Point of View
Filitosa Farm
Filitosa Farm
Stevens Point, Wisconsin

Two yearlings enjoying the first
days out on pasture in the spring. 
Compost has been spread on this
 field a week or so prior to this picture.
Compost Pile 1
Current dumping manure pile
 that is just starting to compost.
Compost Pile 2
Almost completely composted bedding
and manure that is ready to
be spread on the pastures.
Hemp Bedding
Hemp bedding provides a soft surface, is absorbent, and composts very well.
Pasutre in Early Spring
Pasture in late April, having been
 spread with compost and starting
 to grow and fill in.
Rolling
A yearling enjoys a good role in the pasture. 
But, you can see the fragility of the
 grass as the horses role in the same
 place and create a
sandy spot where nothing will grow.
Round Pen
The grass in a little better shape because the
horses do not graze this section.  Here we
worry about erosion, and thus we put
 rocks around the edge of the round pen
 to keep the sand from washing down
 the slope.




My point of view comes from the way my family has dealt with the challenges of keeping a horse farm in Central Wisconsin.  I started the horse craze in my family at the age of nine.  By the time I turned 15, my entire family had caught the horse bug and we moved into our own farm after three years of boarding our horses.  My mother decided to make a full time job out of the farm and now it is a business as well as a great pleasure for all of us.  During the first few years of owning  and running our own farm, our learning curve was pretty steep.  There were factors and problems that we knew nothing about and had never anticipated.  We quickly realized that what we did with all of the manure that the horses produced was becoming increasingly important as it seemed to accumulate as fast as we could pick it up.  The soil on the farm was very sandy and our pastures were turning into weed filled sand lots.  Erosion, flies, parasites and many other issues arose that needed to be dealt with. 

Creating a happy and healthy environment for our horses was of utmost importance to us.  We realized that in order to do this we would have to consider the environmental impacts of what horses do to the land and how the ecosystem could best support our herd.  As we didn't have much experience or knowledge in this area, we set about researching what the best management practices would be for our particular farm.  We are still learning and reaching for the best ways, but we have learned a lot already and have put much of our new found knowledge to work.  And because of these management practices we have a healthy environment and happy, healthy horses.

Manure Management:

After looking at the many options for manure disposal, we decided that composting and spreading our manure would best suit our farm's environmental needs.  Because we have very sandy soil which doesn't hold water and isn't very productive, putting the manure back into the soil helps to fertilize and rejuvenate the pastures. 

Parasite Control:

With the newer worries about parasites becoming immune to the some of the brands of worming paste out on the market, we decided that we would control parasites by picking our pastures and paddocks daily and doing fecal samples on a regular basis.  We compost our manure and bedding, letting it get to a high temperature to make sure that parasite eggs are killed, before spreading it back on the pasture to try and stop the life cycle of the parasites.  If a fecal sample comes back positive then we worm all of our horses, making sure to use the appropriate wormer for the results of the sample.  After almost three years of this type of parasite control we have only had one fecal sample for one horse come pack positive.
Bedding:

We have moved to a hemp bedding because of the many positive characteristics of this bedding.  Hemp bedding does not add acidity to the soil when it is spread back on the pasture, and because of our soil type this is an important consideration.  Hemp also composts much faster then pine shavings, is very absorbent, and makes a nice surface for the horses to lay down on.  The problem with hemp is that it has to be shipped from Canada because it is cannot be grown legally in the United States, and this makes it affordable only if you can buy it in bulk. 

Pastures:

We have plenty of acreage for the amount of horses we have on the farm, but our pastures are pretty fragile, again, because of the soil type we are dealing with.  We mow our pastures regularly to keep the weeds under control.  The manure is spread back on the pasture for fertilization.  The horses are rotated from pasture to pasture if possible to allow the pastures to rest.  And we have designated three smaller paddocks to be "sacrifice" areas, where the horses stay when they are not on pasture, so that the pastures can rest when needed and horses do not over graze the pastures.   We also try to re seed the pastures every year to try and rejuvenate them.

With all of these management practices combined we have kept our pastures in mostly working order, our horses free of parasites, the flies somewhat under control, and our horses comfortable.  It took some time to figure out what practices would be best for our farm and then find a combination that was doable for us, consistent and improved the environment.   But, it was worth the time and effort, because now  we can be pretty confident that we will have healthy land that will be able to support our horses for an indefinite number of years into the future.

Sacrifice Paddock
One of our sacrifice areas.  The horses spend the time when they are not on pasture in one of these paddocks so that the pastures can be kept healthy, viable, and not over grazed.
 Horses going out to Paddock
The lanes going out to the pasture and paddock get turned to sand with horse traffic twice a day.  We adopted our management practices to prevent this from happening to the pastures.


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