I forgot to drain my water hose today!

[shorthorsemom]

I totally forgot to drain my water hose today. It froze the whole hose and all the way to the hook up at the house. I poured a bunch of hot water on the spigot and it is still stuck solid. UGH! I am so frustrated. I had to haul all my water using my kitchen sink tonight and goodness knows how long it will take me to get things thawed out. I usually drain everything back every night. I just forgot. sigh. I was going to get one of those heated hoses for Christmas but was reading on line about how bad the water tastes out of one of those hoses. Anybody use a heated hose? I need about 100 feet and the one I looked at costs about $200. I was so mad about freezing things up tonight that was starting to look cheap but I was worried about the water taste. One of my boys is very picky about his water. I use heated buckets, just messed up on the filling part tonight.. I hate filling buckets in my kitchen sink. sigh. Its gonna be a long winter. Back to pouring some more hot water. I hope the sun comes out tomorrow..... LOL, starting to sound like Annie.

Adair

 

[ruffian]

Go down to the home store and buy a heat gun. It will work sooooo much better than the hot water. When you pour the water it immediately starts cooling down. The heat gun will thaw the connector and you can then take the hose off and get it thawed.

Hubby just bought me an early Christmas present - heated Hose! I had strung a regular hose up over the rafters, but apparently was just enough below level to freeze. I was very ticked and so hubby brought out the hose he had bought for me. I've only had it 2 days and still in the trial stage. It's the 60' and is very difficult to manage. I don't know if once it warms up and stretches in the summer if it will be easier to handle, but right out of the package I'm contstantly fighting the coils. But the water comes out and that's what counts. Next year we WILL have a better system! But for now the heated hose is working.

 

[Carolyn R]

UGGGGGG. Those electric hoses are looking nicer and nicer to me!

 

[targetsmom]

Our outdoor spigot is right next to our bulkhead entrance to the cellar so we just drain the hose each day, unscrew it, coil it up a bit and store it in the cellar. We also have a large heated tub for Target and can dip buckets out of that to top off the heated buckets in the mini stalls.

 

[Miniv]

Not fun, but we've had to haul our hose(s) into the house to thaw.

To thaw the spigot we've used a hair dryer.....We've forgotten to unscrew the hose too.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

Ugh, what a pain. I can't believe how bitter cold it's gotten here so quickly! My hose is frozen too, but I don't have to use it. I've been hauling water in buckets for a week or so now.

Dreaming of spring already....

 

[CCC]

oh that's not fun

We had ours freeze up a bit earlier this year when we didn't get it in and the cold weather came...but we just coiled it up and brought it in and put it in the bathtub.. it thawed out eventually and didn't have any holes thank goodness!

We also have around 100 feet

We fill the big horses water tank (which has a heater) and dip the minis buckets out of that.. I only have to drag the hose out (we store it in our spare room all winter) once a week or so and fill the big tank.

 

[bonloubri]

We keep a large heated water tank (55 gal I think) in the barn. If needed, we can dip out of it. Also, frozen water hoses can be put in it and thaw out fairly quick.

 

[Becky]

I drain mine, but apparantly not good enough. I went to fill my stock tanks yesterday afternoon and when I turned on the water, I had a fountain in the middle of my hose. Ugh!

 

[Taylor Richelle]

I hate winter at my house...we haul our water from the house everyday!!! We don't use a hose in the winter....(don't ask lol ) All I can say Is I know they are getting nice hot water and they love it too! I keep saying I want more, but i would hate to carry anymore water for more then four!

 

[RhineStone]

We have a Nelson Automatic Waterer!

And it was worth every penny! I wish I had one for each stall! Cleaned easily every day, fresh water, warm in the winter, no hoses, no buckets, horses love it and turn their noses up at drinking out of a bucket because they like the "moving" water..."Mom, where's the moving water?" (They will drink out of a bucket eventually.) We've had our Nelson for ten years, and the only time I haul a hose is to water the arena! It cost us $300 some for the unit, plus the installation which was when we put the hydrant in also for about $700. Right now, that is about $100/year to have and that is getting cheaper by the year because it is still in awesome shape! Did I tell you I LOVE our Nelson!

We only deal with buckets and hoses if we have to leave anybody in the barn. Our hose is on a reel, and so we take the whole reel into the heated shop. We can drain the hose as we reel it up, so that the hose is lighter as well. The reel works SO much better than having to deal with carrying a loose hose. And we have about 100' on it. I highly recommend a hose reel! (After the Nelson waterer of course!) If we had to transport it say to the house, just throw the whole thing into the wheelbarrow and go. Here is our hose reel in the right corner:

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I absolutely agree about the auto waterers! I have 2, they are split to offer water to several pens. Never freeze even in our worst weather and I never have to worry that the horses are going thirsty. I wish I had more. The waterers take care of the boys who are farther from the house but my girls share a 110 gallon tub that I must top up regularly. I find it easier to heat a large body of water (it doesn't freeze as quickly if our power goes out for a while which is fairly common here in winter

) than individual buckets or a smaller tub. till means I have to shlep a hose but since the tub is only about 5 ft from the hydrant it is pretty easy to carry that short hose back and forth.

 

[MajorClementine]

www.horse.com has a heated hose cover. It's like a heated canvas case for your hose. You just plug the case in and hang it over your hose hanger (provided you have one on the side of your house) then you coil your hose up on the hanger and zip the case closed. I just got one for outside the barn and I love it. I don't even have to unscrew my hose from the tap!

 

[Ashley]

We have a Nelson Automatic Waterer!

And it was worth every penny! I wish I had one for each stall! Cleaned easily every day, fresh water, warm in the winter, no hoses, no buckets, horses love it and turn their noses up at drinking out of a bucket because they like the "moving" water..."Mom, where's the moving water?" (They will drink out of a bucket eventually.) We've had our Nelson for ten years, and the only time I haul a hose is to water the arena! It cost us $300 some for the unit, plus the installation which was when we put the hydrant in also for about $700. Right now, that is about $100/year to have and that is getting cheaper by the year because it is still in awesome shape! Did I tell you I LOVE our Nelson!

We only deal with buckets and hoses if we have to leave anybody in the barn. Our hose is on a reel, and so we take the whole reel into the heated shop. We can drain the hose as we reel it up, so that the hose is lighter as well. The reel works SO much better than having to deal with carrying a loose hose. And we have about 100' on it. I highly recommend a hose reel! (After the Nelson waterer of course!) If we had to transport it say to the house, just throw the whole thing into the wheelbarrow and go. Here is our hose reel in the right corner:

Just want to say that I want your barn! also Galaxy looks great! He looks just like the rest of his family.

 

[RhineStone]

Just want to say that I want your barn! also Galaxy looks great! He looks just like the rest of his family.

Thank you. We put a lot of thought into it.

Alax is awesome. He's my favorite horse to drive, and he has a great work ethic.

Myrna

 

[shorthorsemom]

Anybody try the pirit heated hose? I googled it and some people loved it and some said it made the water smell bad. Anybody use one of these? Still frozen and carrying water in Pa. ugh.