to great lengths to haul water in freezing conditions for your horses, but I’d guess your list of back up horse care providers that would have the willingness and ability to do that is short.
When you are talking about something essential like water, having a reliable source is critical. Horses can survive very nicely in very simple setups–but a reliable water source is a pretty key thing. My advice–beg, borrow or steal the money to have a water source installed. I’d recommend the borrow–see if you can’t roll the cost of the well into your mortgage or apply for an equity line.
Thanks for all the advice! I didn’t think about the water freezing on my way over there. :-/ My Plan was to leave the container in the little trailer full time, but empty. When needed I would hook up the trailer, fill the tank, drive the 2 miles to the barn, then fill the trough. It feels like -30 today so weather that cold is a reality.
I would MUCH rather board, but it really isn’t an option anymore. There is simply no where left to go within an hour. I boarded 1 1/2 away for awhile but I barely saw my pony and it just was too far to go. Ended up being a 5 hour day to go ride and my schedule just doesn’t allow that. The only barns I would go to around here closed down, and the other one stalls horses 23 Hours a day. Nope.
The property cost is roughly $40,000 for 5 acres where I live. It’s a booming area so I do at least consider the property an investment. If there isn’t a feasible way to get water in then drilling the well will be factored in. I just called a few realtor friends and they said $8000 is the minimum to expect for a well but that’s like 1% chance. Bank on $10-$15K at least. I have NO idea why we are so expensive up here, but my mother’s well broke the week before she closed on her house this summer. They hunted everywhere for prices and it was still over $15K. What a nightmare! They replaced the well and moved out a month later. LOL
I’ve got lots to think about as I make my plan. I really appreciate the input. It’s a big decision. I’ve cared for my own horses before and don’t mind it, but my spoiled self much prefers to cut a check and just go ride. 
I’m also trying to possibly find a place to rent that has water/electricity on it. Being the fourth place I’ve boarded in a row that is shutting down and/or took such awful care of the horses I had to leave… a big part of me just wants to get my own place and never have to worry about my pony being homeless or poorly cared for again. It’s a big decision and I have a lot of planning and thinking to do. Thank you for all the ideas!
I’m in MN and I know from experience, hauling water in the winter sucks. I wouldn’t do it - there is just too much that can go wrong.
Just filling the “storage” tank is going to take a fair bit of time. You will have to fill the storage tank right before bringing it over, or it will freeze. How long will it take to fill the troughs from the storage tank? I’m guessing that will take a fair bit of time, and you will probably have the nozzle freezing before you get the trough filled. The whole process will take quite a bit longer than you think it will and you will need to fill the troughs fairly often. I know it’s not normally this cold, but right now, the end of our hose is freezing as we fill tanks. It was completely frozen before we could finish blowing out the hose. As I type this, my DH is out thawing the end of the hose so we can do water.
What happens if the power goes out and the water freezes? You need to have a lot of hot water to mix in, as the heaters just can’t thaw a completely frozen tank.
Would I do it in a warmer climate. Sure, it’s a pain, but doable. In this climate - I wouldn’t chance it.
Good luck in finding an alternative property with water, or a hidden boarding option. I moved my horses home when my barn closed and I couldn’t find any suitable options, so I know the frustration.
If you use water tank, it should take awhile to freeze. Or add some salt in the tank to decrease freezing temperature. The freezing will start at the top, so your spigot, which is at the bottom of the tank, will be fine to use, until the whole thing freeze solid. If it is still a concern, maybe you can add some sort of heating element to your water tank.
Regardless, if you go with this route, consider where you put your tank. Once that thing is filled, you are not going to move it. Period. It is heavy, and clunky. That is why it may be better to keep it on the bed of your truck, where the spigot is above your water trough. You park your truck next to your water trough, and fill the trough directly via a hose. It is also safer to have extra weight on the bed of the truck in questionable road condition vs traiilering it.
If you have a backhoe, you could dig a hole for a 500 gallon polyethylene tank and bury the tank a few feet below the frost line. Fill it up when the weather allows.
