Looking Back in Order to Appreciate How Far We Have Come in Horse Pasture & Paddock Cleaning, Manure Management & Maintenance
Today’s blog post is going to be a brief stroll down history’s dirt road. If you are like me, I’ve found in my brief time here on earth that we can learn so much if we take a moment to look back. Join me and let’s enjoy this trail ride on our horses together. Looking back and appreciating where we are now.
We will begin our journey back in the 1700s. Where horse owners and care takers of horses predominantly maintained pastures and got rid of their horse manure by strenuous manual labor. They would collect it and either spread it to fertilize or sell it as the same.
A more in depth look:
Pasture & Paddock Cleaning:
For those who mainly kept horses in open pastures, the natural dispersion of manure occurred through grazing per Iowa State Extension
In less space, such as paddocks or other enclosed areas, tools such as pitchforks or leaf rakes were used by hand for cleaning and keeping down the constant growth of horse waste. While weed control in these confined areas was taken care of by pulling up by hand or mowing. Along with rotational grazing which allowed for pasture forage to recover.
Recycling and Discarding of horse waste:
Collection piles: these areas were used entirely for keeping collected manure for keeping smell and pests such as flies to a minimum. In those times, collection piles were called “muck heaps.”
Fertilizer: Just like today, horse waste back then was extremely valuable. It was sold to farmers of all types for their crops.
ReSpreading: Farmers would respread horse manure by hand with tree limbs or shovels in their pastures in attempts to enrich the soil and grow healthy forage.
When the 1800s came around, surprisingly not a whole lot had changed in regards to horse pasture and paddock cleaning or maintenance other than maybe the invention of the wheelbarrow. I’m not saying this to be taken lightly. I’m sure that the wheelbarrow was an exciting and extremely helpful invention at that time. Manual labor was still the go to with rakes and wheelbarrows in hand.
Manual manure disposal: Most all means of pasture and paddock cleaning involved a lot of tedious backbreaking labor, using mostly tools such as rakes and wheelbarrows to gather horse waste. The value of horse manure remained extremely high and was a primary way of getting rid of it. However, as time passed, the number of horses grew throughout towns and cities. As this happened, manure collection grew to astronomical proportions and of course outgrew farmers and horse pasture owners needs. This led to manure overflowing in open lots and it became a crisis for sanitary reasons. (Research: "Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894")
While today there are more efficient tools that remove the manual labor aspect for collecting horse manure such as pooper scoopers and the likes of individual manure spreaders, upside down harrows and even chain link fences weighed down by center blocks. The value in principles of horse waste management were upheld with less modern means but done quite well in the 1800s to maintain healthy living environments for horses in my opinion.
Go ahead and shake off the dust a little. We are now coming up on the 1900s and a time right before major spread of mechanical advancements. And so manual labor was still the overhanging method of horse pasture and paddock cleaning and manure management. And yes this task was still very tedious and time consuming. Although by this time people had began to use more of the agricultural tools of the past and present in their equine environments.
The likes of shovels and rakes, according to Stable Management were primarily used. This is said to have been the most common way. While wheelbarrows and carts were used to load horse manure up, carts pulled by horses themselves were used for transporting the loads out of pastures and paddocks or to specific manure piles.
Ahhh! And let’s not forget! You had the manure spreaders of that time!
The invention of manure spreaders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries made tremendous strides in reducing manual labor efforts.
Horse-drawn spreaders:
Some of the first invented spreaders were horse-drawn. They were designed to distribute manure evenly over fields, per Henry Ford Museum
This allowed farmers to utilize the manure as fertilizer, improving soil fertility with much less effort on their part than in the past. These spreaders used a sort of conveyor belt functionality that moved manure to the back, where rotators would beat or break it up and spread it across the field, per The Historical Marker Database
Also used: The practice of rotational grazing; moving horses to and from smaller paddocks or sectioned off pastures to prevent overgrazing and give areas recovery time. Which is an excellent practice even today.
Liming and fertilization: Maintaining proper soil pH and nutrient levels was important for healthy pastures. This involved applying lime to acidic soils and fertilizing based on revealed levels through soil testing. Another excellent practice still today.
