January 2009

In this issue of The Green Horse

• Message from Alayne: Crises Are Crossroads
• Lessons Learned from Constructing a Winter Paddock
• WSU Flood Resources
• Horses for Native Plants
• Tip of the Month: Boredom Busters
• Spirit-Horse Food Network: A Food-Bank for Livestock in Need
• Educational Events

Message from Alayne: Crises Are Crossroads

The global economy is in a tailspin, the polar ice caps are melting, we’re running out of oil, utilities and food prices are soaring. Even hay prices are at an all-time high. It’s enough to make you want to stick your head in the sand. But maybe we can look at things another way. I don’t wish to belittle anyone’s financial or physical difficulties, but perhaps our dilemmas can be opportunities in disguise. They could offer us a chance to evaluate what works and what doesn’t work, and to reexamine our values, beliefs, and goals.

I’ve been thinking that even though it is being imposed on many of us, there is something good to be said for slowing down our lifestyles, trimming back to basics and having simplicity in how we live and consume. Here are some ways Matt and I are starting to trim back in our horse world:

• Trading and bartering. We’re not currently riding with a reining trainer so I am using this time to take dressage lessons which I hope will improve my overall riding skills and my horse’s athletic abilities. I also plan to add dressage maneuvers to my freestyle reining routines. In trade Matt and I share reining lessons with the dressage instructor who just happens to be interested in learning reining!
• Do-it-yourself lessons. We will still take an occasional lesson from a professional trainer but mostly, Matt and I will be coaching each other in reining at home and at shows. We also ride with a of friends who together and coach each other, calling themselves “Reiners Without Trainers.”
• Staying in our own backyard. To save gas and lodging costs, Matt and I may not be attending as many horse shows as in past years. We might instead try the smaller local shows, which are a bit less competitive but a livelier group. And maybe we’ll just take one horse instead of three. Read: More fun, less expense!

Other cost-cutting, simplifying steps will be to buy our animal prescriptions on the internet and use lower-cost cat and dog hospitals such as Vets for Less and the Seattle Humane Society. We plan to eat out less, use a weekly organic produce delivery service, and grow some of our own veggies, using composted horse manure, of course!

As always, green horsekeeping is at the top of my list for saving money and simplifying life. Making my pastures more productive reduces my hay bill. Using all that great stall waste as compost saves on fertilizer costs. Less mud and fewer insects help reduce associated diseases and pathogens, thereby reducing vet bills. Green horsekeeping is excellent for our “stalled” economy!

Changes for The Green Horse

Here’s one way where I could use your help: Unlike other HCW work, which is funded primarily by grants, The Green Horse is run entirely out-of-pocket. In an effort to curtail expenses, we will be changing to quarterly issues. If you’d like to help support our free, informational service, you can do so in any of the following ways:

• Shop with HCW’s affiliate links via the links on the home page of the HCW web site. Our partners include Amazon.com, Cabela’s, REI and many more. These fine companies will donate a small portion of their sales back to HCW at no extra cost to you, and we will use it to support HCW programming.
• Buy HCW-branded products through the HCW CafePress store. We have new items to check out, like bumper stickers and clothing. Show your support for green horsekeeping and HCW!
• Purchase the beautiful new Demonstration Farms of Horses For Clean Water 2009 Calendar featuring recent farm tours and helpful tips.
• HCW gift certificates are available for any amount, and can be applied towards a site visit consultation, courses such as “Caring for Your Horse and His Home” or clinics like the one coming in April, featuring Barb Apple. E-mail Alayne for purchase details.
• HCW Tip Sheets are reasonably priced and make useful, information-packed gifts for the special horse person in your life. Topics include composting, building mud-free paddocks, pasture management, dust and mud controls and the new “Planning and Building an Outdoor Arena.” If you wish to purchase the print version of this Tip Sheet for $6.97, please visit this link to our CafePress store.
• Give an “experience” gift this year, one that creates lasting memories, fosters learning and helps prevent waste! Alayne now offers Annie’s Pony Rides, a fun hour of horsing around for your family. Alayne and her beautiful palomino mare, Annie, provide an introduction to horses and safety, a grooming and saddling demo, and safe, assisted pony rides, all on site at Alayne’s envirofriendly farm. If you live in Western Washington, take advantage of this wonderful opportunity! Call 425-432-6116 or e-mail Alayne.

