Reduce your carbon hoofprint! Covering everything from environmentally sensitive trail riding to building a green barn, this guide is packed with simple, practical ways to create a healthy, chemical free, and sustainable environment for you and your horses. Heather Cook provides strategies for collecting rainwater, finding locally sourced feed, using natural cleaning products, and much more. Whether you keep a barn full of horses or rent a stall for just one, you'll find dozens of suggestions for implementing practices that preserve land, water, and energy.
Heather Cook has written extensively on horses for The Quarter Horse News and The Reiner, the official publication of the National Reining Horse Association. She is also a member of the editorial department at The Western Horse Review, Canada's most popular Western horse magazine. Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I Getting Started: The Big Picture
Introduction: The Green Stable
1: Horse-Human Ecology: How equines evolved from prey to partnet, and how that affected the environment
Part II Creating a Green Farm
2: Put Green Energy To Work: Earth-friendly solutions for your power needs
3: Understanding Your Land: Planning and site selection
4: Getting Off on the Right Hoof: Building green structures from scratch
5: Rebuilding and Refitting: Going greener by adapting existing structures
6: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle: How to have an environmentally sound barn with minimal consumer waste
Part III Eco-Equine Management
7: Manure Management: Emphasize reduction and reuse
8: Water, Water Everywhere: How to evaluate your needs and maintain and conserve clean water
9: Field and Pasture Rotation: How to maintain pastures and protect the ecology with effective rotation and planting techniques
10: Ecofriendly Feeding: Feeding 1 to 100 horses while minimizing your carbon footprint
11: The Chemically Challenged Horse: An overview of the common chemicals we use on our horses with alternatives and disposal techniques
Part IV Riding Green
12: Showing, Breeding, and Winning the Environmental Way: Considerations for the professional horseman
13: Small Eco-Hoofprints: Environmentally friendly trail-riding strategies
Epilogue
Appendix A: A Reader's Guide
Appendix B: Bibliography
Appendix C: Resources and Best Practices
Index
Reduce Your Carbon Hoofprint
Whether it's reducing pesticide use, managing manure safely, or keeping your creek water clean and pure, here are dozens of simple, practical, earth-friendly ways in which every horse person can create a healthier environment every day.
- Use renewable energy to power your barn
- In parks, ride only on equestrian-designated trails
- Locate your haystack near your tractor storage to save fuel
- Situate outdoor arenas on high ground to prevent flooding
- Choose a green alternative to pressure-treated lumber in building projects
- Give your horse sustainably grown feed from a local source
- Collect rainwater for watering horses and fields
- Use or sell composted horse manure
- Locate fuel tanks, storage facilities, and manure piles away from all water sources
- Implement a workable pasture-management schedule
- Replace harsh chemical cleaners with natural alternatives
- As in other parts of your life: Reduce, reuse, and recycle
