As times have changed, so has our understanding of the social, psychological, and physical needs of the animals in our care. As open spaces shrink, our view of what is required to keep horses as best suits their nature is expanding. The result is a need for guidance when it comes to making decisions related to modern-day equine management best practices. The hard truth is that the creatures who have long been our companions have also long been expected to adapt to living situations created with primarily human convenience and comfort in mind.
With this inspiringly illustrated guidebook, natural horsekeeping expert Iveta Jebáčková-Lažanská hopes to help everyone with horses create sophisticated, functional, equine-centric stable systems, in which horses, nature, and people thrive. Jebáčková-Lažanská demonstrates how, for those who want to, it’s possible to find ways to make outdoor horsekeeping work via a system that has slowly emerged over time that can work for any property, whether small or large. Already, it has been proven to work well by horse owners all over the world, some of whom contributed their knowledge and experiences to these pages.
Topics explored include:
- Size and type of basic enclosures.
- Dealing with weather- and environment-related challenges, like mud.
- Location of, type of, and materials used in sheds, shelters, and stalls.
- Footing, surfaces, and bedding, both temporary and permanent.
- Water supplies and weather concerns.
- “Horse toilets.”
- Feeder types, locations, and arrangements.
- Fencing, and paddock and pasture management, including rotation, fertilizing, and seasonal concerns.
- Areas to roll, wallow, and play.
- Natural trees, shrubs, and grasses to encourage and discourage.
- Pest control.
- Adjusting for the seasons, and your region and climate.
With success stories throughout to serve as both evidence and inspiration, readers are certain to come away armed with all they need to allow their horses to live life as they were meant to, in tune with their instinctual needs for forage, movement, and choice, and in concert with the natural world.
Author Biography:
Iveta Jebáčková-Lažanská has been a part of the horse world for 40 years. She grew up learning how to manage the general care and training of horses in a time when most horses still spent much of the day locked in stalls. As her knowledge of horses grew, so did her thoughts about the possibility of creating stable areas where horses could function almost entirely on their own, without constant manipulation by people. Finally, she reached a place in life where she and her husband could slowly start to build a farm facility of their own—one in which the gate to free movement was wide open—and she never looked back. Jebáčková-Lažanská now chronicles her experiences with keeping horses outdoors in regular articles on the popular Czech equestrian site EQUICHANNEL.cz, as well as print magazines, and writes horse-related fiction for young readers.