Are you sticking closer to your home and horse community too? There probably are an endless number of ways horse people can hunker down and help each other learn to live differently and better, crafting new lives determined not by wealth or excess but by community, family, nature, and the simple yet profound joy our animals bring us. We just might find ourselves at the crossroad, ready to spend more time doing the things that really matter to us, like riding our horses. I’d love to hear from TGH readers about the crossroads you are facing and how you will handle them.

Alayne

Lessons Learned from Constructing a Winter Paddock

by Mary Perrone, HCW Demonstration Farm owner, Olympia, WA

Livestock grazing on green, lush pastures is real treat to the eye and for the animal. To get a great pasture for your horses or other livestock requires active pasture management. One of the basic keys to a productive pasture is getting your livestock off the pasture during the winter months.

Utilizing a winter paddock for your animals is a popular way to get livestock off of the pasture during the winter. Unfortunately there is no one design for all situations or a cookbook recipe for building a paddock. Each property has unique conditions and issues. Different resources and agencies assistance are available in some areas and not in others. A holistic approach is best for success. In this article I will share what worked for me in my winter paddock designs, as well as the mistakes I made and learned from. Hopefully this will help you avoid having similar drainage system problems should you build a winter paddock.

Three years ago I built a winter confinement area so I could take my beef cattle off of the pastures in the winter when the plants aren’t growing and the soil is saturated. Grazing animals on pastures in the winter almost always results in deteriorated conditions for pastures down the road. My Olympia, WA soil is clay: sticky, slippery stuff. It can be a real mess in the winter around the pasture shelter. In the pasture, cattle walking in the wet, soft ground tear it up as well as overgraze the grasses leaving bare, muddy spots which quickly become weedy in the summer.

After talking to various people and attending a number of HCW and conservation district farm tours I was ready to build. I choose a site to construct my winter confinement area that had a slight slope to it. I cleared the topsoil down to the clay earth. Then I laid geo-textile fabric on the cleared ground to stop the clay from consuming the layer of rocks I was going put in that would serve as a sort of drain field. The fabric keeps the rocks from disappearing into the clay and keeps the clay from seeping up and intermixing with the rocks. I put down 4 to 6 inches of 1 to 2 inch washed rock on this bottom layer of fabric with a second layer of fabric on top of these rocks. Then I laid down 4 to 5 inches of sand on the upper layer of fabric as a footing for my cattle.

I buried a perforated corrugated plastic pipe at the bottom of the slope along the edge of the paddock. This pipe picks up water that travels through the sand, the top fabric layer and down through into the rock layer. The pipe is tight lined out some 12 feet away to a forested area where it surfaces and flows into a flat, vegetative area. In the winter the animals are off pasture and able to be in a paddock with a dry, mud-free footing and a run-in shelter.

Well, that was the goal but after three winters water wasn’t draining very well in the paddocks and things just were not working as they should. As I examined the problems with a conservation district engineer I saw there were some initial design and construction flaws in the paddock and it became apparent why it was not draining well. Despite all my prior research efforts and talking to others before I built it, there was crucial information that I did not learn. These factors, in combination, diminished the function of my system. Here are some best practices that I learned.

Talk to an Engineer Before You Start

The Mason Conservation District (MCD) in Shelton, WA houses an engineer who will give free advice about designing a winter mud free paddock to livestock owners in selected counties. At a 2007 MCD/HCW presentation the engineer covered details that no one else had shared with me prior to building my winter paddock. He was a wealth of information and I realized some of the mistakes I made. A telephone call to review your plan and situation with this MCD engineer if you reside in Mason or Thurston counties or any engineer familiar with building livestock winter confinement areas prior to starting construction could help save you time and expense later on. Your local Conservation District may help you find such an engineer.

Laying Geotextile Fabric

At the previously mentioned program I learned the science of laying geo-textile fabric. When laying geo-textile fabric on a slope, it should look like the shingles on a roof. The edge of the upper piece should lie on top of (overlapping) the lower piece and the fabric should lay perpendicular to the slope. This will direct water across the layers of fabric.

