Best Management Practices -- A Proactive Approach to Horsekeeping

What is a Best Management Practice (BMP)?

A Best Management Practice (BMP) is a proactive way for horse owners to protect the environment. It may include the utilization of a structure or a change in the daily management activities of a horse facility in a manner that will serve to decrease or eliminate the impacts of horsekeeping on the environment. Depending upon specific aspects of a site and the objectives of the operator, these practices may be used alone or in combination to obtain the desired results.

Utilizing Best Management Practices at your horse facility - whether it be your backyard or a large operation - will benefit you as well as the environment!

Advantages to the horse facility owner/manager who uses BMP’s include:

• mud reduction
• better horse health
• improved aesthetics for your facility
• better working conditions
• improved neighbor relations
• improved water quality in water bodies and wells
• proactive approach to protecting your right to keep horses

Best management practices can be used to:

• reduce the erosion of soil, thereby protecting a valuable natural resource
• reduce the amount of sediment that erosion contributes to water bodies. This promotes a healthy environment for the organisms living there
• protect the quality of surface and ground water from nutrients and pathogens, eliminating costly water treatments
• prevent nuisances such as flies and dust, which can represent health risks

Set a Good Example -- Consider Forming a Cooperative in Your Area

All over the United States, horse neighbors are joining forces to educate themselves and others. They are creating cooperatives to address their specific needs such as manure disposal, trail maintenance, community pasture management, etc. Some are driven by current regulatory pressures; others have seen the future and have chosen to take actions which may better position them to limit or prevent regulations which may seriously affect their ability to keep horses. Reducing environmental impacts from horse facilities (of all sizes) and being friendly and considerate neighbors will reduce the number of complaints from the unhorsed population -- allowing horse owners the freedom to enjoy the animals they love.

Contacts

Mark Cummings - (203) 269-7509, Ext. 301
Kathleen Johnson  - (860) 626-8258, Ext. 200
Barbara Alexander - (860) 871-4046