When temperatures drop below freezing, keeping fresh thawed water available to horses becomes much more difficult. But just because it’s cold and snowy outside doesn’t meant that your horse’s water requirements decrease. He still needs plenty of water to wash down the extra hay and forage he’s eating to stay warm.

So how do you keep thawed water available to horses when the temperatures take a dive? We posed this question to our readers in last week’s online poll. More than 800 people responded, and we’ve tallied the results!

Of the 838 respondents, 290 (35%) said they use a stock tank or trough with a heating element to keep water unfrozen, while 209 respondents (25%) said they use heated water buckets. Another 137 people (16%) utilize automatic waterers to keep thawed water available for their horses, and 124 individuals (15%) said they break ice in their horses’ buckets. The remaining 78 respondents (9%) used other methods to keep water available to their horses.