Sustainable horsekeeping/management systems with a view to ... · A report by Jane Myers 2011...

THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA

Report by – JANE MYERS – 2011 Churchill Fellow

Sustainable horsekeeping/management systems with a view tominimising the environmental impact of horse properties in

Australia.

I understand that the Churchill Trust may publish this Report, either in hard copy oron the internet or both, and consent to such publication.

I indemnify the Churchill Trust against any loss, costs or damages it may sufferarising out of any claim or proceedings made against the Trust in respect of or

arising out of the publication of any report submitted to the Trust and which the Trustplaces on a website for access over the internet.

I also warrant that my Final Report is original and does not infringe the copyright ofany person, or contain anything which is, or incorporation of which into the Final

Report is, actionable for defamation, a breach of any privacy law or obligation,

breach of confidence, contempt of court, passing-off or contravention of any otherprivate right or of any law.

Signed Jane Myers Dated17/07/2012

A report by Jane Myers 2011 Churchill Fellow Page 2

Index

Introduction 3

Executive summary 5

Programme 6

My Fellowship 7

Conclusions and recommendations 17


IntroductionSustainable horsekeeping/management systems with a view to minimising theenvironmental impact of horse properties in Australia.

Traditional horse management methods based on outdated European models areoften not sustainable for Australian conditions and can have a major environmentalimpact for Australia. Overgrazing, often on very poor soils, combined with prolongedperiods of drought followed by heavy rains/floodcause massive problems includingsoil loss, water pollution and weed infestation.

The exact number of horses (and horse owners) within Australia is unknown but isthought to be in the hundreds of thousands, with a particular population densityaround the peri-urban fringe of the major population centres. Soil run off and manurefrom poorly managed horse properties enters the waterways creating environmentalconcerns. Information is vital to minimise the impact of horses on the Australianenvironment. By improving property management and grazing management systemsthe impact can be significantly reduced. By adopting best practice procedures it ispossible to achieve a win-win situation benefiting horses and their owners, theenvironment and native flora and fauna all at the same time.

There are a number of projects relating to sustainable horse management aroundthe USA. These include private initiatives and research or welfare organisations topartnerships with various government departments. This Winston ChurchillFellowship project proposed to visit a number of these sustainability projects to seewhich practices can be implemented within the Australian equine community.

I would like to acknowledge and thank the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust andstaff for making this trip possible. I would also like to acknowledge and thank all theindividuals and organisations in both the USA and Canada for their time, support andadvice and for making me feel very welcome. There were many people who helpedmake this trip memorable and it would be difficult to list everyone here but theyinclude:-

The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCD), its staff and thepeople of the Bay area, especially Angie Gruys.

William Woods University, Claudia Starr.

National Churchill Museum, Fulton, Missouri.

Equine Land Resource Council, national office based in Kentucky.

Clay and Lynnette from Sustainable Stables, Holly Matt from Pegasus Design Groupand Barb Olsen from North Carolina Horse Council.

Nicole Ethier from Prince William Soil & Water Conservation District.


The University of Maryland Equine Rotational Farm - Dr Amy Burke, JenniferReynolds and many RCD officers and extension officers in that region.

Rutgers University - Dr Karyn Malinowski.

King County Conservation District and staff and Snohmish County ConservationDistrict and staff.

Stephanie Captein, Langley Environmental Partners Society andGreensceneAgritek, Canada.

Tara Martinak, Bureau of Land Management, Burns District.

With special thanks to Alayne Blickle of Horses for Clean Water for her advice,support, organisation and contacts.


Executive SummaryJane Myers440 Long Rd, North Tamborine, QLD, 4272Equiculture - www.equiculture.com.auSustainable horsekeeping/management systems with a view to minimising theenvironmental impact of horse properties in Australia.

The highlights of this trip were: Meeting people from the various RCDs and extension officers who were so enthusiastic

about their work despite the tough times due to the current economic climate in the USA. Meeting with university staff such as Dr Amy Burke, Jennifer Reynolds (the University of

Maryland Equine Rotational Farm) - and Dr Karyn Malinowski (Rutgers University). Visiting various project properties in various states that were able to demonstrate BMPs. Meeting Alayne Blickle of Horses for Clean Water in particular because Alayne has

produced a huge amount of work in this field. Spending time with other professionals such as Holly Matt (Pegasus Design) and Lynnette

and Clay (Sustainable Stables) andBarb Olsen (North Carolina Horse Council) who haveawareness of the issues in the equine community and of land/property management.

