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equiculture

Horse Ownership - Responsible Sustainable Ethical©

Systems and facilities

Horse properties are varied in their scale and infrastructure. They range from having just paddocks to having lots of facilities such stables, shelters, arenas, horse washes, roundyards etc. etc. Wherever your property is in this large range, any facilities you have should be used within a system that enhances both the user friendliness of the property, ensures that any pasture is efficiently managed, has the welfare of the horses as high priority and takes care of the wider environment.

By systems we mean the practices you employ on your property when keeping/managing/working with your horses and when utilising or maintaining your paddocks and property. These systems should utilise whatever infrastructure you have to a lesser or greater degree to maximise the efficiency of your property.

One of the most important points to consider is how you plan to look after your pasture and how the infrastructure you have or plan to have can help you with this. Information on pasture management can be found through our bookshop and via the Pasture management and more pasture info pages.

The first and probably most important piece of infrastructure on your property is somewhere to keep your horses, ideally this is safe, productive well managed paddocks. For many people some form of yard, shelter and/or stable facility is also required. These confinement areas can be used to assist in maintaining your pasture. You may also need somewhere to ride and/or train your horse/s.

Well draining surfaced yards are an absolute boon on a horse property because on most horse properties there are times of the year when there is too much feed (pasture)/not enough pasture or times when the horses need to have their pasture intake restricted or be fed concentrate feed (or hay). There are also times when the land is too dry or too wet. By having good yards (or indeed one large communal yard - which can double up as a riding surface if required) the horses can be removed from the pasture when it is necessary for the sake of the pasture or the sake of their health. Utilising yards has many spin offs such as the fact that skin conditions (i.e. greasy heel) become a thing of the past. These yards need a shade/shelter so that they can be used at any time of the day or night and whatever the weather.

These yards can then be integrated into a system such as our Central Point System©, or they be used as part of a traditional horsekeeping system or whatever system you choose.

Stables are a common requirement for most people but you need to keep in mind that the use of stables for horses evolved mainly for two reasons. Firstly, in previous centuries, horses were an important part of the military and needed to be easily accessible. These horses, along with other working horses of their day, spent many hours training or labouring. At the end of each day an enclosure was required where the horse could rest and recuperate, eat concentrated feed, and be accessible and ready to begin work again next day. Modern horses rarely work anything like as hard as their ancestors and if stabled they can end up spending far too many hours a day simply standing still. Horses are meant to move almost constantly so it is not surprising that many of the health and behavioural problems of horses stem from over confinement.

Secondly, stables evolved as a relatively warm and sheltered environment for humans to work in while taking care of horses. Stables allow people to handle and care for horses in relative comfort by protecting them from the elements. ‘American barn’ style stables are a good example of this, with the central isle between two enclosed rows of stables and barn doors at either end of the building. This style of stables allow people to carry out stable chores away from the weather. This style of stables evolved in parts of the world where the winters are extremely cold (northern Europe) and are not usually a good idea in hot climates. Stables are usually the most expensive option when building horse facilities (rather than surfaced covered yards) and may require more on going maintenance depending on their construction (due to more building materials being used). Even well designed stables tend to confine horses more than they should and challenge a respiratory system that is not designed for indoor living.

In reality horses are healthier if they are outside as much as possible. Horses actually thrive in cold climates (more so than hot climates). If a horse cannot live at pasture full time for whatever reason (not enough/too much grass, land too wet/too dry) then the next best thing for both the mental and physical wellbeing of a horse is an outdoor but fenced enclosure, a surfaced yard that has shade and shelter. More information on the pros and cons of stables and yards can be found in our publication Stables, yards and shelters.

Another popular requirement on a horse property is somewhere to ride or train your horse such as an arena, roundyard or training yard. These can be expensive to construct and on a non commercial property may end up only be used for a couple of hours a week. However they can also be used to double up as surfaced yards and can be integrated into the overall management system of your property, see our publications Stables, yards and shelters and also Horse property planning.

There are many ways that you can make your property layout and facilities work for you, the publications in our Sustainable horsekeeping series will help you - in particular Horse property planning which will get you started and help you to make the right decisions. The system we have developed and advocate is called the Central Point System© as we believe that there are many benefits to using this system, one of which is that it is usually easy to integrate into a traditional property layout and should not require many changes to most existing set ups. If you are starting out from scratch the Central Point System© will save you money and time along with having lots of other benefits for your horses and the environment.

The Central Point System©

This system saves money, time, is much more sustainable than traditional horse keeping systems and fits in well with natural/normal horse behaviour while at the same time allows good horse, property, manure and environmental management etc.

This system works by utilising the behaviour of horses to both your and their advantage. It assumes that the horses are kept as a herd. Once you get a basic understanding of how this system works and of the many benefits this system can provide you should be able to think of ways that you can incorporate the system – or elements of it – on to your property.

The Central point system© encourages movement, it allows the horses to return, rest and congregate in an area of your choosing. You do not have to go and get them. It saves money on unnecessary shelters and watering points, the shelters and watering points used in this system are used everyday whilst still allowing necessary paddock rotation. More information on this system can be found in our Sustainable horsekeeping series.

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