SustainableHorse

Sustainable Horse Demonstration Farm is all about coverage of sustainability issues concerning equine ownership.

We serve as a resource for people of all income levels who would like information on how to improve their horse property. Our goal is to promote the Equine Side of Sustainability, raise awareness of practical and sustainable horse keeping methods and help educate and provide interesting material and solutions to common horse keeping problems.

We practice a mixture of conventional and natural horse keeping methods with a focus on Health and Horse Happiness.

We explore ways to improve horse health, reduce costs for the average equine owner or obtain help from experts. Equine facility designers are welcome to tap into this resource for information and networking to provide a "lessons learned" feed back for future design improvements.

The Sustainable Horse Demonstration Farm

Located only 20 minutes from the University of Oregon, a working example of horse keeping  and water protection, as we are on a wetland restoration grant project. We are continually putting Sustainability measures into practice. We inventory wetland plants and species and note impact from equines along with yearly photo documentation of waterway changes or berm and planting effectiveness. The wetland combined with the unused pastures and creeks are a designated pollinator sanctuary. We promote protecting pollinator health and habitat as a very important part of equine, farm or ranch management. Even a few wine barrels planted with lavender at the entrance of your barn or facility can help establish and support a variety of pollinators.

The 9 acre farm has a simple 6 stall barn, converted into 2 large stalls for each horse for night time safety from the cougars in our area. One gelding is an older TWH rescue horse and the younger horse is a large Friesian /TB cross. A recent addition is an indoor pellet auto-feeder, which we highly recommend.They have fresh bedding, daily stall cleaning and 3 meals a day minimum with dry lot turnout and pasture turnout early am or late pm. We practice daily water changes and regular feet maintenance. Manure re-use and supporting bird habitat such as swallow breeding for fly maintenance are part of our efforts. It is important for the horses to play, choose beneficial weeds and visit with the neighbors horses. In the late summer when the ground has completely dried out, they enjoy grazing new areas and picking some blackberries.

We don’t practice “back to the land farming” with saddle horses.

Riding horses need lengthy preparation for this type of work. They also hide their pain. Tractors are a much better choice. Solar tractors are now available on the market.

We feel sustainability is very important and that giving tours to future policy makers in SmartGrowth and Planning will create a better understanding and appreciation of equine ownership and the large contribution our group has to any local given economy.

Nothing beats a hands on experience.

We wish for everyone much enjoyment and success with their horses.

Diane Schell-Engdahl

Director

SustainableHorse.com