I use large, round feed tubs for pasture horses. Trouble is, some horses kick them over and others think they are toys, so the tubs are rarely at the fence line during feed time. I tried using a twine to tie them to a fence post, but most horses accepted the challenge and won.
I’ve seen but don’t love: stakes driven through the middle and into the ground (not an option), tubs placed in tires (might be an option barring something else), hanging bucket on the fence (witnessed a nasty accident at one point so also not an option).
Are there cleaver solutions out there?
Does it snow where you are?
I’ve considered the same over the years, we have horses that think anything solid is a toy and the rubber/soft round tubs traveled all over the paddocks. We swapped to the hard, plastic feed tubs and they are much less fun to fling around. They still move, but generally stay along the fence line. Expensive, but they’re about ~10 years old now: https://www.pbsanimalhealth.com/feed-tub/p/16877
For a short time we had them secured to the fence line, but snow made that a PITA since we couldn’t dump them out. So they are back to being loose.
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That might work! It snows, but only a couple of times a year and not substantially. I could drill a couple of holes for rain and affix those to the fence without worry. The hanging water type buckets are a no go for me. Thanks for the suggestion.
What about something like this?
Not as easy to roll around. Designed for ground feeding too.
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Just curious what kind of accident this was? We all know nothing is truly safe, because…horses…but I’m having a hard time envisioning it.
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Not the OP, but I’ve seen horses get just about every body part imaginable stuck in empty buckets hanging on fences and walls.
When buckets have the weight of water in them, horses tend not to mess with them. But when they are eating out of them, they become toys.
Also, the shape of buckets is less than ideal for horses eating loose in a field together. Having to put your head in something relatively deep and narrow with a metal handle above can lead to accidents when horses try to steal each others’ feed. They tend to rip their head out in a hurry to get away from the dominant horse coming, and it’s all too easy for them to snag themselves on the handle on the process.
Sorry for the hijack, I’ve just witnessed a lot of feed bucket related injuries over my lifetime. It’s not to the point where I find it irresponsible to use them or anything, but personally, it’s something I prefer to avoid.
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my solution which is not clever is to collect them after each feeding to wash them out then store in the feed room
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Where I board my horse, they purchase mineral lick tubs for horses that are big but only about 12" deep. When the cattle are finished, they save them for horse feed pans. They last for several years.
The horses who play too much with the tubs get those hanging fence feeders and the manager ties them to the board with a piece of twine. (They come predrilled with a little twine hole!)
Ah. Well, I would never leave an empty feed bucket hanging on a fence. That’s just asking for the horse to at minimum yank it off. That was where my imagination failed me. When I use over the fence feeders (the rectangular ones - feeding in 5 gallon buckets is also a choke just waiting to happen), I always pull the feeders off the fence once the horses finish eating.
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I bought those, but my horses could easily move them around (even just eating), flip them over, etc. Tried one again last summer, with the same results.
It would have been great if they worked.
Feeders that fit into tires are the easiest and most reliable solution. Anything else is too mobile. After eating they are going to want to shift things around and look for dropped morsels. Annoying to dump water out of them.
another option is bolting a flexible tub to a stall mat (someone sells them premade) so that they are standing on said mat to eat and nothing goes anywhere. Annoying to dump water out of them.
we have a very stable (ha ha ha) herd of 4 that eat out of 55 gallon plastic drums cut in half length wise. Easy to step on one side and dump rainwater out of, dump feed and keep going. They tend to just push them around a little to clean up after meals, but the things tend to pivot vs really get moved. They are tacky, but I don’t care. They were nearly free on FB (discards from food-related use).
These are what I use on my 3 board oak fencing:
https://www.bahrsaddlery.com/fortiflex-over-fence-feeder-fortiflex-over-fence-feeder.html
They are not too deep so horses can continue to see while they are eating. I spread them out far enough from each other so they don’t squabble (though the boss pony will eat fast and push out the slow eater, but he can easily see him coming and he tends to finish around the same time anyway as he gets less grain being retired and only 13h in good weight).
I actually use a bungee cord and attach it to the metal hook and then loop it around the bottom board. This way they can’t remove it from the fence, as they have done this and enjoy trying to destroy them on the ground. I also drill little holes in the front corner to drain the water out of it in case it rains at some point. I do wet all of the grain I feed them anyway, so its already pre soaked. They do hold quite a bit of grain if needed.
None of my annoying guys try to get in these little tubs and they can’t remove them now that I bungee them down. I suppose the only danger I see is if they run around and crash into one? It hasn’t happened in all the years I’ve used them, but you know horses!
I never use deep water buckets since they have to shove their heads so far down into them, especially when they are in a group setting and can’t see the boss horse sneaking up on them. I don’t even use deep water buckets for feed ever - in stalls or at horse shows. Just too dangerous. A famous stallion got his jaw caught in one and broke it trying to get his head out and ever since I heard that story, I never used water buckets for feed again.
I actually use these feed buckets in stalls when I go away to shows. One to feed grain in and one for wet haycubes. I love them, but they are not super stable and can rotate and move a bit. So I just use them at away shows.
I use the first feed buckets I linked for outside feeding and use the same for indoor stall grain as well.
you just never know what will happen
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When I was a kid, a horse managed to get a hoof through the handle and took off through the field with the bucket on his leg. Result was a crushed sesamoid.
Ouch! Poor thing.
I try not to leave anything that has loops, handles, easily broken/cracked components, etc. or is not as “horseproof” as humanly possible within reach. They’ll still manage to find the one thing you thought they could never reach and destroy that, but why invite trouble, right?
I had a weanling once pull a plastic grooming caddy off her stall ledge, dump it over, and get her hoof stuck in it all before I could blink. 
Thankfully, she was a very sensible sort and just stood there looking at me expectantly until I could take the two steps to get to her and pry her hoof out.
It could be a PITA for feeding multiple horses, but like @clanter I pull the flat rubber pans from my 3 when they finish a token feed of grain 2X daily (oats for horse 2cups, pony gets 1, mini gets 2/3 TC Sr).
This stopped the pans from becoming frisbees I had to hunt down in the drylot that surrounds the barn. Special fun in winter 
I feed in stalls - open at the back, they come in from pasture on their own.
Pans live in the aisle, but it’s just me here
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Our seven head go to where their feed is given to them (five are getting not much at all), they know just where they are supposed to be and kind of get annoyed if it has been place off center of their expectation
They are separated by specific paddocks, but do go to where they will be fed
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I really like mesh feed bags (nose bags, whatever you want to call them) when feeding horses loose in a field together. But the problem for some people is you need to wait around to remove them. They also can be time consuming to clean.
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