Driving (in a carriage) around a planned equine community and seeing what is possiblewhen people cooperate.

Visiting the Winston Churchill Museum at Fulton, Missouri. Learning about what is achievable in reducing the environmental impact of horse manure. Learning more about what the USA is doing about its wild/feral horse population.

Some of the key things I learnt on the trip were: Developing awareness of sound environmental practices within the equine community takes

time. Education, understanding and acceptance of new practices will not happen overnight. If manure management and soil loss is a driver for change then cost effective strategies

have to be developed. The marketing and implementation of these strategies has to beengaging and affordable for the equine community.

If model horse farms are going to be used as demonstrations, careful consideration has tobe given to where these are to be situated and the financial implications of such projects.

Some form of accreditation scheme can be developed for horse properties which are seen tobe taking positive, proactive steps in environmental management.

Developing community networks amongst the equine community appears to be the mosteffective way to move forward (i.e. Equine Landcare groups).

Natural Resource Management (NRM) officers who deliver training to horse owners shouldthemselves have an understanding of equines and their owners. However this understandingneeds to be at a level to be able to challenge certain traditional horse keeping practices.

The equine community needs to acknowledge its own responsibility in these issues andshould be seen to be a proactive participant.

I have already stated to disseminate the lessons learned on this Fellowship trip. Immediatelyupon returning to Australia I had a meeting with a group of natural resource managers anddecision makers from Melbourne Water (one of the funding bodies for our usual workshops).Other people from other organisations were invited to participate as well. I presented myfindings and we had a round table discussion. I then provided six workshops for horseowners about sustainable horse keeping (which is what our usual business entails) invarious states including Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and Queensland. The findings from thetrip were integrated into our workshops. I also spoke at a Horses and Climate changeworkshop in South Australia during this time. I will continue to disseminate this informationthrough the various and many workshops that I give as part of my business Equiculture.


Programme

I wanted to make my trip as diverse as possible, reflecting the diversity of the

Australian environment. I also wanted to look at the issues in question from severalperspectives. The first being the actual management systems employed in different

climatic conditions. Secondly, what partnerships between public and private

initiatives were successful and what were some of the limiting factors. And finally,what were the drivers for addressing some of the resulting issues both for public

funding and for individual property owners.

I began in California, looking at what issues were faced in a highly populated,agricultural coastal area. I then went to Fulton Missouri, for two reasons. I wanted to

look at what was being taught to equine students at a highly respected equineuniversity, William Wood University but also because the same town as the

University, Fulton was also famous for the National Churchill Museum, an

opportunity not to be missed.

From Missouri I travelled through Kentucky visiting the world famous Kentucky Horse

Park and the Equine Land Resource Council. After Missouri I met spent the next fewdays in North Carolina with Clay and Lynette from Sustainable Stables and Holly

Matt from Pegasus Design group. From North Carolina I had an intensive few days

travelling north and visiting the model horse farm of the Prince William Soil & WaterConservation District in Virginia. Then onto visit the University of Maryland Equine

Rotational Grazing Farm and Rutgers University best practice horse farm.

I then flew back to the west coast, this time to the North West. Alayne Blickle fromHorses for Clean Water has been working in this area for many years and was able

to organise a very useful itinerary for me around the Seattle area. From there it wasinto southern British Colombia to look at an innovative project that recycles soiled

horse bedding. From Canada I drove south to Idaho where Alayne is now based and

spent a few days there. From Idaho I drove back to Seattle for the flight home via theMustang Adoption Corral in Burns, Idaho to see what the US is doing to address the

issue of feral horse populations.


My Fellowship

I began my journey in California, mainly in the Bay Area just south of San Francisco.

I was welcomed by Angie Gruys of the Resource Conservation District (RCD) of

Santa Cruz County. Angie and her colleagues from nearby conservation districts

spoke to me about their organisation and took us to look at a number of project

horse properties.RCDs are government organizations that work to set individual and

community goals and outcomes for the natural resources in their community through

voluntary approaches. They have no regulatory powers but rely on education and

voluntary community support to achieve their outcomes.

