Owning and caring for animals is deeply tied to the land. The land’s health affects your animals’ health in many ways. The intensive farming and ranching practices of the last century have often ignored the health of the land, using pesticides and herbicides to increase production without increasing cost. After decades of this, we’re seeing the negative effects on the land and wildlife, especially beneficial insects. Horse owners know the importance of insect control, but do they know that this insect control can be done entirely without pesticides? Alayne at Horses for Clean Water tells us how.
The impact on the environment.
Horses for Clean Water is an organization devoted to educating horse owners about best management practices to reduce their environmental impact. Horse ownership can negatively impact our environment in many ways. Water run-off from manure contaminates groundwater and local water bodies. If that bacteria-laden water goes to a recreational lake, it could be hazardous to people’s health. Piles of manure attract and breed flies, creating an eyesore and pest problem.
Improper pasture management can hurt the ability of native plants to grow in the area and allow weeds to take over. Soggy, muddy ground is unhealthy for your horses and a pain to walk through. These are only some ways managing a horse property can affect the land and people around it.
Basic Set-up
While having a perfectly ideal property set-up is often not feasible, Horses for Clean Water offers some aspects to look for and create. Ideally, the barn would be on a high point of the property, especially if it has attached paddocks or confinement areas. This allows for good water drainage away from where the horses spend significant time in a small space. This barn should have gutters and downspouts that direct rainwater away from high-traffic areas, ideally into a pasture. Any natural bodies of water should be fenced off to prevent manure from being directly added and to prevent erosion and soil compaction around the bank.
Alayne with Horses for Clean Water on pasture management,
Pastureland cannot sustain horses perpetually. It must have times of rest to remain healthy and proliferate. Vegetation should not be grazed below 3 inches tall. During winter and other times of wet, soggy ground, horses should be removed entirely. During summer, rotating pastures allows your horses to graze while the other fields recover. While no one will like this instruction, pulling weeds by hand is the best for your land. Herbicides should be used as a last resort.
An example of this is when Alayne was battling bindweed in the pastures. Bindweed, commonly called wild morning glory, is toxic to horses. It is also incredibly hard to eradicate because the roots grow and spread deep in the ground. Any piece of that root can sprout a new plant, so pulling is ineffective. In such cases, Alayne highly recommends hiring a licensed herbicide applicator. The licensed applicator will know which herbicide to use and in what concentration to reduce runoff and damage to the rest of the pasture.
Manure Management
A single horse produces roughly 50 pounds of manure per day. That is nearly 8 tons of manure per year from each horse on your property. Manure should be cleaned from confinement areas daily and placed in a pile away from water sources. In many places, it is recommended to cover your manure pile with a tarp so that rain does not cause leaching of the nitrogen into groundwater (or your neighbor’s property!)
What can you do with all of it? Compost it and put it back on your pasture! Manure can be composted in 3-4 months with ideal conditions. Manure must be kept moist and aerobic to compost properly. After several months, the outer layer may not show signs of composting, but the further you dig in, the more broken down and composted the manure becomes. Good compost has a dark, rich color. At this point, the compost is ready to be spread back onto the land to replenish nutrients in the soil.
Confinement Areas at Horses for Clean Water.
Confinement areas, also called paddocks, must have proper footing. Some examples would be sand or wood chips. It mainly needs to drain well and allow for easy daily manure removal. Fencing should be fairly open to allow the horses to see one another and the environment. Be conscious of your impact when choosing fencing. Alayne at Horses for Clean Water chose recycled drilling pipe to make her fences. The horses don’t chew on them, and they don’t harbor bacteria as wood can. It is unlikely to need to be replaced for a very long time and helped prevent the drilling pipe from going to a landfill.
Horses for Clean Water talks about vegetation and landscaping.
Choosing native plant species will reduce your maintenance immensely. After the first year or two of establishment, native plants rarely need upkeep. They are already adapted to the amount of rain your area typically receives, humidity, and temperature. Native plants are also best for pollinators. Your best pollinators are not honeybees but rather native bees. Native bees are solitary and do not live in hives. Because they have no hive to protect, they are unlikely to sting you because it serves no purpose. They make their homes in the ground, or hollow cane-like stems.
This is one reason not to clean out your garden beds every autumn. You were looking for an excuse not to do yard work, right? Leaving the vegetation provides homes for next year’s bees and butterfly larvae. Having diverse plants with overlapping bloom times will keep your local pollinators happy and alive.
Pest control at Horses with Cold Water
There are more options than just the old barn cat for pest control on your horse property. Horses for Clean Water suggests installing owl boxes which will encourage barn owls to live on your property to hunt rodents. Nest boxes for other local insect-eating birds are an option for insect control. Swallows and kestrels are common insect-eating birds in much of North America, but there will also be beneficial birds specific to where you live.
Bats are also excellent at helping reduce the insect population. They’re protected in most areas as an endangered species and are a necessary part of the ecosystem. Installing a bat house in a sunny area away from nighttime lights can invite a colony to live on your land. A bat can eat up to a third of its body weight in mosquitoes each night. That seems like enough incentive to overcome a bat phobia if you ask me. If pesticide or insecticide is absolutely necessary, apply it at night when the beneficial pollinators are asleep.
Advice on best management practice from Horses with Clean Water.
Best management practices will be different depending on where you live. Your local extension office can help you if you’re uncertain. They are typically prescribed by the USDA and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Be aware of what can be used by local wildlife. Rock and bush piles, as well as downed trees, serve as homes for many creatures. The hair brushed off your horse is often picked up to be used in nests. This can also help prevent pest problems. When you know what sort of food or home a pest wants, eliminating that element can prevent the pest in the first place. This is balanced with creating inviting places for the predators of those pests to live.
Your environmentally friendly horse property won’t look like the picturesque Kentucky fields with white vinyl fencing and mowed grass. However, it can still look clean and attractive while benefiting the environment. As the world is urbanized, we are constantly losing natural wildlife habitats. You can help provide habitats on your property, and they can even be considered part of your landscaping. Reuse whatever you can. For example, Alayne used the soil excavated from building their indoor arena to create a “trail obstacle course” to help horses and riders learn to navigate trails. Reduce, Reuse, recycle, and know your environment in order to protect it.
Visit www.horsesforcleanwater.com for more information.