Dragging/harrowing: Dragging or harrowing pastures helped to somewhat break up and spread manure clumps, promoting more even grazing and exposing parasites to sunlight, which helped in eliminating them. While this is a practice used still to this day by many, we are not fans of it due to its lesser positives and its counter-productivity. There are too many variables that have to be just right in order for it to be somewhat positive overall.
In my view of the 1900s, it separated itself from the past by its use of horse strength for hauling and spreading their manure.
Give me a minute to hop off my horse and stretch a bit. My lower back and legs need it. We’ve travelled a good ways and I want to head into the 2000s as fresh as possible. You ought to do yourself the same.
Alright now, time to hop back in the saddle and make our way.
Pasture and paddock cleaning and maintenance for horse owners in the 2000s to present day has made major advancements. With developments in machinery inventions and the like, it would be hard not to.
Horse owners, boarders and breeders of all types have tried and used a combination of traditional and modern ways to clean their horse living environments and manage manure from the 2000s onward.
Poo picking is still widely used by more people than you think. I’m not sure why or who has time for that these days. But to each their own.
Pasture/Paddock implements and equipment such as pooper scoopers, paddock cleaners/ sweepers pulled by ATVs or small tractors, using thin sheet metal flooring or rotator brushes to sweep up manure and debris. Pasture vacuums towed behind an atv of some sort or even a small vehicle, use motors to create suction much like your house vacuum to collect manure from pastures. Paddock cleaners and vacuums can reduce some time and labor of manure collection, especially in larger paddocks, per Chapman Machinery and Greystone USA.
They each have their own negatives to bear in mind. Sweepers have many moving parts that will have to be replaced from use. They can cause damage to pasture forage and often times are messy in clean up. Vacuums are amazing for clean up in small confined areas such as barns and stalls but are inconvenient and difficult to load and carry around paddocks and pastures. They too have many moving parts that will need replacing from use.
Pasture & Paddock Tender (Pasture Tender) : This machine was invented, designed and patented in 2015 by a man named Ronald Collins from South Carolina, USA as a labor of love to his daughter. This man also happens to be my late father. His discovery and invention was for my sister Veronica who also writes for our blog here. My thoughts on the Pasture Tender are based off of my dad, sister and myself using this implement in our pastures and paddocks. And on many others’ land as well for over a decade now. This piece of equipment is the world’s first and only patent protected all-in-one equine pasture and paddock cleaning and maintenance implement. It can be towed by any atv or golf cart. It cleanly collects waste and debris due to its design and a unique beveled blade. It also has built in functionality for equine manure spreading which performers completely opposite in comparison to all other spreaders and means of spreading that are out there. (Read our family’s full story here Pasture Tender)
After using methods before mentioned, pooper scoopers, upside down harrows, chain link fences with center blocks and others, Mr. Collins was unsatisfied due to the counter-productivity of each. He began searching online and making calls to equipment suppliers for a single implement that would efficiently clean manure, rocks and debris, and spread collected manure. Without tearing pasture forage or smearing, clumping manure on top of it. Manure spreader functions to sift manure onto soil. To dad’s surprise there was not an implement like this that existed. The Pasture & Paddock Tender (Pasture Tender) is built like farm implements of old, has no moving parts to be replaced and it is multifunctional. Whichever manure management strategies are being used, this implement answers the need. This implement removes time consuming hard labor and is difficult to not like.
Manure management strategies
Composting, reSpreading, pick-up, cross-fertilization and rotational grazing are some of the best practices.
These practices not only manage manure but also improve soil health, reduce pest populations, minimize negative environmental impact while increasing environmental health and well being. Proper composting does require specific conditions, while spreading needs consideration of soil nutrient levels and environmental factors. All of which can be done safely with free consultation from ones local university extension.
Well, I sure have enjoyed trekking horse back with you through time.
Let’s wrap up our findings in a nice bow and tie it on up for others to enjoy and glean from shall we.
Folks caring for horses in the 2000s to present day utilize many different approaches, ranging from labor-intensive manual methods to specialized equipment and sustainable manure management practices in order to keep their pastures and paddocks clean and to maintain their horses health and pasture quality. The chosen method or process often depends on factors like pasture/paddock size, number of horses per acreage, available resources, and environmental considerations for starters.
With help from a local AG Extension, an individual can get some pretty doggone good first steps and direction to head in for excellent horse pasture and paddock health tips.