Here is some different information than what the Greens are saying perhaps because this has been investigated and the Greens don’t do investigation-they have always screamed out their propaganda saying the first thing that comes into their heads without giving any scientific information to back it up

3 Ways Horses Make Our Earth a Better Place

Kate HarvestonBiodiversityMay 10, 2017

ways horses help the environment

Early society depended on horses for transportation, farming and other tasks before the engine and the use of fossil fuels dominated industries around the world. Horses benefited the environment during that time as a cleaner source of energy than gas-powered cars. Today, the environment and Earth still benefit from horses, especially as horse owners and farms adopt more environmentally friendly practices.

Here’s three ways horses help the environment and make Earth a better place.

Horses produce renewable energy and resources

Manure is a horse’s main renewable resource. It’s also become a source of renewable energy for farms and power companies with an interest in green energy.

A horse produces 9.1 tons of manure each year. Farms across the U.S. and the U.K. set up and maintain manure management programs, per their state or local government requirements.

Designed to prevent water and air pollution, manure management programs also promote how to best use manure as a fertilizer to improve soil quality and productivity.

Horse manure, as a fertilizer, increases nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, within the soil. A healthier soil allows more water and nutrients to be retained in the ground, which leads to a more productive soil.

Natural fertilizer, like livestock manure, also helps prevent soil erosion and runoff by strengthening the soil and encouraging the growth of vegetation, like grasses.

Use of horse manure as fertilizer, versus purchase of a commercial fertilizer, saves energy. Commercial fertilizers undergo several steps before reaching consumers, from manufacturing to transporting the fertilizer to vendors. Farms, however, produce and process fertilizer on the property and transport it to their fields.

Environmental policies, like required manure management plans, encourage the use of livestock digesters or anaerobic manure digesters, also known as biogas.

Biogas breakdown manure into methane, which then produces heat or electricity. Because a biogas is airtight, it prevents the release of methane into the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, which cuts air pollution, and instead uses it to generate power.

Farms using biogas as a renewable energy source also have the option, based on their production, of selling the green energy to power companies. Certain power companies even offer consumers the option to exclusively purchase green or clean energy.

Similar to how biogas prevent air pollution, water contamination is prevented because manure is contained and separated from potential areas of runoff. As a result, waterways and groundwater sources are inaccessible.

Water pollution prevention is essential in manure management plans, as pathogens, organic matter and unnecessary nutrients can transfer to water sources through manure. Polluted water sources impact not only people, but can also spread illnesses among a herd of animals.

Policies like manure management plans, as well as the initiative of horse owners, contribute to equines’ role as a source of renewable, clean energy and a resource for supporting the land.

Horses preserve grasslands

Rotational grazing is a great tool for preserving grasslands. The process is simple, and a key component to how horses contribute to smart perennial grassland management.

Horses, or other livestock, are rotated between pastures. Rotational grazing prevents overgrazing and encourages grass to grow. Overgrazed grass struggles to grow and establish itself in a pasture, which often results in soil erosion and runoff.

Grasslands optimized for growth through rotational grazing also prevent erosion because of their established root systems.

Manure management also relates to grassland management and preservation. Rotational grazing allows manure to decompose while the horses are in another pasture. The broken-down manure provides key nutrients to the soil, which optimizes the growth of grass.

Grasslands also benefit from anaerobic digester fertilizer. Because anaerobic digesters often break down seeds found in horse manure, the seeds won’t return to the field, which is beneficial for farmers focused on maintaining pastures without any other vegetation.

Used for all types of livestock, horses and rotational grazing have exclusively been used for restoring and building grasslands in the Western United States.

A key component for effective rotational grazing is calculating the size of your herd and comparing it to your pasture sizes and layouts. A conservative ratio would be one horse per one acre of pasture.

Well-managed, and utilized, grasslands also reduce the growth of brush and the chance for fires. Because vegetation growth in grasslands is sometimes managed by controlled fires, rotational grazing with horses can remove this process and the potential risks with using controlled burns.

Grassland management through horses has expanded to include more than farms, such as areas of conservation and/or rural landscapes, where grassland management techniques are effective and support the local ecosystem.

Horses support local ecosystems

Horses, wild or semi-feral horses especially, continue to benefit local ecosystems and habitats. As a grazing animal, horses create a mosaic pattern in their feeding area.

This pattern of tall and short grasses benefits smaller animals, like rabbits, deer and pheasants, which rely on taller grasses for homes or safety.

