Ten ways to make your horse operation more Earth-friendly

• Install gutters and downspouts on all buildings to divert clean rainwater away from high-traffic areas and reduce the amount of sediment that gets into the surface water.  

• Plant trees as dust barriers and protection for the banks of streams and ponds.  

• Use organic fertilizers and natural mineral compounds, such as rock phosphate.  

• Use biodegradable and nontoxic shampoos and cleaners around the barn. Channel wash water into grassy areas so it can be absorbed into the soil.  

• Mow weeds when you’re about to rest a pasture; use nontoxic weed spray or a weed eater; mowing tall weeds also keeps mosquitoes down.  

• Install birdhouses for purple martins, bluebirds, barn swallows, violet-green swallows and tree swallows, which can eat several thousand soft-bodied flying insects per day.  

• Set out shed or trimmed dog and horsehair so the bug-loving birds can use it for building nests.  

• Test the well water to see what your horses are drinking; filter the city water that they drink.  

• Install automatic waterers powered by geothermic heat to keep water cool in the summer and above freezing in the winter  

• Use wood byproducts (wood pellets or straw pellets) rather than virgin wood for bedding. Always avoid black walnut shavings because of potential laminitis complications.

– Information provided courtesy of AAEP Media Partner, The Horse, and the AAEP Healthy Horses e-newsletter

Provided by Horse’n Around Magazine