Cold Water/Warm Water??

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misty'smom

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I have read that minis like to have warm water in the cold weather but I have also read it does not matter??? I do not have access to hot water in my barn so I have carried some buckets of warm water from my house (not too far away). I have only done this on the days it was really cold and they were wet from snow/sleet/rain. I have not noticed a difference if they drink more or less warm or cold. We never warmed the water with our big guys when I was growing up in NJ. Is it different with minis? What does everyone else do? I know that it is important they drink plenty of water so I want to make sure I am doing the right thing.
 
The only reason some of my minis get warm water is I have to haul water regardless, if I'm hauling from the house it might as well be warm and melt some of the ice in their tubs. Some share a tank with the saddle horses and bulls, it doesn't get warmed, just filled every day. They all seem to drink amounts that are normal for each individual horse. [Guess I do have one horse that does seem to prefer the warmed water, the rest drink whatever is available to them.]
 
We gave warm water to our big horses as well--they certainly liked it--several of them would simply refuse to drink cold water, and would stand by the cold water and wait for the warm water to arrive. Most of my minis will choose warm water over cold--a few prefer cool over warm, and I have at least two that prefer it on the hot side.

Overall the herd drinks more when given warm water--same was true of our big horses.
 
I board my horses, but just rent the stalls and take care of them myself. I save 1 gal. milk jugs and fill them with hot tap water..I empty their buckets and put two gallons of the hot water in my big horses bucket,( 5 gal.)than fill the rest up with the cold water..My Mini has has a small bucket so I save a 1/2 gal. milk jug for him..I've been giving warm water for years..And although it may be a little trouble at times, they do drink more. And it makes ME feel better...LOL
 
I have heaters for my water troughs and I find they drink more. One heater was failing this year and some mornings there was ice on that trough, even after removing the ice it was still taking them longer to drink the water. When the water is heated we fill that trough daily, not heat = every couple of days.
 
We top off any unheated buckets - and even the heated ones - with warm water at bedtime because we think it keeps the water from freezing overnight. They are fed then too, so they aren't drinking it right away. But given the choice between a heated tub and an unheated one, ours will usually break the ice on the unheated one! We give them the choice.
 
Some horses will not drink nearly ice cold water. So even if they "can" drink it, they may not. I think ideally, it's best to offer both a heated source of water and an unheated source of water when it is cold, or nearly cold enough, to freeze.
 
Animals tend to prefer 40' water which is the temperature it comes out of the tap at regardless of air temperature. I do not encourage warming water, but along the same lines, breaking ice is not good either as that water is 32'.

Dr. Taylor
 
We have our heaters on timers so that the water isn't hot but it isn't frozen either. I might test the temp if I can find a thermometer.
 
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I have water heaters, I used to have to haul water from the house which was farther away from the barn and watering 5 horses bucket by bucket (4 big horses and a mini) was hard, so I go heaters and they work great =) The water tempature is not too cold but I know it isn't really that warm either.
 
I have both heated and unheated water buckets. Both of my horses will not drink out of the heated water bucket unless they absolutely have to.
 
My horses are cold water drinkers (above freezing but not warmed) and will flat out refuse to drink even tepid water when it is offered.
 
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We use a 16 gallon heated bucket for our 4 horses. Sitting right next to it is a 16 gallon non-heated bucket. It took a few days of transition for them to "trust" the heated bucket again. I helped this along by not filling up the non-heated bucket as they drained it for a couple of days. Now they all go to the heated bucket but will also drink out of the unheated bucket when it's not got ice on the top. I fill up using a hose on days the temps are high enough to not have a frozen hose. On the days the hose is frozen, I pull water from a 100 gallon trough we have sitting just outside their area that we filled up for the hurricane in October. The water has stayed clean and allows me quick access to water when I can't get it from the hose. The water gets warmed up as it sits in the heated bucket. My 4 go through the 16 gallons every other day, with some days them drinking more requiring filling more often.
 
We have 7 troughs scattered throughout a five acre area, so we've been putting heaters with timers in them for years. It keeps the ice from taking over, but the water isn't warm either. I couldn't imagine hauling hot water around to all of them. We drain the hoses after each use, but when the first cold snap happens each winter we get caught with frozen hoses and literally haul them into the house to thaw. It's almost a rite of passage, or something.

What's interesting, in regard to the original question is that we have one stallion in his own paddock area with a small unheated trough which we break the ice in......He also has a heated bucket available. Yes, he drinks from the heated bucket, but I see him going to the unheated trough more often......Strange?
 
I've used a large heated water bucket for years. It keeps it just above freezing.
 
Thanks for all the great replies! I have kind of compromised on the hot/cold water, that is if my hose isn't frozen like today!! If I get water from my hose I will fill their outside water bucket and then when I bring them in for their feeding and for the night I will bring a bucket of warm water from the house. We just built our barn this past summer so no electric right now just a drop cord running from our pool for a shop light. We hope to get electric in over the summer so I will try the bucket warmers next winter.
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Last year, with 2 minis, we did fine with an electric heating thingie that sat in the bottom of their 20 gal water dish. The heater thing is about the diameter of a decent sized doughnut and about 3/4-1 inch thick. Here in WA state which really doesn't get that cold it kept the water from freezing. We ran a waterproof extension cord from the barn to the water dish and and zip-tied the power cord to the fence so nobody could nibble on the cord.

Then our 3rd mini joined us. Baby spent most of the summer splashing around in her water so I was nervous having that heating element in the water dish. (Where she could maybe hook it with a hoof and chew on it) So we got a couple 10 gal heated buckets They look just like regular buckets except they have a power cord. I still didn't want those in the barn either (it's wet enough here-don't need water in the stalls) We left the outside water dishes and in the morning I pour a gal or so hot water in; I've noticed that on the outside water, they'll break a thin layer of ice but they really don't drink much...just kind of nose at it.

I've noticed they all drink more water in winter when they eat more hay vice in summer when they eat more grass with its higher moisture content.
 

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