Equestrian Life - Get down & dirty for a better environment

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Training

How do you achieve 'throughness'
Tips from Carl Hester
Forwards and down
Flying Changes Part I
Flying Changes Part II
Flying Changes Part III

Health

Pass or Fail?
There is life after laminitis
How do you feed your hay?
Ten tips to beat the heat with horses
Listen to that Heart Beat

Dressage

So you want to do dressage?
Dressage Do's and Don'ts
Dressage: Know your C’s
Training the transitions at Preliminary level
How do you achieve 'throughness' in early training?
How to easily improve your dressage test...and your score

Eventing

Exercises for the event horse
Training with Sam Griffiths
Trips from Andrew Hoy
The world’s current top ten eventing riders in pictures
National Eventing Rule Change

Showjumping

101 Jumping Exercises Part One
101 Jumping Exercises Part Two
BLOG: Out and about
Dutch are simply the best in Barcelona
Check out our gallery from the World Cup Qualifier

Vet

Equine Skin Disease
No hoof no horse
Equine Gastric Ulcer
Understanding the Sacroiliac Joint
Hendra issue still needles
LAMINITIS: “No Foot No Horse” Part 1
LAMINITIS: “No Foot No Horse” Part 2

Get down & dirty for a better environment

By Amanda Young

If you love horses, there’s a fair chance you also care about nature and the environment. Fresh country air, open spaces, and beautiful scenery go hand in hand with a passion for spending time – in and out of the saddle – with horses.

Yet horses are heavy, hooved animals who as result of domestication, now reside in significantly more confined areas than they once did. The loss of rural land to urban sprawl, and the practical reality of many horse owners needing to keep their horses in or close to towns and cities, has resulted in equine living arrangements and management practices that can be detrimental to soil, pasture and the environment as a whole.

Regardless of where your horse lives and the size of the paddocks it grazes, there are positive actions you can take to limit environmental degradation. It’s possible to graze and manage horses in a way that helps to not just sustain, but also regenerate the environment – and while a truly regenerated ecosystem may not be possible in all scenarios and situations – an awareness and some uptake of regenerative grazing principles will not only limit damage, it will also result in happier, healthier horses. After all, anything that is good for the environment is also good for the animals and humans that inhabit it!

A macro-level understanding of how horses as living creatures – and plants as living organisms – play a role in the cycling of carbon through the earth and atmosphere is a good starting point when considering the environmental implications of equine management practices and decisions. Carbon is the beginning and end of all life; as the earth and its atmosphere form a closed environment, the amount of carbon in the system does not change. However, the balance of where that carbon is located – in the atmosphere or on Earth – is constantly changing...