All you need to know about eco-friendly stables

Taking up an eco-friendly mindset concerning your lifestyle choices, or your daily consumption of food and other goods has become more relevant in the last few decades. Many industries have, as a result, recognized and reacted to the increasingly vital need to live as sustainably as possible. If you are among the people who understand the importance of this cause, you might be wondering what you might need to change or pay attention to when it comes to your equestrian estate and, more specifically, your stables. For this reason, we have written this short article that will dissect and discuss all you need to know about eco-friendly stables.

Whether you are restoring an old house barn or building entirely new stables, there are certain ways to make sure that your stables are built to be sustainable. There are several reasons people prefer to ‘go green’ when they consider stable construction or renovation. Keeping your horses healthy, fit, and happy is a lot easier when your stables are structured and maintained to keep pollution at a minimum.

Furthermore, some self-sustainable, eco-friendly upgrades that you should make to your house farm can also help you save a lot of money that would otherwise go towards paying your property’s utility bills. Consequently, many equestrian property owners are introducing solar panels and wind turbines to generate energy for their own purposes.

Let’s see what else you should do to make your equestrian property a truly eco-friendly property.

Your stables should have a sustainable structure

If you are building your horse stables from scratch, you might want to consider using bamboo as the primary building material. This material is well-known in the eco-friendly world because it grows quickly and does not need any fertilizers or pesticides to grow. Also, some bamboo species are as much as three times harder than most kinds of wood regularly used for construction.

Another thing that distinguishes bamboo from other kinds of trees is the fact that it uses up 35% more carbon dioxide from the air. In sum, these are some of the reasons why many people opt for bamboo to build their horse stables. Since its mass production does not harm the environment to the extent cutting down other kinds of trees does, it makes sense to use bamboo to construct your horse stables.

Your eco-friendly stables should be built from eco-friendly materials

However, if you cannot afford to construct the stables from bamboo, this does not mean you cannot make your stables eco-friendly. Other wood materials are also considered ‘green’ products. The ‘green’ label will refer to materials that are natural or made of recycled wood, renewable, non-toxic, and/or locally produced.

Be on the lookout for ‘green-washed’ materials and products. So, some manufacturers or distributors will falsely present their product as a ‘green’, environmentally friendly product to attract well-intentioned customers.

One way to make sure you are not being tricked into buying something for your horse farm under the pretence of eco-friendliness is to check for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label. If you see wood that has this label, you can rest assured that the wood was sourced and transported according to local and international laws that protect the environment as well as worker rights.

Eco-friendly interior elements

If you already have a constructed barn you want to turn into an eco-friendly horse stable, you also have a few options. For instance, you could put recycled rubber flooring in the aisles. If you are worried about rubber messing with your homely ranch-styled stables, you can choose the flooring that resembles brick to keep that organic, rustic vibe going on.

Otherwise, you can paint the stables with the so-called milk paint. This type of paint is made from a mixture of several different organic substances. So, milk protein, clay, and earth pigments are mixed to produce an entirely eco-friendly paint. This means that this paint does not contain harmful substances such as lead, preservatives, petroleum derivatives, or fungicides.

If you are moving your horses to new stables, there is no reason not to bring your old tools and equipment to your new equestrian property. Sure, the logistics of transporting everything rather than buying new tools can seem like an unnecessarily overwhelming task at this point.

However, one of the ways to make your stables as eco-friendly as possible is to reuse what you already have rather than buy new tools. In light of this, be sure to prepare the mower and other tools for transportation so that they do not get damaged during relocation.

Clean up your stables regularly and properly

Horse facilities can generate a lot of waste and manure, which can, in turn, harm the local ecosystem. Manure can wreak havoc on water sources if not disposed of properly. The same goes for pesticides and grooming products – they can also end up in streams or soil.

It helps when you have an isolated structure for storing and disposing of manure close to your stables but away from water sources. The manure storage structure should have watertight flooring where you can collect manure that you can later use to fertilize your paddocks.

Hence, if you are looking to buy an equestrian property, be sure to look for one where you can ‘manage’ the manure and other substances. In fact, it is best if you purchase a horse property where the stables are as far removed from water sources and fertile soil as possible.

Admittedly, moving your horses to a property that is specifically designed to suit their needs in the most eco-friendly way possible can be costly. However, there are different ways to estimate your upcoming move and, in turn, save money on transportation costs from your current stables to your new ones.

All in all, we hope this short guide on what you need to know about eco-friendly stables has helped you get a clearer picture of what makes up an environmentally friendly stable.