In the mid 1940’s Federal legislation was introduced in an attempt to avoid a repeat

of the Dust Bowl scenario that happened in the USA in the 1930’s. This legislation

required all states to employ specialists to work with the agricultural community to

develop initiatives to prevent soil loss and nutrient run off. As a result of this

Resource Conservation Districts were formed out of the Soil Conservation Districts.

Over time in many areas horse properties have been included (even though they are

not generally regarded as agricultural properties) due to the increase of land coming

under the ownership of horse owners.

I first visited a private property which bred Sport Horses. It had been a relatively wet

spring and immediately apparent was that most of the horses were housed in what

are termed ‘dry lots’, and kept off the pasture due to the wet conditions. In Australia

we would term these dry lots as a sacrifice area or yard but they are not commonly

used unless people have had exposure to information such as that given out at our

workshops or similar. Dry lots of various descriptions were used extensively in

almost all areas that we visited in the USA and Canada and horse owners seemed to

accept this facility as an essential. For example a comment from an RCD worker was

that people no longer ask ‘should I have a dry lot’ but rather ‘what surface should I

use in my dry lot’.

We then visited a planned equine community where an affluent housing

development shared equine facilities such as yards, stables and arenas in a central

area. There are over 100 of these types of communities in the USA. They are a

similar idea to planned golf communities seen more commonly in Australia, the idea


being that people have their own space but share certain facilities (see

www.myequestriancommunity.com for examples). These planned equine

communities are beginning to be investigated in Australia, however ourvisit

highlighted some of their potential limitations and many of these developments have

not worked in the long term. People employed to manage these facilities need to be

highly experienced horse property managersandhave a high level of people

management skills because they are usually under pressure from the

committee/management board of the whole estate andmust meet the needs of

individual property/horse owners. These two distinct groups do not necessarily have

a good understanding of the needs of horses so the horse property manager is

crucial in the success of the project.

Our final visit in the California area was to a property that had been given a grant to

install a manure composting system. The RCD had funded 50% of this system,

which was developed by a company called O2 composting systems (see

www.o2compost.com). This was a large scale unit costing in excess of $60,000. The

property owner was selling her composted manure to neighbours to recover some of

the costs. She was successfully selling the manure and expected to recoup her costs

within 3-4 years. We came across other examples of 02 composting systems in other

states. Some were not as successful at selling their manure; others used the manure

on their own land.

A three bay blown air composting system on a horse property in California. Air

is blown through the slats in the base of the bay.

My visit to Fulton, Missouri was brought about for two reasons; the first being to visit

the excellent National Winston Churchill Museum and that led me to also visit the


equine department at William Woods University. It was also on my route from

California to the famous equine State of Kentucky.

The National Churchill Museum is a fantastic resource and one that I would

recommend to any Fellows in the area, I learnt so much during my visit. Why is such

a facility in a small town in Missouri you may ask? It is where Sir Winston Churchill

delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech. As I was in Fulton I decided it would be of

benefit to visit a highly respected private University, William Woods University. This

university has a large number of students and horses. Many of these students go on

to work professionally in the equine industry.

After Missouri I travelled to the Kentucky Horse Park, a must visit facility for many

horse owners. Kentucky is also famous for the fabled horse grass ‘Kentucky Blue

Grass’. However it turns out that climatic conditions make it very difficult to grow this

grass in the area! After visiting Kentucky Hose Park I had a meeting at the Equine

Land Resource Council, national office, based in Kentucky. This body is a not for

profit organisation which works to secure and maintain land and equine facilities,

now and in the future because so much land that was previously available for horse

keeping and horse pursuits is disappearing to development. See

www.elcr.org/index.php.

From Kentucky I travelled to North Carolina where I spent a couple of days at the

Fork Farm Stables, an environmentally sensitive equine resort with Clay and Lynette

from Sustainable Stables, Barb Olsen of the North Carolina Horse Council and Holly

Matt from Pegasus Design Studio. Clay, Lynette and Barb also work with the

environment in their full time positions, mainly concerned with river and water quality.

They run programs for horse farm owners in North Carolina on ‘Best Management

Practices’ (BMPs) such as composting manure, fencing horses out of streams and

restoring eroded pastures. Financial assistance comes from a federal (EPA 319)

grant. They partner with the NC Horse Council, NC Division of Soil and Water

Conservation and several county conservation districts on the project. The goal is to

help improve water quality in Falls Lake, the drinking water source for the City of

Raleigh. When discussing comparisons between our approaches it became apparent

that they were very interested in the equine behavioural approach to land

management that I use in Australia.


