We always have our water buckets up at mare height in the foaling stalls for at least a week after baby's birth. Our buckets are 3 gallon ones and if they were at ground level, maybe a foal would knock them over and not drown, but if a new born, staggering around to find its feet, were to tip forward and go in head first it could surely breathe in quite an amount of water before backing off or falling over. Not worth the risk in my opinion. For the first 3 days after the birth the mare and foal go out alone in a smallish paddock for 1 and a half hours morning and afternoon - loads of grass, no water. Then they join the other mares and foals in one of our big fields where there are several special water bins - about 3' in length x 2' width and only 8" deep - should a foal 'fall' in, there is plenty of room for it to gather itself, get up and step out! Once they are all about a month old, they move on round our other fields where there are normal automatic drinking troughs.