The correct design includes a two-foot overlay of the fabric at the seams as well as fabric pins to hold it in place. This will help keep the top sand layer from working down between the seams of the two fabric pieces. Otherwise, the downward pressure from the animals walking on the footing will be enough to force sand to work its way between the fabric layers at the seams. When this happens it lifts the edge of top fabric piece up to the surface. If you currently have geo-textile fabric and the edges keep coming up to the surface at the junction of two pieces of fabric, this may be the cause of it.

I did not lay my fabric out correctly. My paddock is rectangular shaped and the fabric was laid in long pieces down slope. I should have laid it in shorter pieces across the rectangle, more like shingles on a roof as described above. So sand was able to work its way between the layers. As it did, it lifted the edge of the top fabric layer up to the surface. As a temporary fix, I tired scooping out the sand that has worked its way between the two layers so I could then lay the fabric back down flat on top of the adjacent fabric, pinning them back in place with landscape fabric pins. Unfortunately, I ended up fixing multiple places over the three winters.

This past summer I reconstructed the paddock and this time laid fabric across the slope, with about a two foot overlay on the edges. Fabric pins were placed about every two feet. I avoided pounding pins in so far that the fabric would dimple and lift up the nearby edge of the fabric, creating an easy entry point for sand to start working its way between the two layers of fabric. I put in twice as many landscape pins as I had previously, regretting not having done that before. (I purchased my pins at Lowes for about $10.00 for 75, in the garden department.) I used over 250 pins securing both fabric layers and look at it as cheap insurance.

I found it easiest to pound the pins in with a rubber mallet given its larger striking surface would pound both sides of the pin at once.

Migration

Given that my paddock is on a slight slope for better drainage, the sand on the surface tended to migrate down the slope facilitated by the cattle walking around in it. Consequently, at the top of the paddock the sand layer became thin and the geo-textile fabric no longer had four inches of sand on it. That amount of sand or footing is needed to distribute the animal’s weight across a broader area. Hence, the majority of their weight was concentrated and focused onto a smaller area. This pushed the geo-textile fabric into the rough-edged drainage rock below it. Soon, unbeknown to me, tears were developing in the geo-textile. When I scraped back the thin layer of sand footing that was left it was easy to see the rocks poking through the fabric rips. This is illustrated in figure X (fabric with holes)

When I reconstructed the paddock I put a 2 to 3 inch layer of 3/8 inch of washed, crushed, compacted rock over the bigger 1 to 2 inch rock. Now the top layer of Geo-textile fabric lies across this smooth, compacted layer of smaller rock that should minimize any possibility for rips or tears to develop.

The top layer of fabric was laid with a bit of slack in it. This functions as some “give” when the new top layer of washed sand is placed on it. After all the material was placed on the fabric, perimeter edges were secured. Your engineer can explain how to finish the edges of fabric around the perimeter of your paddock. If it comes up next to a building you can bring it up 4 to 6 inches above the top surface layer and staple it to your building if you wish. A hammer tacker does this job very easily.

I also used a thicker layer of sand at the top of the slope of the paddock in the reconstruction. I now monitor the thickness of my sand and have extra sand on hand to add in areas where it gets thin. Or, I move sand from the lower edge to the top of the paddock, keeping it all at the desired thickness. The engineer also recommended I use a different, felt-like non-woven geotextile fabric (I used woven geotextile the first time around which tends to unravel should it get a hole). Now if holes should start to develop perhaps they will stay small and the fabric will be less likely to “unravel.”

To learn more about geotextile fabric and the different types and characteristics available I found it helpful to read the Adobe Acrobat PDF about Mirafi® N-Series Nonwoven Polypropylene Geotextiles for Soil Separation, Filtration, and Protection.

Sand

It would be nice if there was one product that worked perfectly for all applications. Then we could all use it and there would be no trial and error with various materials. It would drain fast winter after winter, not stick to animals or manure, not be toxic if ingested, be easy on hooves and comfortable to lie on, not ever need to be removed or replenished and stay in place year after year. Unfortunately, there is no such product.

Animals like to lie in sand, however sand drains poorly. Gravel drains well but animals don’t like to lay down in it. Hog fuel decomposes and needs to be removed and replaced frequently. Given that I have cattle and they need to lie down to rest and ruminate, (unlike horses) I chose sand for my paddock.