I discussed many things with them over the few days and it became apparent that

they were also developing facilities such as stables and barns that were

environmentally friendly. Use of solar power, recycled material and designing

structures that were positioned to make use of climatic conditions seemed to be the

focus.

I then stayed for a few days in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Another planned

equine community but quite different to the one in California. This was a very large

scale project and had been in existence for many years. In this example people kept

their horses on their own block of land (usually around five to ten acres) but there

were numerous riding/driving trails that everyone in the area (including outsiders)

could use. The variety of horse owners meant that there was an eclectic mix of

people living in the area. See www.sandhillsnc.com/horse-country.html

andwww.sandhillsnc.com/walthour-moss-foundation.html.

Driving in a carriage around the Southern Pines Horse Community, a unique‘horse town’ in North Carolina.

My next visit was to the Chesapeake Bay-friendly horse farm project developed by

the Prince William Soil & Water Conservation District (PWSCD) in conjunction with a


private land holder. This was a project that began in 2009 with funding from the

Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund provided by the Virginia Department of

Conservation and Recreation (DCR). The farm owner, chosen after an extensive

tendering process has committed to a 10 year legal agreement to maintain the

established practices at her expense and to support outreach goals of community

education and motivation. Approximately 35 community partners, such as fencing

suppliers etc. were also engaged in the project with the total combined products,

services, expertise, and direct funding valued at more than $140,000.00. Data

collection on such things as water quality and run off were carried out before and

after the extensive property ‘makeover’. The makeover featured to introduce best

practices such as surfaced dry lot areas, composting systems, pasture improvement

and fencing for pasture rotation.

This project was working very well and after an initial large investment in time and

resources, seems to be paying dividends. Selection of the property and the owners

seemed to be the key component of this project. The property owners have given a

long term commitment to the project with resulting benefits to both.

The Chesapeake Bay-friendly horse farm project property showing the

surfaced ‘dry lot’.


From there I drove north to another model property this time located at the University

of Maryland. The University of Maryland’s Equine Rotational Grazing Demonstration

Farm(www.ansc.umd.edu/ERG/)which established the pasture in 2007 and began

grazing horses on it in 2009. The property covers 5.5 acres designed to be the size

of an average horse property. This area includes a sacrifice lot and laneway, two

vegetative heavy use areas, and four rotational grazing pastures. The sacrifice area

is surfaced and is used when pasture is in need of rest and regrowth or when there

is a drought or heavy rain. Two paddocks were sown with grasses which are hard

wearing and are grazed when the other paddocks are resting and re-growing or at

times when conditions may not be suitable for grazing of the other paddocks i.e.

when it is too dry or the wrong season for the other grasses to grow. A variety of

fencing and gate types are installed at the farm so that visitors may see how different

materials can be used in a real-life setting.

The rotational grazing farm was a big project involving cooperation between many

different organizations including University of Maryland Extension, Maryland

Agricultural Experiment Station, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Soil

Conservation Districts, Maryland Department of Agriculture, and Maryland

Department of the Environment to name just a few. More than $92,000 in funding

was contributed by Natural Resource Conservation Service, Thoroughbred Charities

of America, and the United States Department of Agriculture. The cost of the project

excluding labour and land costs was $58,000.00.

Horses utilising the ‘dry lot’ at The University of Maryland’s Equine Rotational

Grazing Demonstration Farm.


The farm is used for a number of research projects, however the farm is not part of

the main university campus and it is not an integral part of the equine courses run by

the university however some students do the day to day chores at the farm. A large

team of extension officers, who work with community members, do have good links

with the project and the staff at the university which enables good dissemination of

information from ‘academia’ into the wider community.

Next it was to another University, Rutgers and a visit to the Ryder’s Lane

Environmental Best Management Practices Demonstration Horse Farm

(www.esc.rutgers.edu/rlp/rlpmain.htm). This project though similar to the one at the

University of Maryland has a slightly different focus, water and mud management

rather than pasture management. The project started in 2005 and is partnered by

many state, federal and community agencies and organisations. One of the

challenges of many US horse properties is what to do with rain runoff from buildings

etc. Unlike Australia rainwater is not typically collected for later use in tanks. Instead

it is channelled away from the property through filtration channels or through ‘rain

gardens’. Rain gardens are filtration areas where dense vegetation is encouraged to

grow on a porous foundation. Rainwater is channelled through this dense vegetation

and is filtered before being directed towards the storm drains. We spoke to several

people about ‘harvesting’ this water, but it appears to be a new concept, with very

few water collection tanks in use. It would have been interesting to look at this issue

in a more arid region of the US. Just like at Maryland, the farm was not part of the

main campus, and once again it was not necessarily an integral part of the

universities education system. But the farm was open to the public and used by

extension officers as a demonstration farm.

