Posting for a friend. He’s got a smart, sassy and huge (broke) mustang mare who like to stand in her water trough and paw out all the water. The guy has had enough. Anyone have any effective, clever but safe contraptions that can prevent her fun? He doesn’t want to have her go without access to water 24/7.
Thank you!
I have read here that simply raising the trough by putting it up on blocks or such will usually prevent this behavior.
Thanks! That seems simple enough. I’ll suggest it.
A plywood box with a hole in it, like you’d do for a heated tank in winter? to clarify in case that didn’t make sense: create a plywood box with an open top. Flip it upside down over your water tank. Cut a hole in it, so the horses can drink. Add handles so you can remove it to scrub the tank now and then. Added bonus might be less algae and cooler water in summer, by protecting the water from direct sun.
My trainer had one who did it and put it on a picnic table. Also I know someone who just kept two troughs in the field. One for him to play in and one to drink from. Depending on what the set up is like your friend could also try using an automated water bucket so it’s not big enough to play in.
I have a 300 gallon rubbermaid tank with fish in it. I don’t think a horse would really want to get in it, nor is it likely they’d get it drained dry. The shape of it makes it pretty much impossible to flip over unless it’s empty and you have arms.
I find it can be helpful to have multiple water sources - a big reservoir like this that is not super clean but acceptable, and then a bucket (or multiple depending on the number of animals) that can be dumped and scrubbed and refreshed daily. This way very clean water is always an option, but also I have the big reservoir that ensures that the animals won’t be out of water if it’s a hot day, if I’m delayed, if the water freezes, or if the power is out and I can’t easily pump water. I pay attention to which one the animals prefer too to ensure that in fact they do drink out of the larger tub, and so far they all do.
I use a 50gal barrel for a trough.
Plastic food-grade that I hacksawed maybe 4-6" off the top to get the attached lid off.
Too small diameter & too high for even my 16H TWH to get a leg in.
Even if he tried, probably too heavy when filled to tip.
But low enough for my 34" mini to drink from until they get it over 1’ down, then I refill.
It sits just outside my barn & has survived 14 Midwest Winters with a sinking de-icer.
I run the cord through PVC & cinderblock so my Jr Engineers can’t pull that out :mad:
@poltroon “very clean water” < sorry, I must :lol:
I can scrub/bleach & refill the trough or the buckets in their stalls & the Goobers will drink from a muddy puddle before the fresh water.
Go figure… :rolleyes:
One of the horses at the barn was still pawing in a 300 gallon one. He was getting it really muddy and scraping up the inside of the top of his leg somehow.
We use hay corrals. She put one of those around the water trough since it is higher than the trough but they can still reach in to drink. We were afraid he would be the type to knock it off the stand or hurt himself trying. The first couple of days the trough had the corral around it you could see him trying to figure out a way around it so he could he still paw in it.
I too find many horses prefer water that is not from a really clean bucket and prefer a creek, mud puddle or a slightly icky water trough. I wonder if there is actually a biological reason for that. Drinking creek water and muddy water may have historically provided them with a portion of their required daily minerals. Therefore they biologically may be attracted to a water source that isn’t as clean and clear since they get less minerals when they drink. Many horses paw in the water and then drink. Is that to churn up the mineral rich silt into the water so they get more minerals when they drink?
I grew up on well water and prefer well water or natural spring water to filtered water or worse yet city water. Filtered water has no taste or tastes stale to me. City water is like drinking chlorinated pool water.
Use cinder blocks to raise it up. This also makes it easier to empty for cleaning.
I second this! I have one who thinks the 100 gallon Rubbermaid trough is his personal spa when the weather is hot. He won’t even attempt to get in it when it is on cinder blocks. We have also used a few wood pallets also.
I put my tank outside the fence, and they reach through to drink. Works GREAT. No more swimming.
my horse used to do this and other terrible things in the paddock.
He was young and huge and wrecked so much stuff.
Then he got put into work and learnt stuff, and his energy for such shenanagins stopped.
Now he is a proper grown up.
If its boredom you can stop him doing it easy enough, but he will just turn that destructive force to something else.
@SonnysMom Thanks for the justification for seldom scrubbing buckets :winkgrin:
Yeah, that’s why I don’t do it too often - messes with the Equine Biology… 
Yes, indeedy.
The guy who asked me is a buddy who does the scut work for his horsewoman wife. He’s not in charge of whether or not these horses get degree and jobs, but he’d sure like if it they did. As far as he is concerned, they could then rent their own apartments and move off his farm. To his wife’s credit, it sounds like she’s always hauling to some clinic or trainer.
I can confirm that if the horse is sufficiently big, adventurous, and either of clever or stupid, elevating the trough is not enough. An old buddy of my horse’s fell on the “stupid” side of the spectrum and would half-rear to get his front end into a trough elevated past shoulder height. He never could figure out how to get out without flipping the trough and scraping his legs, but this didn’t stop him from getting in there.
The barn surrounded the trough with big rocks to direct runoff and force the horses to stand back from the trough while drinking. Big Dumb Sweet Gelding wasn’t coordinated enough to capriole into the trough from further back and was thankfully just smart enough not to try. This solved the problem.
If the horses found it uncomfortable to stretch to drink, they had an automatic waterer as well.
And look, I can’t talk, mine is clever and puts his whole head in there to splash. It’s sort of like an elephant bathing in that vigorous neck action gets his whole body wet. This also empties the trough.
Your horse may not be doing this for fun. He may be doing it because he does not tolerate heat well and he is trying to cool off.
At least, that is what my 27 year old has done all his life and I would not ask him to stop. I can tell that he is actually cooling off because he does not “play” in the water on a cool/overcast day. But when the sun comes out, he needs the water to keep himself cool.
He and his BFF have a big Rubbermaid tub with an automatic refill float ($12.95) attached (over the back side, so he cannot hurt himself on it.) [NB: the tub must be tilted back so the float stops the water before it overflows from the front.]
Yes, the water can look nasty (I empty and scrub 2x/week; it refills on its own) but dirt sinks to the bottom, so the horses have a continuous supply of water no matter how many times they ‘take a bath’.
Since the float stops the water from running as soon as it reaches the bottom of the float, I leave the hydrant on all the time.
I sympathize. It seems that EVERY TB or part TB horse I have ever owned is a swimmer. Putting the trough up on blocks does not help. The current idiot just paws them down. Multiple water sources also does not work. She goes through all of them. I now use just a muck bucket and tie it to a fence post. She can still get in it and knock some water out and muddy it up, but she can’t turn it over. She’s in with minis so I have to have a source of water low enough for them to drink from.
The very best thing to stop the issue is an automatic waterer.
Here’s a p
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