Winter on a vegetable farm brings rest, but it also brings new tasks, especially with our draft horses. Summer means pastures and streams; winter means feeding hay and grain and wrestling with the water trough.
Some winters are mild enough that we don't have to do much. Not this winter! This winter we brought out all the tools: crowbar, digging fork, shovel. Sometimes we just crack the surface of the ice for the horses to drink. The horses will also break the ice with their muzzles and the occasional hoof if necessary.
But as it gets colder and colder, we have to smash up the ice and clear it out of the trough three times a day with our various tools. Of course, we also have to fill the trough with water more frequently, which means dragging the wild and difficult hose out of the cellar through the house, as the hose catches on everything it can.
In any case, if we want to leave for a few days in the cold weather, we need a different method of keeping the horses in water. It's a more expensive method, but it sure is handy: the electric de-icer.
Over the years, we've had several, as they don't seem to last long. We've always gotten the kind that screws into the drainage plug at the bottom of the trough. We've had horses who like to play in water before; Benny, for example, would flip the hose out of the trough and watch the water run down the driveway.
But we're at another level now, thanks to one of our new horses. One spring day, not long after Willow and Fern came to the farm, we heard vigorous splashing and significant thumping from the paddock. When we went to investigate, there was Willow with both front legs in the trough. We thought she had made a little mistake, kind of misjudged things.
We were wrong.
Turns out jumping in the trough is a regular pastime for Willow. Maybe she has hot front legs. Maybe she likes to jump. Maybe water tastes better when your feet are in it too. It is a mystery, but one that we thought would certainly stop when the water was frigidly cold, with ice forming at the edges.
We were wrong.
One winter day, we found Willow nearly up to her chest in icy water, happily splashing. We sighed. Soon enough, we wanted to go visit family, so we bought our regular type of de-icer. Willow is shy, and we thought maybe she'd be leery enough of the scary metal coil in the bottom of the trough that she would only cautiously sip the water instead of jump in it.
We were wrong.
The brand new de-icer only lasted for two short weekends away. Well, maybe it will warm up, we thought, and we won't need a de-icer. It's already the end of January.
We were wrong.
In February's below zero weather, we headed back to the horse store. My fellow had an extensive discussion with the friendly knowledgeable owner, and we came home with a new kind of de-icer: a bright blue floating one.
“Of course, “ said the owner, “Some horses like to pull them right out of the trough for the fun of it.”
Fairly warned, we screwed two sturdy boards on the edge of the trough, and threaded the cord through the gap, to keep the de-icer in place.
So far, so good: the trough always has a spot clear of ice, and Willow hasn't broken the de-icer or pulled it out in our brief times away from the farm. Plus winter will surely end, and we won't need de-icers. Soon too we'll fire up the greenhouse, and we won't be leaving the farm at all. We can watch Willow jump in and out of the water trough all day long.
Originally published in the Monadnock Shopper News, March 4-10, 2026