Dirty water

How dirty is to dirty? I have now owed my first horse for about 4 weeks and never being aroud horses befor I am not shure how often to change the water. She leaves a big mess of hay and grass in the troff. I am using a bathtub that is for 1 horse and 2 goats,
I empty and clean it every 3 days. This seems to be ok, they are still drinking it but it is pritty dirty. Are all horses this dirty or dose mine just like to drink with a mouth full. I would like to hear what you have to say

Your cleaning yours more often than I do. I do use a pool cleaner, one of those skimmer things with a handle, to skim out any hay, bugs or anything floating on the surface. I think that helps keep the water clean longer. In the heat of summer I use this powdered stuff that goes in a float that keeps stock tanks clean. I can't remember the name of it right now, oldtimers syndrome I guess

I clean mine eveytime it gets empty enough to be worth dumping out. It's a 70 gallon tank for a 2 year old and small donkey, so every 4-5 days, I would say. I just dump it, take it out, scrub it out with some Dr. Bronners and a toilet brush, rinse it out, and fill it up. It get really dirty, but only for the last 2 days, and as long as I clean it that often, it's mostly just sludge from whatever hay they drop in, and not algae. I end up feeling guilty, anyway, though.

As for how dirty it can get before they drink it, horses drink out of mud puddles! But, we try to do better for them than that.
I have a 75 gallon tank out in the pasture, under some high tree limbs for two QHs. I used to keep it full to the top, but I don't these days, mosly because the well can't take it. Texas drank out of a three gallon bucket, stuck up in a small stall last winter. I went down to feed him 4 times a day and took water in buckets. But, he survived and came out of the sickness that he was in when I got him. Now, he's much better off. When Misty came along, she would always slosh the surface before drinking because she was used to a muddy pond full of algae. This summer, we had to go to the creek and fill barrels for them. Anyway, what you're doing sounds ok. My only suggestion would be to put it on some boards or concrete blocks to get it farther from the floor.

We have a 110 gal stock tank for our 2 horses, it get's skimd about every day and dumped out about once a week, our horses are out 24/7, when I worked in a stable that didn't have running water in it we were cleaning pales out every day