Top 10 Eco Friendly Tips For Your Horse And Pony
You may well be on your way to having an eco friendly house and garden – but what about having an eco friendly pony too?
In this article, I have just put together 10 easy tips for making your stable more eco friendly, and to make sure that you now only save money and time, but also preserve existing materials and reduce your waste.
Share tips with other people at your yard and get tips from them – as some things are best done by everyone anyway – like worming together.
If only one of you ‘worms’ your pony – then you have wasted your money, as everyone else’s ponies will still be leaving worm eggs all over the fields for your pony to digest again! What a waste of time (yours for dosing), food (as the worms eat it) and veterinary money (as your pony will still have worms and need working again!) And think of the poor ponies too!
Anyway, on to these 10 great horsey tips for you to experiment with and improve on:
1) Clean your horse rugs regularly to extend their lifespan – and when they are past their best, use all the available parts for spares – like the buckles, straps and edging. You never know when it might come in handy.
2) Cod Liver Oil and other liquid products are cheaper when brought in bulk, so make sure you get your friends chip in for the biggest container between you all – and then decant into your own reused containers (keeping a note of the expiry date).
3) Rather than keep buying or carrying about shovels and forks, why not invest in 2 small ‘sheets’ of board from around the yard and use them to pick up droppings or piles of waste. Less metal used for new tools and less trips to the store!
4) And to reduce the amount of bedding thrown away when mucking out – use an old wire basket to sieve it first. Once the solid waste is in the basket, give it a good shake and let the clean bedding fall back to the ground.
5) Natural sheepskin numnahs can have their life extended by shaking a small amount of talcum powder on them after each use as this will help t absorb some of the sweat and dirt from the pony’s back and keep them usable for much longer.
6) Use some old baler twine plaited together and strung across the tack room or elsewhere to hang up wet rugs after use.
7) A great use of an old car tyre (which seem to build up all over the place) is as a secure holder for your horses food bucket. Some ponies love to kick their food bowl around – wasting food in the process!
8.) Wash your tack using hot water and eco friendly washing up liquid, and soap well afterwards. Not only will this keep your leather nice a supple for the pony, but will also extend it’s lifespan.
9) Buy really brightly coloured brushes, hoof-picks and lead ropes, etc, to reduce the likelihood that you will lose them in bedding or grass. If you lose your equipment, you are as good as throwing it away – then you will have to consume more!
10) And the best till last - save up all your well rotted manure for paying gardeners and allotment holders! Not only are you helping to keep their plots organic and local – but you will stop them buying artificial manures or unsustainable fertilisers and peats for their plants!
Hope these are of use to you and maybe even inspire you to try some of your own ideas at the yard!
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