These Posts Are Not As Popular As Posts About Cute Foals, But They Are More Important

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  Three or four years ago I placed an old hot tub into the ground so that the top was at ground level to give the area the benefit of the of the ground heat during winter. Initially I put around 1000 pounds of horse manure in the hot tub along with 3,000 red wigglers. We added a bit of coffee grounds and some manure from several other livestock species to increase microbial diversity. Then we left it alone--no other care or feeding considerations.
•  When the manure is completely transformed into soil we began top dressing areas of the pasture with it. We were adding perhaps another 1000 pounds of manure every eight to ten weeks to the old hot tub. Ninety nine percent of the manure is left alone in the pastures. Eventually the microbes in the soil, dung beetles and escaped, free ranging worms began to convert the manure to soil fast enough. 
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• The worm population has radiated outward from the old hot tub into adjacent paddocks and the soil in those areas is so filled with worms that on many mornings it is impossible to put your hand on the ground without covering several piles of castings. Our stallions stay in smaller pens and leave large stud piles. We have begun experimenting by simply concentrating the stud piles and putting 1000 red wigglers in them in hopes that they will colonize those paddocks. 
  

  
• Lastly, we have begun using old 35 gallon water tanks to grow wild night crawlers which we recover from areas around the chickens and rabbits to consume cow manure. We recently put a large batch of this mixture in a hugelkulture mound. We work to keep the nutrients in the pastures and paddocks instead of removing them or allowing them to be taken away by rainwater. The best side benefit that we get is a radical reduction in mud as the worms help the soil absorb rain water.

We have recently began to use some heavy equipment for the first time in our soil and water conservation projects and have constructed berms and small retention ponds to radically reduce runoff from the new land. Over the weekend we had two very heavy rains. We kept many thousands of gallons of water on the land instead of allowing it to become run off.

If we had a third of the horses that we have our pastures would be optimal. But a breed conservation program that seeks to preserve nearly extinct strains of Corollas, Choctaws, Marsh Tackys along with other breeds of heritage livestock must maintain a sufficiently large breeding herd to make a meaningful impact on that purpose.

So we work with what we have--and we work very hard at it. Conserving soil and water is tremendously rewarding.  I do not think of our livestock as pets, but the soil has become my "pet."