Wednesday, May 12, 2010

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!