Habitats of animals are also maintained through a horse’s grazing, which prevents the area from becoming overgrown and limited in use for certain species.

Like birds, horses also disperse or spread seeds. Seeds germinate well after passing through a horse’s digestive system and benefit from manure, which boosts their growth. Spreading seeds throughout a habitat, horses encourage its continued growth and establishment.

Horses also build an ecosystem’s biodiversity. Grazing horses focus on grasses, which protects the growth of other plants, like flowers.

Plants and flowers also receive assistance from horses through the trampling of uneaten and often unwanted vegetation, like weeds. Once the vegetation is dead, plants and flowers don’t have to compete with it for valuable nutrients, water and other resources.

Grasslands are not the only ecosystem benefitting from horses. Wetlands are home to hardier horses, like the Konik breed.

Scotland recently introduced Koniks to their wetlands to eat vegetation. Previously, machinery was used to cut down the growth.

Horses help the environment in many ways. Governments, farms and horse owners continue to develop new ways to reduce pollution from farms and livestock, while generating green energy and managing farm and rural land in a way that’s effective and environmentally friendly.

American wildlife ecologist Craig Downer says wild horses and donkeys can make valuable contributions to Australian ecosystems in many different ways. He described them in this poster presentation at the Ecological Society of Australia annual conference in 2014.

Wild horses can complement an ecosystem, or life community, in many direct and obvious as well as more subtle ways. This they do when permitted their natural freedom to move and interrelate over a sufficiently extensive intact habitat and time period.

Dietary benefits, buildings, dispersing viable seeds

Equids possess a caecal, or post-gastric, digestive system. This enables them to take advantage of coarser, drier vegetation and, through symbiotic microbial activity, to break down cellulose cell walls to derive sufficient nutrients from the inner cell without overtaxing their metabolism. In drier regions, this can give equids a distinct advantage.

Consumption by equids of coarser, drier vegetation can greatly benefit sympatric, pre-gastric (ruminant) herbivores, and energize and enrich the ecosystem as a whole. By recycling chiefly the coarse, dry grasses as well as other dry, withered herbs, forbs and bush foliage, the horses and burros expose the seedlings of many diverse species to more sun, water and air, thus permitting them to flourish. The latter can then be consumed by ruminants (see R.H.V. Bell 1970).

Of great importance is the contribution by wild equids of significant quantities of partially degraded vegetation in the form of feces deposited on the land. These droppings provide fodder for myriad soil microorganisms; the resulting fecal decomposition builds the humus component of soils, lending ecologically valuable texture and cohesiveness. As feces slowly decompose, they gradually release their nutrients over all seasons and, thus, feed the fungal garden that exists in soils, thereby increasing the soil’s absorption of water – that vital limiting factor in semi-arid and arid regions.

Equid feces lend more sustenance to decomposers and food webs that involve mutually sustaining exchanges among all classes of organisms. The latter include many diverse insects, birds, rodents, reptiles, etc. This could help bolster many native species in Australia.

The less degraded feces of equids contain many more seeds that are intact and capable of germination and from many more types/species of plants when compared with ruminant grazers. Thus, the horses’ wide-ranging lifestyles can greatly assist many plants, including Australian natives, in dispersing far and wide and, so, in filling their respective ecological niches. This enriches the food web and allows a greater diversity of animal species, including Australian natives.

Behavioral benefits

Horses aid myriad plant and animal species by their physical actions. As an example, breaking of ice with their hooves during winter freezes allows other animals to access forage and water. Many of these would otherwise perish. Similarly, they open trails in heavy snow or through heavy brush, allowing smaller animals to move about in search of food, water, mineral salts, shelter, warmer areas, mates, etc.

A little-recognized fact is that the wallowing habit of wild equids creates natural ponds whose impacted surfaces become catchments for scant precipitation or summer cloudbursts. These provide a longer-lasting source of water for a wide diversity of plants and animals. This can even help to create an intermittent riparian habitat for desert amphibians and many other desert species including those of the Australian Outback. Ephemeral plants that quickly flower and set seed, including many composites, are benefited from these catchments – especially valuable in regions with clayey soils.

Wild horses also locate water seeps through their keen sense of smell and enlarge these through pawing during critical dry periods of the year, even digging down to the sources at rocky fissures. This allows many other species to access water, species whose individual members would otherwise perish. For these and many other reasons, wild equids should be treated as keystone species that contribute positively in a variety of ecological settings.

Role as prey

Wild horses are natural prey of certain carnivores and omnivores including in Australia dingoes, crocodiles, and wild dog packs.

