[Serigraph]

My neighbor is nice enough to let me fence in some of his land for my horses. I'm trying to figure how to water them.

There is a house with a well, but it's leased. There is a large pond as well. The pond and the house are probably 500-600 ft away from the pasture.

Has anyone used a gas powered pump to pump pond water? How would that work?

This land is behind my farm. It does not exactly connect so using my water source would not work.

[Belg]

truck; hose; 250 gallon tank in truck.

[Belg]

Man it's impossible to edit posts...truck; hose; 250 gallon tank in truck. We've also used a pair of 30-gallon trash cans. They make bladder tanks. Several options without going through a brown water pump setup, though one is really good to have access to in an emergency

[Serigraph]

no truck at the moment and I don't really want to use the well b/c of the tenants.

[Alagirl]

well, 55gallon barrels.

Well, not having a truck is a problem....

A tank (not pond) on a trailer, with added self waterer.

[trubandloki]

If you have a generator you can use that and an electric pump.

[Serigraph]

well, 55gallon barrels.

Well, not having a truck is a problem....

A tank (not pond) on a trailer, with added self waterer.

So fill truck with a bunch of 55 gallon barrels and drive over? What is an added self waterer?

[Alagirl]

just got up from a nap...
I was thinking in place of stock tanks. But since you have no truck and no water down there...

An auto waterer, really.
The farmers used to have that back home, back in the day when they put the cows on the field away from the barn.
it was just a bug barrel/tank, with an automatic waterer on the end.
http://www.hofmeister-pferdesport.de/$WS/hofmeister-pferdesport/websale7_shop-hofmeister-pferdesport/produkte/medien/bilder/normal/110461.jpg
something like this
Fill it up by the house, haul it to the field and leave it there.

But a pump and hoses would probably be cheaper....

(and for some odd reason, when I googled it, I got a ton of hits for chickens...)

[poltroon]

So you're looking to pump the pond water into water tanks for the horses?

Gas-powered pumps exist... a few hundred dollars for a small one. You'll need however many feet of hose or pipe and an intake screen.

They're noisy, and you'd probably want to set it up, fill your tank, then pack up your pump and put it away where it would be safe from weather and theft. They are heavy, but manageable by one person. (You could put it in a little wagon to move it.)

Note that the pump needs to be set near the elevation of the water source. They work better pumping uphill than siphoning.

Obviously, pond water is pond water and may or may not have acceptable quality.

Another option to consider might be a simple solar-electric pump into a large tank. It may cost more but you may be able to set it up for less ongoing attention, depending upon all the particulars.

You'd want a big 200 gallon tank for the horses. The larger tanks (a) have lots of water capacity and (b) allow sediment etc to settle to the bottom.

My concern is that it's a lot of time and trouble that might not be sustainable. Depending upon how far the pond is to the water tank (vertically and horizontally), you might be able to get away with a simple manual pump, too, because once the tank is filled you'll really only need maybe 20 gallons at a time.

[Serigraph]

So you're looking to pump the pond water into water tanks for the horses?

Another option to consider might be a simple solar-electric pump into a large tank. It may cost more but you may be able to set it up for less ongoing attention, depending upon all the particulars.

My concern is that it's a lot of time and trouble that might not be sustainable. Depending upon how far the pond is to the water tank (vertically and horizontally), you might be able to get away with a simple manual pump, too, because once the tank is filled you'll really only need maybe 20 gallons at a time.

How does the solar electric pump work? The pond is about 500 feet away I'd guess. Of course the easiest option is just to run horses from the well to the pasture, but as I said, the house is leased and I'm not sure where the well is or if it has an outside spigot. If I can manage this, this is what I will do, but if not...

And I'm willing to go through a certain about of work b/c we will buy this land if it works out.

[Hpilot]

We have a neighbor who allows us to tap into his well for an automatic waterer in a field that is too far to hook up to our well. Maybe offer to pay a set amount to pay towards his electric bill for the use of the well pump.

[Bluey]

How many horses are you watering?
No truck, so are you hauling with a car?
You can get a plastic tank on a trailer and haul water with it to some plastic throughs by the fence and let gravity fill them.

Sell the tank and trailer if and when you don't need it any more.

[SuckerForHorses]

Can you start a siphone through a hose, and just let it run into the tank 24/7 to prevent having to siphone every day?

I doubt having a small diameter hose would empty the pond, but you would have to keep an eye on it to make sure the siphone doesn't stop (i.e. they don't have water).

[trubandloki]

I like Bluey's idea. Filling a tank is easy because you have water pressure at home. Fill a tank, drag it over there on a trailer and let gravity with a small piece of hose fill your trough.

[Serigraph]

How many horses are you watering?
No truck, so are you hauling with a car?
You can get a plastic tank on a trailer and haul water with it to some plastic throughs by the fence and let gravity fill them.

Sell the tank and trailer if and when you don't need it any more.

2 horses and a pony is all. I can walk to the field from my house but it's through the woods right now.

I'm going over today to see if I can find an outside spigot near the house well and go from there. The other options seem a bit complicated, but thank you for all the great idea. I may have to use one.