One of the loads of sand that was put in the corral was not “washed” sand, and had clay in it. Clay is disc shaped and holds water among other things. This was a big part of why my drainage system was failing after only three winters. The clay was trapping water in the sand layer and preventing drainage under the fabric layer. As I dug out the sand layer I found the top 2 or so inches of sand was loose and easy to dig up. The bottom half of the sand was stuck together in a hard layer held together by all the clay that had travel down through the sand layer with the water. This created a nearly impervious water barrier above the top fabric layer, it was so hard I had to break it apart with a heavy 6 foot steel bar.

More importantly, clay in the sand migrated down through the tears in the fabric. When I pulled back the top layer of fabric the rocks underneath were coated with clay, in some places creating an impermeable layer across the drainage rocks. Water was not flowing through the fabric and into the rocks because layer of clay had formed over the drainage rocks. All of this greatly hindered drainage through the sand layer and during the winter of 2007-08 water would puddle in the sand, taking over a day to drain through.

There is a way to test how clean sand is before you buy it. Fill a glass jar about half way with the sand product you are contemplating purchasing. Fill it the rest of the way with water. Shake it up and let it sit for 15 minutes or so until it settles. The heavier sand should settle first. Then finer material like clay will settle on top of the sand. This top layer should be very minimal. Don’t take the word of the person selling the sand as they often don’t know how clean their sand is. Even if they say it is washed sand, I recommend testing it. Coarse sand has more air pockets, allowing for more drainage than fine sand. You can see the difference below in the jar test of washed and unwashed sand.

Clay or dirt will block the pores in the geo-textile fabric diminishing its drainage capabilities. I have learned the hard way that getting clean sand is very important to the longevity of the drainage layers.

In conclusion, my drainage problem was the result of errors that compounded resulting in a winter paddock I did not feel good about keeping the cattle in. Now, with the changes I have outlined above, I have a functioning, useful sacrifice area that is healthy and comfortable for my animals and chore-efficient for me.

WSU Flood Resources

Many folks have been personally impacted by the massive flooding in the Pacific Northwest. At HCW our thoughts are with everyone for a safe and speedy recovery, for both humans and animals. WSU Extension has a web site with flood recovery information and resources:

CAHNRS and WSU Extension Marketing and News Services Flood Recovery Information

Horses for Native Plants

by Debbie Meisinger, King Conservation District

More and more people are recognizing that people, wildlife and the environment all benefit from a landscape of native plants. To promote the use of native plants, Conservation Districts in Washington hold native plant sales every winter. This is a great opportunity to purchase native plants and the price can’t be beat—plants are sold at wholesale cost! Read on to learn more about native plants and how they can be used to enhance your farm.

Native plants, also called indigenous plants, are plants that have evolved over thousands of years in a particular region. They have adapted to the geography, hydrology, and climate and have co-evolved with animals, fungi and microbes. These plants are the foundation of our natural ecosystems. As a result, a community of native plants provides habitat for a variety of native wildlife species such as songbirds and butterflies.

Logging, farming and development have led to a tremendous loss of native vegetation and, as a result, critical wildlife habitat. However, farmers all over the country are making progress in becoming wildlife habitat managers. Enhancing the farm landscape with native plants not only promotes native wildlife, it also helps to control erosion, provide a visual buffer and filter pesticides, fertilizers, and nutrients.

Although Pacific Northwest native plants are extremely adaptable for use in this region, planting success still depends on choosing the right plants for the right place. Fortunately, in our region, there is a diverse palette of natives to choose from.

Here is a list of ways native plants can enhance your farm:

Plant hedgerows of native plants as an alternative to fencing. Hedgerows act as wind barriers and provide an attractive visual boundary.
(Species to consider for hedgerows: beaked hazelnut, nootka rose, red flowering currant as well as coniferous and deciduous trees such as Douglas fir, western red cedar, black hawthorn and pacific crabapple)

Plant native plants as mud managers alongside confinement areas to reduce flows, absorb water and filter sediments and pollutants.
(Species to consider for wet areas: red osier dogwood, pacific willow, black twinberry, salmonberry and pacific ninebark)

Plant native buffers along streams and wetlands to protect riparian habitat by improving water quality and reducing erosion.
(Species to consider for riparian areas: western red cedar, Oregon ash, black twinberry, pacific ninebark, salmonberry)