I have a question, you own or lease a horse,no matter what breed it is, it breaks a leg or is very sick to the point it has to be put down you have to get a Vet to put it down humanely, you are not allowed to shoot it like the olden days,How come the Government gives the ok to shoot Brumbys,do they just bring in the law to suit themselves.I know for a fact this is the law for horse owner, ONE more question who actually owns the Brumbys,the reason I asked my Brother is a lawyer and a topic came up do the Government and the Greenies actually have written documents of ownership of every Brumbys,if not how on earth can they go in and shoot them,they will be breaking the law not once but twice.

This photo captures the emotions and the bond that horses have with their mates. This is our Rafiki, he is part Brumby, Dad is from the Omeo region in Victoria, and Mum is a Thoroughbred.

Rafiki, now 4 years old, was born with us and formed a very strong bond with our old Grumpy who is actually Kaylee Ramsey (my daughter) horse but stayed with us because of his close connection to Bessie & Rafiki.

Grumpy was 26 years old when he sadly left this world back in November 2019. Horses do GRIEVE for their families.

#brumbylivesmatter photo credit: Paddock Pix — with Dave Wain and Kaylee Ramsey.

DNA testing will be used in the fight to save the Barmah brumbies, with supporters saying new analysis proves the horses are a unique breed.

The Barmah Brumbies Preservation Group has been collecting hair from dead and living brumbies for the past five years and sending it to a lab in the United States for analysis.

In correspondence published on the group’s Facebook page, the lab says the Barmah brumbies should not be confined to a smaller area.

‘‘If they kill off the stallions and reduce the grazing area, this would further ‘bottleneck’ the population genetically, they would be subject to in-breeding pressures and that would eliminate any rare genes and any variance in genes present from the population and that would not be good for the future health of the brumbies. Any genetic disorders would come to light,’’ the letter says.

BBPG’s Murray Willaton said the group was continuing to fight against a Parks Victoria plan to cull brumby numbers in Barmah National Park by 400 by 2023 and eventually completely eradicate them.

‘‘We know they’ve been there since the early 1800s but now we know we’ve got a herd of horses that you can’t find anywhere else,’’ Mr Willaton said.

The group is pushing for a population of 120 brumbies to be allowed to remain in the forest and be managed by an experienced and dedicated group.

A Parks Victoria plan released earlier this month called for the cull, saying the brumbies were grazing on Moira grass and reducing its presence in the forest.

‘‘We’ve thrown a massive amount of evidence that their assertions aren’t correct,’’ Mr Willaton said.

‘‘The brumbies play no role in the decline of Moira grass; that is due to unseasonal flows.

‘‘These brumbies have a strong heritage value, so let’s manage them.

‘‘If we eradicate them we lose them forever. There’s got to be a bit of give and take.’’

The plan to remove brumbies from Barmah has the support of Victorian Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority and the Goulburn Valley Environment Group, which said it was key to protecting the forest.

Mr Willaton said the group was always open to meeting with Parks Victoria to discuss a ‘‘common sense’’ outcome and encouraged members of the public to have their say on the plan.

■Victorians are encouraged to review the draft plan and provide feedback by May 30 at: engage.vic.gov.au/barmah-strategic-action-plan

Three determined Aussies right here!!!
This land is their world, their everything.
Phil Maguire is a 4th generation horseman.
Charles Connley and his family are legendary in these high lands.
Lewis Benedetti can tame and train a brumby within weeks.
They didn’t ride into the snow for fun or photos, they mean business and they won’t give up!

Real-life brumbies captured on camera by my drone.
The last of the heritage ‘waler’ brumbies with direct genetic links to World War I.
Look at them peacefully gracing doing no one any harm. Imagine, the government wants them shot in cold blood and left for the wild dogs to feast on. There must be another way.

Keven Clark THE BRUMBY

He stands atop the mountain lord & master of all he can see. He symbolises all that is wild & that is free, he watches his mob with eagle eyes to make sure there is no surprise. Many men have entered his domain but still he is free & always will remain. He talks to the trees, listens to the wind, they are his brothers, his kin. No-one passes without his knowing, his strength & power readily showing. The mountains are his home, his castle, his kingdom whilst in their shadow he knows no fear for he was born unto this land. He knows with heavy heart his crown will fall, but he who takes it will care for all.1

This horse is one of many who a long with his mob HAVE NOT been seen nor found since the fires

Sir/Madam.

