Last Thursday, as I was driving home from work, Jack called to say that the horses had broken the plug in the bottom of the stock tank, and it was dry when he went out to feed. He cobbled together a temporary solution, and I stopped at a friends and picked up an unused stock tank at a friend’s place on the way home. I set it up the next morning, then swapped it out with out swap tank with its new plug the following day. I placed the spare stock to the side where I would remember to return it.
Each night we would go out and find the empty stock tank. My friend had warned me hers might have small holes, and I started to worry that ours had a small leak as well, which occurred when the horses broke the plug. These are sturdily build Rubbermaid 70 gallon stock tanks, and it is not reasonable to think three horses would drink sixty gallons of water in one day, even the hot dry ones that we’ve been having. Even the tray on the ground that I fill with water so suicidal varmints aren’t tempted to drown in the stock tank was dry.
So yesterday morning, having once more gone out and found an empty stock tank, I set up both stock tanks and filled them to the brim. When I went out last night, one was down about half, and the other was down about one third. This would be about sixty gallons of water. As a rule of thumb, a horse will normally drink about ten gallons a day. Hap, who loves to play in water, dipping his head and splashing water on his chest and legs, is probably emptying most of one tank, which is why we have been running dry. I’ve rarely kept him here in the summer with two other horses, which is why I haven’t run into the problem in the past. Two stock tanks were too much for even Hap to empty in one day.
I feel like Nancy Drew.