While ropes help some animals, they don’t help birds.
Other kinds of ladders also help, but also some animals get caught underneath and don’t figure to go around to where they can climb.
That is why the USDA recommended the ones that are a half circle enclosed, so once any one animal hits them from any direction, they are a straight shoot up and out, no corners to get under and swim ineffectively under there until drowned.
I know, I know, this is a very old thread! However, after implementing many suggestions I have found on this forum, I am not getting a 100% success rate, and want to find what @Bluey is talking about! Does anyone know where to find these to buy? I am not interested in making my own (I don’t have that kind of talent!)! Thank you for your help!
there are anti syphon devices designed to prevent the backflow of fluids that connect to the faucet then attach the hose. Our primary water feed to the barn and field hydrants as an anti syphon valve at the point where the supply line leaves the house
for wildlife escape we just add a suitable branch to them
Instead of trying to provide a ladder out of the horse trough I put out a shallow water dish for the small critters. I positioned it so that the horses can’t bother it. I haven’t had any drownings since I provided an alternate water source.
We get ours at our USDA Farm Service agency in our county.
We have also made some ourselves.
Here are the specs for those, most any local welding shop can cut you one out of some scrap expanded metal they may have around:
My mare would take one look at that, get her calendar out to check the date of her last vet appointment, deem 2 weeks “far too long” and promptly give herself a corneal ulcer.
This thread is pretty old, but if I recall the idea behind the photos I posted was to show ramps need to make contact with the sides and the bottom of the trough. Often people extend a ramp from the top to the bottom, but towards the middle. Then critters tend to just swim under them as they usually follow the edge of the tank. There are definitely ways to make them safer. Those I posted are on open range land so mostly used by cattle, but possibly some ranch horses too. Here is another example of something more horse friendly.
I like this one you posted in your most recent post.
I know my horse is a special cupcake who goes looking for things she can stick in her eye (wears mask outside all year long, still manages to get an occasional corneal ulcer by sleeping in her stall with her damn fool eyes open) but those first pix were a 
“no, no, please no, build something safer” for me because I know there are plenty of other idiot/itchy horses out there just looking for something nice and scratchy to rub against.
I agree. Horses are more than capable of finding ways to hurt themselves. The main point is to make sure whatever it is makes contacts with the sides or the little critter just keeps swimming in circles, or squares, depending on trough shape. 
I currently have two, looking for a third, dishes for wildlife to drink out of, next to my troughs. It didn’t stop the problem! The things that BabyGoose and Bluey posted are exactly what I want, but was hoping that they were commercially sold. Sounds like they are all custom made?
Another thought - both of my dishes are on the ground. Perhaps I need a raised bird bath?
Very tempting - I am going to get a quote on freight. Thanks!
I use hay nets. The cheap ones work great. Just tie it to the fence next to the trough.
I find that some critters do not subscribe to the human’s attempt to keep them out of the water trough?
My cats have a water dish that is cleaned regularly yet I still see them trying to get water out of the trough.
If you have a Natural Resources Conservation Service office in your area, you might check with them to see if they have any ramps available.
I have never explored something like this! I will check. I did contact Rainmaker and got a quote on shipping. The only thing is their minimum is 10, and I don’t need 10! I’m going to see if they are willing to break the minimum since I only want the smallest size. I did try a hay net tied to the fence next to the trough, but my horse promptly pulled it out and I was afraid that she would get tangled in it. I have also tried a rope, which she enjoyed chewing on. I did get a bird bath yesterday, so hopefully that will also help.
we do that for the herd of rabbits (which are food for the hawks) and make sure the “mud puddle” has water in it specifically for our crows
To supply water to all the small creatures I just keep a large dog watering bowl on the ground just outside the fence where the water trough is – right next to the hydrant. Never have a drowning. It really does work!
Essentially, that’s what I do. After a year of several squirrel deaths, I haven’t found anything in the troughs this year.
another thing is keep the trough’s water level fairly high, we have six or seven 40 gallon troughs. In one paddock where the horses had lowered the water level there was a baby owl standing in knee to it water
was able to scoop it out setting in a protected area where it remained until it was ready fly away
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