Keeping Your Horse Healthy and Your Planet Green: Eco-Friendly Tips for Every Horse Owner

Keeping Your Horse Healthy and Your Planet Green: Eco-Friendly Tips for Every Horse Owner

Taking care of horses comes with great responsibility. From daily grooming and feeding to cleaning stalls and managing waste, horse owners have a lot on their plates. However, with a few simple changes, you can care for your equine partner while also being kind to the environment.

Why "Green" Horsekeeping Matters

Caring for horses and stewarding the land often go hand-in-hand. Implementing eco-friendly practices allows us to maintain healthy pastures and reduce pollution from runoff and waste. Beyond benefiting the environment, green horsekeeping also:

• Promotes herd health: Removing manure and reducing mud minimizes parasites and hoof problems. Providing bird habitats helps control flies.
• Saves money: Composting manure reduces waste hauling needs. Reusing/repurposing materials decreases purchases. Higher grass productivity means buying less hay.
• Supports wildlife: Birds, beneficial insects, and native plants beautify the farm while enhancing biodiversity.
• Sets a good example: Demonstrating conservation encourages others to implement sustainable practices.

By adopting the handy tips below, you can do your part to keep the planet healthy for all its inhabitants!

Pick Up Manure Frequently

Manure management is a foundation of green horsekeeping. While poop picking is not the most glamorous task, it pays off tremendously for horses, humans, and the habitat.

Health Perks for Horses

• Minimizes parasites: Quick removal decreases worm/larvae population on pasture.
• Reduces disease vectors: Eliminating manure piles limits breeding grounds for pests like flies and mosquitoes.
• Improves hoof health: Drier turnout prevents thrush and other microbial infections common in wet, manure-laden environments.

Environmental Protection

Proper manure handling is crucial for avoiding pollution and protecting local ecosystems. Key benefits include:

• Prevents runoff contamination: Catching waste before rainfall prevents manure from washing into waterways. Excess nutrients from manure can cause harmful algal blooms.
• Reduces greenhouse emissions: Unmanaged manure releases potent greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide. Composting aerobically helps curb emissions.

Tips for Success

• Create a schedule: Daily removal is best, but every 2-3 days is reasonable. Adjust for weather, number of horses, acreage, etc.
• Use manure forks: Purpose-built tools make waste gathering easier. Forks with tines and handles engineered for scooping work best.
• Place piles strategically: Keep temporary collection sites away from high-traffic zones and far from waterways, preferably on flat ground.
• Compost the waste: More on sustainable manure processing next!

Turn Waste into "Black Gold" Via Composting

Composting aerobically transforms manure from a waste product into a valuable soil amendment. Finished compost improves pasture health, productivity, water retention, and more. It's also a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizers.

Getting Started

For small volumes, you can compost waste in simple holding units right in the pasture. Or build/purchase enclosed bins. Key tips:

• Select an elevated, flat site with good drainage to prevent nutrient leaching. Ensure it's far from streams, ponds, or wells.
• Create proper carbon-nitrogen ratio: Mix manure with high-carbon "brown" material like wood shavings, straw, leaves, etc. Proper blending speeds decomposition.
• Aerate the pile: Turning the heap introduces needed oxygen.
• Monitor moisture and temperature: Compost should feel moist but not soggy. Internal temperatures should reach 130-150°F.
• Let it cure: Fresh manure compost requires 6-12 months of curing to finish. Then it can amend soil.

Using Mature Compost

In addition to fertilizing pastures, finished compost has many uses around the barn and farm.

• Potting soil: Blend with commercial mixes or coconut coir for starting seeds.
• Garden beds: Adds nutrients and organic matter to vegetable and flower beds.
• Landscaping: Use as a soil amendment when planting trees, shrubs, etc.
• Topdress arena: Spread compost to replenish footing minus dust.
• Sell it: Quality horse manure compost can provide added income!

By recycling manure sustainably via composting, you close the loop on waste streams and nurture the landscape. This green practice benefits horses, habitat, and managers alike over the long term.

Install Footing in High-Traffic Zones

Eliminating mud in paddocks and high-traffic areas makes for happier horses and handlers. Standing in muddy churned-up areas can soften fragile frog tissues and predispose hooves to infections. Wet conditions are also linked to thrush, white line disease, and laminitis.

