Little evidence of ecofriendliness . . .

I just returned from my annual pilgrimage with friends to one of the nation's largest breed horse shows and trade venues . . . . To be honest, I was a little disapointed in the amount of ecofriendliness I observed.

Other than seeing some trends among horse trailer manfacturers for build upgraded bumper pull horse trailers to accommodate the growing market of horse owners who want to downsize from their large goose neck w/living quarters rigs, I saw little evidence little evidence of "green".

The show horse industry is without a doubt one of the least sustainable venues of horse ownership. The need to upgrade your show tack and attire was apparent everywhere from larger show saddles that looked more to me like parade saddles, to show shirts so laden with bling that there was little evidence of anything natural other than the paper hangtag that revealed its price . . .

As for myself, I hope I made my ecofriendly vote by bringing home very little in the way of product literature and horse publications. Instead of reaching for a brochure, because it might be something of interest later, I asked a few questions and then made my decision whether to bring home the literature or not. I'm proud to say I only brought home just a handful of material. This year the 2-inch thick journal filled with mostly four-color ads was tempting to drag home, however, the thought of having to throw it away - even if that meant in the recycling bin - was far to wasteful a thing for me to do.

Fall Barn Cleaning

We had our annual fall barn party for family and horse freinds last weekend; this of course, spawned a frenzy of cleaning activity beforehand . . .

Cleaning the barn prior to winter is a great opportunity to set yourself up for a more "green" winter. On of the biggest tasks was sweeping down cobwebs. It's amazing how much cleaner the barn feels without them and how much more light comes into the stalls.

In addition to sweeping the cobwebs I organzied the tack/feed room. Emptying out used supplement containers and finding reuses for most of them from storage for cat food, to horse treats, and grain carriers for horse shows.

My biggest challenge is throwing anything out. I was raised on a farm and my parents were Depression babies. I grew up hearing "waste not, want not". For me, to throw anything out is like a sin. It's also not very "green". I try my best to reuse everything at least once - from my used grain bags (for garbage bags) to empty fly spray/coat conditioner bottles, which I use for my homeade fly spray (marigold and lavender).

Some things should go, as a cluttered barn is not very efficient and therfore not very green.

Tack that is unrepairable or hasn't been used should either be salvaged for what can still be used (like the reins or bit on a broken bridle), or sold or donated to a 4-H group etc. for an upcoming tack sale. Wood, broken fence post and insulators should also be recycled instead of stored in the barn and probably never used for anything.

As much as I hate to discard baler twine, keeping more than a handfull for uses like tying grain bags and tarps down, is pointless. In my upcoming Green Horsekeeping Guide (for 2011) I will have some sources for recycling twine and rfor eusing it to even make things like hay bags.

So for right now, our barn feels pretty clean, and hopefully "green".

Battling Weeds This Summer . . .

I'm actually glad to see the last day of summer . . . . Here in southwest Michigan it was a very hot and WEEDY summer. This is why you haven't seen a post since May. I spent the better part of the summer being the weed terminator in my hay fields and pastures. Sadly, despite al of my efforts, the weeds are still winning. My madness started in May with a good crop of Hoary Alyssum. The plant had bloomed and I spent the better part of the month pulling it - so much that for a week or two my right arm was so sore that I couldn't even lift a water pail. Later I moved on to milk weed, Canadian Thistle, and Burdock. What I couldn't get pulled out, I at least cut off the seed heads and destroyed. In one hay field - where the mlk weed, Canadian Thistle, and some other unidentifiable weeds were especially bad, we simply went around the area when making our thrid cutting hay, and then later brush hogged it. Unfortunately I will probably have to break done and use a broadleaf herbacide on some of my fields next year . . . I hate to, but there are only so many hours in a day to pull weeds.

Reuse of Horse's Water Grows Grass in Riding Area

I recently started to use the old water from my horse's water pails from the stalls to water down an indoor area I use to work my horses. I was pleased with myself that I was reusing the water, rather than dumping the pails outside. It did take more time than just hosing the area down, and required that I rake it pretty well to get the wet dirt distrubuted evenly. Still, I was happy I was conserving my water use in the barn by doing this . . . Imagine my surprise, one day, when I thought I saw a green haze across the area. First, I thought I was seeing things. Then, I thought I'd dropped some of our really green second cutting hay while walking from our hay stack across the area to the stalls. Neither conclusions were correct; grass was actually growing in the area! I guess the more concentrated water application from the dumping of the water from the pails helped to geminate seeds that must have been in the sand footing. I've sinced joked about it - saying I could be the first person who has an indoor pasture for their horses!

Being Green Sometimes Means Not Being So Green

I just spead my first chemical fetilizer on my pastures since owning this farm . . . Up until now we have just spread manure both in the fall and in the spring. It wasn't my intention to use any commerical product, but after walking my pasture last week and seeing that it really didn't have the vigorous growth as the neighboring hayfields on our property (two things have probably cause this: I overgrazed these pastures a little and we had a very dry early spring), I knew I needed to do something a little radical.

