As first-time or long-time horse owners, or anyone in between, we all know how important it is for our horses to drink water during colder weather. If you choose not to purchase a handy-dandy heated or insulated bucket for Dandy Handy III to drink from, or if you’ve missed the proverbial feed-store boat, and they’ve been sold out for weeks, here is a relatively inexpensive option. It may not be pretty, and while your horse probably won’t notice the looks of his “new” bucket, he will be grateful for liquid refreshment- hold the rocks.
This alternative to a store-bought insulated bucket will require a 5-gallon, or similar bucket, a milk crate, preferably plastic, and a sheet of rigid foam insulation, duct tape if needed, and perhaps some non-toxic recyclable packing peanuts. (These look slightly off-white, tubular in shape, and like they’ve been extruded, they are straight with no significant curves or bends. To test that you have the correct ones, place a couple in some water and if they “melt” you can be assured that they will be non-toxic to your horse, as this type of “peanut” is made from corn starch.) Measure and cut five pieces of insulation, to place inside the milk crate, along the sides and in the bottom. You can now slide the bucket into the insulated crate, and, if you choose to, you can fill any voids around the bucket with packing peanuts. (These will not be conducive to easy dumping, cleaning and replacing of the water bucket, so you might opt-out of the peanut step.) As a last step, you can measure and cut one more square piece of rigid insulation with a hole cut out to make room for the largest lip of the bucket. Place this on top and if needed, duct-tape it into place. As an alternative “top” for the bucket holder, or in addition to the top piece, cut a circle (slightly less than the diameter of the bucket) out of rigid insulation and “float” this loosely on top of the water. Most horses will learn that with a push of the nose, they will have access to the water below.
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