The Northwest States was my next destination, an area where Alayne Blickle, of

Horses for Clean Water (www.horsesforcleanwater.com), had been working in since

the mid-nineties. Alayne has since moved from Washington to Idaho, but more of

that later.

I focused on two regions, north and south of Seattle, King County and Snohmish

County. Alayne had kindly organised several farm visits for me and so I spent a

number of days visiting these, either with officers from the local RCD’s or alone. One

thing that was quickly apparent was that again horse property owners accepted the


need for a surfaced dry lot (or sacrifice area) and were usually happy to invest in this

facility. Manure management was also a priority as Washington has quite strict

manure management legislation.

In the mid 90’s changes in Washington State legislation required property owners to

manage their manure and soil more effectively. Community members naturally

required support and training to meet these new requirements and as a result

several specialists were employed to deliver this support and training. Alayne Blickle

was one of those employed by King County initially, but she then formed her own

company to enable her to provide support for other counties.

Over time the equine communities around Seattle have had their level of awareness

raised on the environmental management of horses, but this has not been a rapid

process. Now throughout the area there are many private properties that are

demonstrating best management practices. Another simple thing that has been

implemented with great success is the awarding of some properties a merit status,

acknowledging their efforts and displaying a small sign at the entrance to their

property.

A merit sign awarded to certain properties in Snohmish County.

What became apparent through talking to RCD officers and property owners was

that it takes time to build up this level of community awareness about these

practices, and even though many people are doing the ‘right thing’ there are still


plenty out there who are not. Additionally, just the same as in Australia, new people

are buying horse properties all the time so these new people (who usually have no

previous experience of land management) need to be ‘captured’ and integrated into

available training.

After Washington I then travelled over the border into Canada to look at an

innovative company which had just been formed which is tackling the issue of what

to do with soiled horse bedding. Greenscene Agritek

(www.greensceneagritek.com)recycle used horse bedding into a pelletised fertiliser

and sterile bedding that can be reused, the process even generates some of its own

power! The plant is able to process 10 tons of manure a day.

This was a really exciting initiative, one that could be used very successful on large

scale stables etc. such as within the racing industry, or perhaps as a community

recycling plant. The initiative was so new it had only begun full scale operation the

week before I arrived.

After Canada I drove down to Idaho to spend some time with Alayne Blickle on her

new ranch. We had plenty of time to discuss the various similarities and differences

between Australia and the USA.In turn Alayne is visiting Australia in November 2012

to speak at the national Horse keeping conference that will be held in Melbourne.

Horses in their ‘paddocks’ at Alayne Blickle’sSweet Pepper ranch in Idaho.


I visited the Bureau of Land Management, Burns District on the way back to Seattle

airport. Like Australia the USA has a wild/feral horse population although it is not as

large as Australia’s. It was interesting to see the initiatives that this government

organisation is taking. I got chance to ask many questions and view the facilities

(one of many in the USA). The Bureau of Lamd Management (BLM) has to work very

hard to maintain a positive public persona. Many ill-informed horse advocates

accuse the BLM of many negative practices. However after my visit to their facility, I

think they are doing a very good job under the circumstances. The horses are well

fed and cared for and the BLM is very proactive in its adoption program.

A group of young mustangs at the Burn’s Bureau of Land Management.


Conclusions

To conclude, what was surprisingly refreshing was that although the USA has been

addressing the issue of the environmental impact of horses for many years now,

Australia has quickly come up to speed with most of the basic principles and

practices.In Australia, whilst the basic practices and theories are very similar,

theirimplementation and acceptance into the equine community is still very much in

its infancy. The key lesson I have learnt from this trip is that the whole process takes

time. RDC officers from King County and Snohmish County commented that

although they had taken fifteen years of hard work to get to a level of acceptance of

certain practices, they still felt that they had only just begun to make any significant

impact within the equine community.

