My experience with winter and water up north in the mitten state…
Invest in a sturdy Rubbermaid trough with the drain plug and a screw in heater. We build an insulted lid that keeps it a bit more energy efficient. Here’s how;
Get a 2-inch thick (or thicker) piece of blueboard styrofoam insulation and a sheet of 1/2 inch plywood.
Cut the blueboard to fit snug into the top of the tank. Easiest thing is to turn the tank over onto to blueboard and trace the shape. You will have to trim the edges down a bit more and cut a few notches at the appropriate places where the tank has a few interior “bumpouts.” (Sounds confusing, but this will make sense if you are actually looking at it.) work with it until you can press the blueboard just inside the tank so that it fits snug and sits level with the top of the tank rim.
Then cut off a bit of one end (enough that the horses will have room to drink, but no more than necessary.)
Now cut out wood board. Again trace around wood board as you did, but make sure that the board will extend OVER the top to the outside edges of the tank lip.
You will notice that the tank lip has several small hole in it. Line the wood board and tank up and drill holes in the board. You will use these to screw the wood lid to the tank with screws and some washers.
Cut off one end to match the “drinking hole” area like you did with the blueboard.
Make sure you have installed the drain-plug heater.
Assemble the layers; blueboard in tank, topped with plywood lid. Screw securely in place.
Position close to a plug if possible (or extension cord if you must. I have a plug on my fence post for direct plug-in.)
Fill tank with water. I also throw in a “float” - a screw top jar (one of the supplement ones works fine) slightly weighted with a few rocks inside. That moves around on the really stormy, windy nights and keeps an ice skim from forming in the worst of conditions if the power goes out for a bit. Also handy if you need to punch through unexpected ice. It gives you a starter hole.
We just put our winter tank together again this weekend to be prepared. I don’t have it plugged in yet. Don’t do that any earlier than I have too.
This setup has worked great for 6 or 7 years now. Heaters have held up and horses have not really messed with it (although I do have good boys in that regard.) I have tried other things— smaller muck bucket size tubs, etc when I had boarders and none worked as well as this. The other things did not hold up well and required constant refilling or checking that some horse didn’t do something silly (like try to crib on the cord. Yikes! Ya had one do that, good thing for GFI plugs!) In the end sucking up the initial investment saved in the long run. And, of course, then you have sturdy water tanks for the summer too.
Good luck. I’m not looking forward to the white stuff, but it IS Michigan…