Beyond health issues, mud significantly impacts the environment by:

• Spreading weeds: Muddy areas favor undesirable plants like thistles and knapweed. Their seeds travel on boots, tools, coat, and hooves.
• Polluting water: Effluent from muddy zones often carries excess nutrients, pathogens, and sediment into watersheds via storm runoff.
• Wasting pasture: Livestock tend to avoid vegetated areas once they degrade into mud holes. This pressures other portions of the landscape.

Fortunately, installing proper footing transforms trouble zones into functional spaces.

Choosing Footing Materials

Numerous footing options work for high-traffic paddocks and stalls. Consider soil type, climate, budget, and availability when deciding which to use.

Quarry Materials

• Crushed rock (aka scoria)
• Granitic gravels
• Limescreenings
• Crushed brick/concrete
• Decomposed granite

Sand

• Coarse washed arena sand
• Crushed shells

Wood Products

• Hog fuel
• Wood chips
• Sand/sawdust blends
• Rubber crumbs/fibers

Tips for Success

• Excavate 4-6 inches down and remove sod/organic matter from the area.
• Install geotextile fabric under footing to limit weed growth and settling. Landscape fabric offers a budget option.
• Deposit pad material at needed depth, ideally 4+ inches.
• Slope gently for drainage. Aim for 2% grade.
• Ring perimeter with containment border--wood, concrete blocks, etc to secure edges.
• Maintain frequently: Rake, harrow, and replenish displaced material before erosion occurs.

Attract Birds to Control Flies Naturally

Birds provide free pest control by feasting on troublesome insects around the barn. Allowing birds to nest onsite ensures these helpful allies stick around all season.

Bird Species That Battle Bugs

• Cliff swallows gather mud for bulbous nests tucked under eaves.
• Barn swallows also nest in shelters but prefer vertical surfaces like walls.
• Purple martins nest colonially in multi-chamber bird houses.
• Bluebirds occupy nest boxes in more rural settings.

Providing For Your Feathered Friends

• Allow safe nesting: Let birds build mud nests under cover of rooflines/sheds. Don't knock them down!
• Install nest boxes: Hire an expert or DIY. Include drainage, ventilation, appropriate hole size.
• Position nests properly: Height, direction, and location matter. Ask for specifics on your species.
• Keep predators away: Deter snakes, raccoons, cats, and parasitic flies and wasps.
• Supply insects: Leave manure, maintain wetlands, and avoid pesticide use.

In return, active birds will feast upon thousands of flies, mosquitoes, moths, and more that otherwise might bother horses and humans! This natural pest control limits needs for chemical interventions like spray or feed-through fly preventatives. That makes birds a win for your wallet too.

Reduce, Reuse & Recycle Ingeniously

An eco-friendly barn thinks sustainably about the origin and destination of all materials coming onto the property. Follow the mantra: "Reduce, reuse, recycle" when making purchases or disposing of items.

Reduce What You Buy

Buying less to begin with prevents waste down the road.

• Minimize packaging: Seek bulk, concentrated, or condensed options with less disposable wrapping. Carry reusable cloth bags.
• Rent instead of purchasing: Shared equipment for infrequent jobs avoids clutter.
• Go digital: Download publications rather than accumulating paper.
• Consolidate errands: Combine trips to reduce fuel use.

Reuse What You Can

Repurposing quality goods checks waste and saves money.

• Pick sturdy pallets: Flat wooden pallets support heavy stacked goods. Their high-grade lumber is reliably reusable.
• Upcycle retired horseshoes: Old shoes serve well as hooks, handles, hardware, decor, and art. Get creative!
• Refill bags: Cloth feed sacks have a multitude of handy uses around the stable as storage and catch-alls.

Enable Recycling Streams

Creating infrastructure to truly complete the recycling loop ensures participation.

• Provide receptacles clearly labeled for glass, paper, metal, plastic, compostables.
• Post signage on what's recyclable plus common contaminants.
• Educate boarders and staff on proper sorting procedures.
• Research local options for hazardous items like chemicals, batteries, fluorescent bulbs.

Implement a Green Action Plan

Adopting even a handful of these planet-friendly practices will significantly decrease your horsekeeping footprint, benefitting horses, habitat, and managers alike.

For optimal impact across the board, create a customized Green Action Plan for your facility. Convene staff and outline conservation priorities. Establish target areas for improvement. Then track measurable goals over time, like:

• Percent decrease in weekly power/fuel consumption
• Number of native trees planted on property
• Waste materials diverted from landfilling annually

Joining a regional environmental stewardship program provides further guidance plus recognition for your efforts. From small daily choices to big-picture planning, every step towards sustainability counts when Keeping Your Horse Healthy and Your Planet Green!