You’re a horse lover so you’re well aware of how much the care and enjoyment of horses can impact our environment. For an animal that would naturally grazes 23 hours a day, many of us pull them from that environment, apply pesticides, lotions to make them shine, and spray chemicals on our pastures for improved quality of forage. There’s many ways to reduce your horses “hoof print” on our planet that are super easy and cost effective too!

  1. Set up recycling. Most stables have a trash can in or near the tack room area. Put a reusable container next to that trash can marked for water & other plastic bottles, soda cans, and cardboard products to be place into. This will not only reduce your trash bill but likewise you and your horses carbon footprints.
  2. Replace light bulbs the smart way. Every time one of your incandescent light bulbs burns out, replace it with and LED. The Light Emitting Diode option burns cooler thus helping reduce your AC bill, they last LOTS longer therefore you’ll have to replace them much less often! Yes they do cost a bit more but the lifetime of the LED makes them more cost effective than incandescents.
  3. Use organic pest control. By using beneficial insects like Fly Predators at your stable, you’ll cull about 80% of the fly population before it starts. This means less spraying away flies that will only come back. In addition to Fly Predators you can do a little pick up, keeping your paddocks free of manure. To keep your mosquito population at bay, eliminate as many standing water locations as possible. You can dump water troughs every 2 days and try Mosquito Torpedos which are safe for use in horse waterers.
  4. Be water conscious. Do you walk away from filling water buckets, end up forgetting and have an overflowing trough or flooded stall? This unnecessary water waste is easy to prevent by setting up an automatic shutoff timer on your spigots or installing automatic waterers in your stalls or pastures. Rain barrels can also help you cut your water consumption down by and that water used to clean your farm tools, equipment, or even for watering your arena.
  5. Plan a smart arena design. Natural shrubbery placed along the outside of your arena will block the evaporative effects of wind on your arena footing thus you’ll need to water it much less, saving water as well as saving your footing too!