Developing awareness of sound environmental practices within the equine

community takes time. Education, understanding and acceptance of new practices

will not happen overnight. The equine community within Australia is relatively large in

relation to the general population, it is diverse, with many disciplines and uses for

horses within it, however in real terms the population is small and has good networks

within it, which provides a good opportunity for long term change.

One thing that became clear on the trip was that in areas where manure, soil loss or

mud management was a driver for change then it was easier to implement programs

to address some of these issues. However this resulted in horse owners participating

in these programs because they HAD to, not because they necessarily wanted to. In

areas where these issues were not as significant then it was harder to develop

programs. Therefore programs have to be developed that engage the equine

community on several levels (i.e. they need to include horse health and welfare).

Initiatives must be seen as a positive program that all horse owners want to be a part

of.

Many of the initiatives, particularly those around manure management have to be

cost effective in order promote good participation levels. Some of the projects we

looked at were fantastic in what they could achieve, but were often outside of the

resources of the average horse owner. Perhaps some of these initiatives could be

investigated for implementation at a community level. For example the manure


recycling plant developed by GreenSceneAgritek could be a community facility

based at a regional recycling depot, be implemented within the racing industry or

large studs.

Having model ‘best practice’ horse farms has been discussed on many occasions in

Australia, so I was excited to be able to visit such initiatives in the US. One of the

issues has always been, should the property be private or publically owned? I was

able to visit both private and public model horse farms and compare and contrast

both. All were fantastic facilities with much to offer the community. The public ones,

based at the universities at Maryland and Rutgers were excellent community

facilities.

The privately owned Chesapeake Bay Horse Farm Project was another excellent

example of a community facility. My concern for this was the amount of money and

resources put into a private property whereby the long term success of the project

relies on the property owner to continue to manage the property and does not allow

for a change in the owner’s circumstances if they need to sell the property, thus

ending the project. Perhaps a good compromise would be to provide incentives for

several small projects in a region each showing a different example of good practice.

By spreading the resources over several properties, it encourages those landowners

to continue to develop best practices and it protects against future ownership

changes.

Another simple initiative would be to develop some form of accreditation scheme for

owners who have implemented good practices. A certificate or plaque that could be

put on the gateway of a property would at the same time acknowledge the work of

the property owner and raise awareness of the local community of best practices.

Around the Seattle area where there have been several years of positive initiatives

there has begun to develop a strong ‘environmentally aware’ equine community. This

community contains many positive example, mentors and support networks. This is

one area that I believe Australia has a good advantage. Australia already has a

strong developed environmentally aware community group, Landcare. Whilst

Landcare has been traditionally targeting farmers, there is a strong case for

developing equine specific Landcare groups. This can then provide the framework


through which funding, education, mentoring and support can flow. America does not

have these established groups so this is one area where Australia is at an

advantage. Three Equine Landcare groups have already been developed in

Australia and more are in the pipeline.

On reflection I feel it is important that any Natural Resource Managers or other

trainers who deliver programs to horse owners should have a thorough

understanding of current equine management practices. This knowledge is important

for them to be able to develop engaging programs that horse owners want to attend.

However this knowledge needs to be at a level that allows the trainer to also

challenge certain traditional equine management practices. Any training package

should educate horse owners across a broad range of subjects. Train the trainer

packages could be developed in order to increase the knowledge base of officers

who work directly with horse owners.

Awareness raising amongst the equine community of their own environmental

responsibilities is also important. Horse owners need to understand that they need to

be proactive in their practices to avoid escalating any current issue. The horse

owners around the Washington/Seattle area demonstrated to me that over time their

consciousness of their responsibilities can be raised.

I have already stated to disseminate the lessons learned on this Fellowship trip.

Immediately upon returning to Australia I had a meeting with a group of natural

resource managers and decision makers from Melbourne Water (one of the funding

bodies for our usual workshops). Other people from other organisations were invited

to participate as well. I presented my findings and we had a round table discussion. I

then provided six workshops for horse owners about sustainable horse keeping

(which is what our usual business entails) in various states including Tasmania,

Victoria, NSW and Queensland. The findings from the trip were integrated into our

workshops. I also spoke at a Horses and Climate change workshop in South

Australia during this time. I will continue to disseminate this information through the

various and many workshops that I give as part of my business Equiculture.

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