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Carrying water buckets in winter

From: Allyson

Dear Jessica, first I just have to tell you how much I love HORSE-SENSE and especially how much it means to me right now, after everything that has happened to our country. My husband and my two brothers both work in New York City close to the World Trade Center, and it seems as if we just can't think about anything but what happened in September. The one time we all ignore it for a while is when HORSE-SENSE arrives. I print it out on my printer and put it in a file folder, and then we all read the questions and answers together after supper on Friday night when my husband is home, my brothers come out to the farm to have supper with us. We all love horses, my husband works so that we can keep the farm that used to belong to my parents, our children love horses, and we all think that you are the greatest! Thank you from all of us, for giving so much of yourself and letting us have a little piece of normal family time in these trying times for our nation. You just can't know what it means to us!

Okay, you are probably wondering, when will she get to the question? Here it is. We have cold winters here at the farm, and my children are seven and eight, and they really like coming out to help with the horses. We encourage them to do their barn chores all year round, but one of the chores that they like doing is cleaning and filling the water buckets. They're strong children, but they always seem to spill about half the water before they get to the horses. I've tried getting them to use little buckets and go back and forth, but they always seem to be taking the five-gallon and ten-gallon buckets and filling them too high. In the summer this isn't a problem, it just takes longer to get the buckets full, but in the winter every spill seems to create ice just where we're going to be stepping. That scares me. Also, I worry about the children getting frostbite or something from spilling water on their legs in such cold weather! I was hoping that you would have a good idea or know of some buckets for children, maybe that would have lids to keep the water slopping out? I love it that my children want to take the responsibility for watering the horses, but I need some kind of way to let them help out in the winter without getting frostbite and leaving patches of ice just where we're all most likely to step on them and fall down?

Thank you for everything! Allyson, Jared, Steven and Michael (and the children and the horses too!)


Hi Allyson - thank you very much for the kind words. The last couple of months have been hard on everyone, and I'm very happy to know that HORSE-SENSE is providing a source of normalcy. ;-)

Lucky you to have children who feel that strongly about watering their horses! A lot of children that age would happily stay in bed and let Mom take care of the horses, so I quite understand why you don't want to discourage them. But you're right about the physical risk: it's not frostbite as such, but a soaked pants leg on a very cold day isn't a good thing, and can create a nasty, deep muscle ache that seems to last forever. And you're also right about the ice patches - those can be deadly.

I don't think that buckets with lids would be such a good idea. If the lids are tight-fitting enough to keep water from leaking, they may be hard for small hands to remove - and there's a risk that when the lids DO come off, the bucket may tilt and you'll have just what you didn't want: a wet child. Instead, try putting a small trash bag - a kitchen-type garbage bag that fastens with a twist-tie - in each bucket, with the top folded over the edges of the bucket. This way, the buckets can be filled to whatever height you think each child can manage, and then the bags can be pulled up and fastened with the twist-tie. No water will spill while the buckets are being carried. When it's time to empty a bucket, just remove the twist-tie and fold the sides of the bag over the edges of the bucket, then pour.

This method also works very well at summer horse shows, when ice isn't an issue but wet clothing can be a real problem. ;-)

Jessica

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