WinterWATERING
TRINA MANS
North 40 Employee - Great Falls, MT
Years of service 2
I grew up with horses. I got
my first pony, a black and
white paint Shetland named
Chico, when I was 2 years old.
I wasn’t tasked with his full care till a few
years later. I remember from a very young
age bringing leftover frozen water buckets
in to thaw and taking a bucket of fresh
water out every morning and night. My two
younger sisters also got into horses. With
more horses came a bigger water trough.
We would fill the trough with a hose then
drain the hose over the rafters to keep it
from freezing and make sure the tank heater
was doing its job. If it failed, that meant
chopping the ice from the top so the horses
could drink. Not ideal as horses don’t like
freezing cold water. The first time I heard tell
from an old timer that horses can survive
on snow, I was a bit hesitant to believe him.
I mean, I had spent my whole life putting
water ahead of all else (even used it as an
excuse to get out of doing dishes).
I have never tried melting snow in bucket,
but I imagine it takes a lot of snow to make 5
to 10 gallons of water. That’s how much the
average horse drinks a day. Plus the calories
needed to melt snow are much needed
calories to stay warm. Horses produce up to
ten gallons of saliva a day to eat and digest