You could pump to a surface trough from it with a battery driven submerged pump powered from your truck. You could have a 275 gallon tote in a heated garage (or with a tank heater) to take to refill the underground tank.
The Tank Depot has some options. Here is a 550 gallon tank 
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A large, full tank in the back of your truck isn’t going to move unless you step on the brakes to avoid a dog/person/other car in which case it is going to slide up your truck bed with amazing speed and force and slam into the back of your cab. Or you will innocently accelerate going up a hill you didn’t think was that steep and it will slide and slam into your tailgate. Water tanks beyond a certain size can be a very heavy and unstable load, so don’t just assume you can put some giant tank in the back of your truck and safely get out on the road.
I like pluvinel’s idea the best, after just biting the bullet and putting the well in using borrowed funds. You probably could even pay for a service to bring you the water and keep it full. And once your well was in place, it could serve as a backup water source. BUT, putting that thing below the frost line in Wisconsin might be quite an endeavor. What is the frost line depth up there? 5 feet? 7 feet? I dunno, might end up costing enough that you would rather put the money towards the well.
It cost us something like 40K to put in our last well, after the house well failed a few years ago. But it did involve drilling through 700ft of rock and lining it with steel tubing, so I can see where a well can be a lot of money.
But yeah. I’d borrow the money and put the well and pump house in before I dragged water around the countryside in the depths of winter (Just think of it as a board payment–and factor in the cost of the tank and the trailer and the pump you’ll need to get the water from the tank to the trough and the hours of time it will take you to achieve that whole thing…)
I live up a mountain in snow country. Just getting it the 500 feet from the house to the barn before I got the water line run over there was dreadful the first winter we were here. You tend to underestimate how exhausting it is to wrangle this stuff in 2ft of fresh snow and minus something temperatures, in the dark, after work. My (young, fit, athletic) neighbor thought she could manage it the first winter she was up here and we ended up having to evacuate her horses off the mountain in the middle of January.
Don’t do it to yourself, really. You can truly get to hate your life after a couple of months of doing this.
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Tough choices. No chance of finding a property for you to move to with horses? If not, what about setting up the waterless property and moving your horses there but boarding at that far-away stable for the worst of the winter? At least until you get a well going.
Isn’t it obvious that the tank should be secured to the bed of the truck? Where is this aggression from?
Regardless, when I said, “that thing isn’t going to move,” I mean, “You, as a human, isn’t going to move that thing.”
By the way, a friend has done this hauling water tank to pasture thing for years, on a lease property. She was the one that suggested me when I was out of electricity, hence out of water, for two full weeks. We did this for a handful of times in lousy wintry condition. It was a gigantic pain in the butt, but wasn’t something impossible. Just need to be careful. OP is in a tough spot. It is all we can do to try to figure out something that might work.
Interesting. You say you can get electric to the property, OK your going to have to heat your trough. Otherwise it will just freeze and bust out your new trough. What about fencing? Is there any existing fencing or will you have to put in new t-post? Do you plan on putting electric to your fence?
How high is the trailer? If the trailer is like a landscaping trailer, they are not very high and will take you forever to use gravity to empty the tank. If you have a truck it would put the tank higher but it still will take quite a bit of time, which you won’t have with a Wisconsin winter. Your going to need a water pump. Your also going to have to leave it in your vehicle and indoors. Any water in it, left outside, will freeze and blow the seals. Your going to have to drain the tank every time you go. You don’t want to freeze your hose and valves.
Any other time of the year this would be no problem, it’s just so cold right now. I know you said you have looked and have no where to go but, have you looked at bulletin boards, at tack stores, feed stores, Craigslist… Someone with an old barn on their property you could shack up with for a couple of months until the weather breaks? As you can tell your problem has fascinated a lot of people. Keep us updated on your progress.
@Gloria , my apologies, certainly no negativity towards you was intended. I’ve learned via foolish error that large water tanks require very strong tie downs to remain stable in the bed of a truck.