This thinking may be where I differ from other people who practice "green" living in their households and horse owners who have stustainable stables . . . I am willing to lose the battle occasionally to win the war. I wrestled with the dilemma for several days asking myself if not applying the fertlizer because of my moral "green" obligations would be the best green solution for our farm. I know from my years of writing about lawn care for the home section of our local newspaper that the best defense against weeds and drought in a lawn is a bed of vigorous grass. I'm sure the same is true for pastures. Weak stands of clover, orchard grass, alfalfa and other pasture grasses are very vulnerable to weeds and viruses. Therefore, I concluded that a little chemical fetilizer now would help to make these pastures stronger and would help them remain vital for years to come . . .

And isn't sustainability the ultimate goal of what we're striving for by being "green"?

Yet Another Pre-packaged Item . . .

Yesterday I just had to shake my head when I saw a television commercial for another pre-packaged item that is a great idea for convenience, but another waste of pre-packaging. It was strips of all of the spices needed to make certain meals . . . We also have our share of packaging when it comes to horse care items - especially in supplements. As we wait for manufactuerers to become more eco-friendly in their packaging, we can make better choices by buying larger sizes of these things like fly sprays and grooming products, as well as containers of supplements. Even better is to buy in bulk from your local grain elevator. Most horse owners are probably not aware that you can buy 50 pound bags of Biotin for a fraction of the cost of a 5 or 10 pound tub and 30-50 pound bags of pysllium. One thing I would love to see changed are the number of dosages of horse wormer in a tube. I find it interesting when you purchase paste Bute you get several dosages in a tube, yet wormer is still one dose per tube. Having a year dose for one horse in a tube would greatly save on the number of used tubes that get thrown away . . . Something to think about . . . .

Recycling Containers for Supplements . . . .

As I take a break from early spring barn work I'm drinking a glass of lemonade made from powered mix. Although I usually don't like to purchased pre-packaged items, I do buy some powdered drink mixes for convenience and for drinking something other than water or pop. Anyway, I love the containers these things come in like Tang and Countrytime Lemonade. The labels come off easily and they make great containers to hold things like grain or treats for a horse show. Because the labels come off so well and leave either a clear or white container you also have plnty of space to write on it with a Sharpie marker to easily identify it's contents. I have also used these containers to hold supplements for horses that get several idifferent things in the a.m. and the p.m. Instead of having to dip into the large containers that hold the supplements, I just measure out the dose for each and dump it in the recycled powdered drink container. I put the lid back on and it (all of the supplements) is ready to add to my horse's grain raition at the next feeding. The containers also make great scoops for stall dry products and for cat food and bird seed.

Baler Twine

I just finsished my last night check of the horses - feeding one last flake of hay and picking up the stalls, etc. Once again, I marvel at the number of baler twine strings that have accumulated on the hook we use to hold them once we pull them from the bales. 28 already, in just four days. I'm constantly saying that these pesky strings need to be recycled. I know we all try to use them around our farms for things like tying down tarps . . . but maybe we should all start a letter writing or email campaign to the the companies that make baler twine to recycle it. Out of curiousity I searched the Internet and say a few reuses of the stuff. The best was using it to make a hay net. This sounds like a possible winter project. Since I'm not very good at knitting, maybe I could make baler twine hay bags? I'll keep you posted on how this goes . . .

What is the carbon hoofprint for your horse?

As I'm working on the fall 2010 issue of Green Horsekeeping I did some figuring on how much waste (and this is just on basic horse care and feeding) each of my horses make. While when I look at the totals for just one horse - it doesn't seem so bad, when I times it by 3 (the number of horses we have) the impact is quite large. The average horse discards about 50 pounds of manure a day - when you times this by 365 you get 18,250 pounds per year. Then, when I times that by three I get a staggering 54,750 pounds of manure!!! For the fall issue I also tabulate baler twine used, shoes, bedding and feed bags. Wait till I tabulate show supplies, etc.

By the way, it hasn't rained yet. This may start out as a very dry spring . . .

Mother Nature & Stustainable Horsekeeping

Once again, I'm remined that Mother Nature still rules when it comes to green or sustainable horskeeping. We've had an unseasonable warm March here in the Midwest . . . It gave me a chance to geta jump on cleaning up pastures and hay fields and speading manure and other organic matter. I've really thought that I was being green savvy and was getting a leg up on things, afterall, in the past two weeks it was supposed to rain several times. Guess what? it hasn't. So my dreams of getting that great natural fertilizer out there and having some ground soaking rains to help break the matter down into the soil all went south. My visions of nice lush green sprouts have faded . . .and I can't believe I'm already complaining that it's too dry out. Maybe April will come in light a lion? Isn't that how the saying goes . . .