Plant native plants as decorative landscape features near your house and along the driveway.
Many native shrubs and groundcovers exhibit beautiful arrays of colors in flowers and leaves. Choose a variety of evergreen and deciduous plants for year round coverage. (Species to consider for ornamental value: red flowering currant, mock orange, salal, sword fern, kinnikinnick)

Plant native plants instead of lawns to save time and money by reducing or even eliminating the need for fertilizers, pesticides, water and lawn maintenance equipment.
(Species to consider for drier areas: Douglas fir, shore pine, nootka rose, big leaf maple, beaked hazelnut, thimbleberry, snowberry, Oregon grape)

Plant native plants for wildlife enhancement. The types of plants you choose for food and cover will help determine the wildlife species attracted to your backyard.
(Planting a variety of native species will ensure that plants will flower and fruit at different times throughout the year).

Please contact your local Conservation District for more details about plant sales.

For more information on enhancing your farm using native plants and to receive information on locations of native plant nurseries, contact your local Conservation District. See Washington State Conservation Districts.

Debbie Meisinger, Project Specialist at the King Conservation District (KCD), is in charge of the KCD’s Annual Plant Sale. For more information on native plants or to be on the KCD plant sale list contact Debbie by e-mail or by phone at 425-277-5581×119.

Ideas for this article were taken from:
US EPA fact sheet: Green Landscaping with Native Plants
NRCS, NACD and WHC booklet: Backyard Conservation; Bringing Conservation from the Countryside to Your Backyard

Tip of the Month: Boredom Busters

Winter is a time when many of us notice that our horses are bored, often resorting to destructive behaviors like chewing on barns. Let’s look at some ideas for dealing with horse boredom.

Horses are designed by nature to always be moving and foraging. Research shows that horses left to their own free will eat 18 to 22 hours per day. Twice a day feedings with little other stimulation can lead to a very bored horse. Luckily there are a few things we can do to help alleviate boredom in paddocks.

The first is feed more frequently; smaller, more frequent meals mimic a horse’s natural behavior. If this isn’t possible consider leaving additional, lower quality hay for your horse to browse during the day. On the advise of your vet, perhaps you can reduce the overall quality of hay and increase the amount.

Other boredom-busters include horse toys. A wide variety of toys are on the market these days including balls, licking toys with sugar or salt in them or ones other toys with a food treat inside that encourage the horse to pursue the toy.

You may be able to make your own toy, perhaps a ball or some other safe plastic object, or even a heavy branch from a non-toxic tree species. Check with your veterinarian for advice on local tree species which aren’t toxic.

Of course the very best advise for reducing boredom in your horse is more mental and physical stimulation: riding and exercising your horse! Perhaps now is the time to work out a riding and ground exercising schedule that will fit your schedule and will benefit your horse.

During this time of need many of us are looking at ways to reach out to help fellow horse and livestock owners. Here is what one Enumclaw horsewoman is doing, as well as how you can contact her if you have need of her help.

Spirit-Horse Food Network: A Food-Bank for Livestock in Need

Q: What is Spirit-Horse Food Network?
A: A livestock food bank for the Puget Sound area of Washington. Much like a human food bank for those who are in trouble and need. Spirit-Horse Food Network offers a helping hand to livestock owners to help them keep their livestock fed until better times come. This is for those livestock owners who wish to keep their horses and animals and need a little help to get through a rough period.

Q: Why did you start this program?
A: Because of what our economy has been doing to the horse community. Cost of hay, loss of jobs, hard weather, and the animals suffering.

Q: Who can apply to get feed for their horses?
A: Anyone really, if you are laid off work, or hit a rough spell but really love your animals.

Q: How do people apply and whom do they contact?
A: Contact Leslie Bingham via e-mail. E-mail works best. Please give supply some details of the situation, what is going on, how many horses, where you live, and what you need to get by.

Q: Where do they pick up feed?
A: Often we deliver feed. Or, if they are far away, I call in a donation to a local feed store.

Q: How can others help Spirit-Horse Food Network?
A: Donations. Del’s in Monroe, Auburn and Enumclaw will all hold for us. The goal is to have 10 ton of hay and 2 ton of pelleted feed on hand at all times.

Quote of the Month

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”
—Andy Warhol

Educational Events

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