Green Horse Property » Horse & Pasture management

ECO-HORSEKEEPING, a must read for equestrians

Diana — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:09:44 +0000

“ECO-HORSEKEEPING Over 100 Budget-Friendly Ways You and Your Horse Can Save the Planet”
by Lucinda Dyer

We have just added this amazing book to the resource list of the GHP site. The author, Lucinda Dyer leaves no stone unturned in finding new and ingenious ways to be eco-friendly in the horse world.

Huasna Ranch video now up

Diana — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:15:29 +0000

We now have a video available of the property.
Click here
to go to the Huasna Ranch Video

22 acre dry farmed area

Diana — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:35:34 +0000

After we purchased the property we had the soil tested in the 22 acre farmed area. We plan to divide this area into four pastures, and keep most of our horses here.

(This photo shows the farmed area in the winter of 2008 before we owned the property. The crop of Oat Hay is low because of the drought.)

The results of the soil test indicated that the soil was low in five essential elements. It was also extremely acidic and compacted.

(Summer of 2008 after the oat Hay was harvested.)

The first thing we did was to add gypsum to improve the drainage and loosen the soil. Then we planted a cover crop of legumes. We added nitrogen at the same time. The purpose of a cover crop is to add nutrients and green material to the soil before the planting of the actual crop or grass you wish to grow. Before the cover crop went to seed we turned it into the soil. We will now wait for the fall to plant the grass for our horses. Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the cover crop.

(Right after the cover crop was turned into the soil)

Current green management practices

Diana — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:27:30 +0000

Merriewold Morgans’ present horse operation is near Lopez Lake, about 40 minutes from the new Huasna Ranch. These are some of the conservation management techniques we use now:

All manure is picked up daily, in the stalls and also in the pastures. This reduces parasites, flies, and smell in stalls and pastures. It also decreases our need for wormers and fly sprays.
We then compost the manure. Composting reduces the amount of waste by about 50% and gives us a resource to add back to the property.
We use organic fertilizer in the horse pastures and do a lot of hand weeding.
When we need to use chemicals we always use the least toxic and the smallest amount.
In the stalls, rubber mattresses (made from recycled material) reduce amount of bedding. In the runs we are trying out a natural rice hull by-product to reduce ammonia smell and flies.

For more information on us…go to our website:
Merriewold Morgans

We would like to hear about what you do to keep your horse operation green and Eco-friendly. Please leave your stories, comments and suggestions below.

Giant wash out

Diana — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:57:36 +0000

The person in charge of removing the old buildings and leaving the area looking like native California grass land was Jim Killian of JK Maintenance. He is an artist with a bulldozer! Jim also did an unbelievable job on a huge wash out that was working it’s way up the center of the property and would eventually ruin an entire grassland/pasture area.

He first pulled back the top soil, then reformed the hillside, and then replaced the topsoil. Unfortunately I did not have the foresight to take good pictures of the washout….it was not something to show off. Above are two photos that I found. (click on photos for larger view!) What these photos don’t show is how deep this eroded area was. It was at least 20 ft. deep!
The next photo was taken from the ridge top, after the washout was fixed, but before it was seeded with native oat grass and irrigated. (wash out is the gray area near the center of the photo)

The last two photos show the grass growing and after a rainy season everything stayed in place. The last photo shows the down hill part of the same wash out that still needs to be fixed.