I am messaging you from Ireland. You must be aware of the MASSIVE amount of people internationally who are completely horrified about the fate of the Brumby horses in your country. I am a very knowledgeable and experienced professional equestrian trainer and studied a BSc in Equine Sports Science. The argument for murdering these wild horses seems to be based on opinions of naturalists with no involvement of Equine science specialists.

I understand that the horses are not considered a native species although they have been living wild in these parks for very very many years of course. Since the massive loss of animal life in all the massive fires in your country, as far as I can make out, there has not been a proper count of how many horses there actually are in the parks and it is likely of course that very many perished in the fires and that the numbers are MUCH lower than estimated anyway. This should of course be the first port of call – to do a proper count of how many there are really still living currently in the park.

The accusations that have been made about the horses damaging the environment in the parks are ridiculous and certainly not based on knowledge of horses.

In very many places worldwide (including many national parks in the UK) ponies have actually been introduced to HELP environmental conditions in the parks. They were brought in to IMPROVE the fauna and flora of the parks!

Strange how Exmoor, Dartmoor, Shetland, Highland, Welsh Mountain and Connemara all seem to survive with their population of ponies without it ruining the environment!

In Exmoor pony trials, not only has the plant species composition been maintained, but birds (such as the nightjar on Skipwith Common, Yorkshire) and butterflies (such as the High Brown fritillary in Silverdale, Cumbria) have also benefitted. The ponies are more efficient than cattle for grazing as they feed closer to the ground and for longer periods daily. They are selective grazers and prefer leafy vegetation, AVOIDING wildflowers, including orchid spikes. Exmoor ponies are environmentally sensitive. They have proven adept at keeping tor grass at bay. Left unchecked, tor grass can become dominant, crowding out the rarer species of wildflowers. By keeping it at bay, the ponies are helping preserve the delicate biodiversity of the landscape, which in some areas supports up to 40 different species of grass, wildflowers and herbs per square metre.

In a number of regions in Europe native ponies are being used to graze important areas of scientific interest as they selectively graze while protecting endangered flowers and plants. The Gait Barrows Exmoor pony herd in Lancashire, UK are employed to support and help regenerate the park which includes the high brown fritillary butterfly, Britain’s rarest. Exmoor ponies in other parts of the country are similarly employed on behalf of fritillary butterflies and other rare species of flowers, plants and invertebrates.

More ponies have recently been sent from the heart of Exmoor to the Czech Republic, where they will join a successful conservation project. The ponies are the third consignment of Exmoors to arrive at Podyji National Park; the first group having travelled there in 2015. The project, run by Ceska-krajina and funded by European Wildlife, was so impressed with the initial group of ponies, it asked for two more herds to graze additional areas. And these parks mentioned have tiny amounts of land in comparison to the massive amount of land in your parks and the relatively small amount of horses per hectare.

Horses are also not in the habit of trampling on other animals like frogs! Here are 2 photos of a watering area for horses. As you can see, no damage to the tadpoles or frogs!
These photos were taken in horse pasture where the pasture was in beautiful condition up until there was a visit from wild boar. 2 days and the pasture was wrecked and looked like it had ploughed! It is my understanding that you have a massive amount of these wild boar in your parks and I can say with certainty that they would be the ones doing the damage in your parks!

In addition of course to humans (riding around on quad bikes for instance). Humans are the worst for wrecking the environment as you are obviously well aware!

If, for whatever reason you feel compelled not to allow them to live there, which would be a tragedy for your country and for sure would allow a much higher possibility of massive fires from long wild grass, the population of the horses could be controlled by contraception for the mares or gelding of stallions or catching and rehoming! There are many other options other than murdering them! This has caused an International outcry. Understandably! Absolutely horrendous, cruel and completely unnecessary! Calling them feral and pests does not make it better. Time to listen to the people and use a different way forward! You have enough other choices. Don’t murder these horses please! They are absolutely NOT the cause of any environmental damage in your parks and just a small amount of research on the Internet would show you this! If you try to continue this path, it can only be based on other motives and NOT because the horses are doing damage!

Joanne Canning. BSc Equine Sports Science. HND Equine Sports Coaching. BHSII1

How to green the world’s deserts and reverse climate change | Allan Savory

4,139,252 views•Mar 4, 2013 113K4.2KShareSaveTED 17.2M subscribers “Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert,” begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And terrifyingly, it’s happening to about two-thirds of the world’s grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes — and his work so far shows — that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate Follow TED news on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tednews Like TED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TED Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksD…