Water Shocking Horses?

Umm... A little electric lesson here. It is volts, amps and watts. Volts is the pressure pushing electricity thru. Amps is the current or flow of electricity. Watts is the work done or heat generated. All three are present.

OP - If the horses are getting shocked, there is a defect in the heater, or a crack in the wire. You aren't putting the connection of the extension cord and the heater in the water, right? That would cause a shock too.

Do you have electric fence and have the cord for the heater touching one of the fence wires? Quick story: I was filling one of the tanks and had the hose on one wire of the fence. Up came one of the horses to get a drink. As he touched the water, I heard the fence zap. It traveled along the hose to the water and thru the horse. He was hesitant to get another drink. I couldn't help laughing. Now back to your issue.

Last year we used a floating heater. It did ok but it only worked for that year. This year it didn't heat as well and there was some ice in their tank. The other problems we had were the cord wouldn't stay straight so the heater was always on the far side from the horses and the boys would play with the cord. They never pulled the heater out but could have.

This year we went to using one that goes through the drain plug. They work great and keep the whole tank ice free. Only the heating element is in the tank. No wires exposed to the horses or water.
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If it ever turns to winter here again, I will look for one of those. It sounds like a good design.

That's the one I have, tough little thing & I use it in a 50 gallon trough, more than enough juice to keep the ice off. Yes always use a heavy extension cord, they even have ratings on them now.

http://www.tractorsupply.com/allied-precision-2002dp-universal-drain-plug-de-icer-2170013

If a store has the drop in heaters, they probably will have the drain plug ones too. Unless it is a really small town with a really small store.
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Poundinghooves = Put a 2x4 piece of wood in your water tank. It should be long enough so that it touches the bottom of you tank and is at least a couple feet above the water level. To break the ice just get ahold of the 2x4 (that is above water level) and move it side to side. The longer length of wood above water level will give you more leverage and water doesn't freeze quite as hard to wood as it does metal. After you break the 2x4 loose you can use it as a battering ram to hit the top of the unbroken ice. To keep it from freezing thicker always fish out the pieces of ice.
You don't mention how much hose you have but I always unhook my hose and store it in my garage where I run a small heater for my dog/cat where they sleep.

I agree that the drain plug heater is the way to go! As I have mentioned, I only need to plug it in sometimes. I have the extension cord all hooked up & I wrap electrical tape around the joint to keep rain out of it. It is not hard to take off in the spring.
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At the farm I take a garden hoe and slam that thing in it. Breaks it in one trick. I also take a plastic collandar to take out all the small pieces of ice and the big ones I put gloves on and take those out and sling them across the pasture to break them.

I also use the kind that goes in through the drain plug. It works well & I've had no problems with in. We also put our extenion cord through a pvc pipe & then tie that to the fence so that no one can try & chew on the cord

That's a great idea!

Pounding - how many horses are you watering? If you water before 8 am the horses will drink plenty. Stay there then dump out what they don't drink. If you are there at noon you might offer water but try to time the watering while still daylight. Those are the natural drinking times - after sunrise and before dark. They will be fine all day without water. For two horses I use the small rubber feed pan. They can both drink at the same time and I just refill it if if needed. It's not real heavy even if full of ice. The best item for breaking ice is an axe. If your horses are getting an imperceptable shock it won't belong before they won't go near the tank. That water heater on the extension cord will run your electricity bill thro the roof.