Use the navigation bar above to access articles and more discussions on this topic.
| Author |
Message |
    
DAN LINCOLN
| | Posted on Friday, Mar 24, 2000 - 2:44 pm: |   |
My area is rapidly urbanizing. Local government is trying to limit small private and commercial stable by a number of Horses per acre formula (they prefer one/acre). Does anybody have any experience or know literature that might provide a basis for arguing for a performance standard instead of a number,i.e. it is not how many, it is how they are managed? The big concerns are odor, insects, pollution and appearance. Secondarily, there is concern that horses do not fare well if they are too confined. Horsesense from the local community does not impress urban landplanners. WE need authoritative evidence. |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
| | Posted on Friday, Mar 24, 2000 - 7:10 pm: | |
Dan,
If you post this in the legal section it will be reviewed by G. Goulder a lawyer interested in equine law.
DrO |
A.F.M. Hyde-Clarke
| | Posted on Saturday, Mar 25, 2000 - 6:05 am: | |
Local government seems to be taking the welfare of the horse into account by saying a maximum of one horse per acre. From what I gather, that is the normal formula world-wide. And that is for a horse that is also stabled night or day and fed hay and concentrates. An acre will never carry a horse. For that, I believe but am not sure, you need 3 acres minimum per horse. If you have 12 horses on 12 acres, by the time you have got your stables up, your feed sheds, your dressage arena, your jumping arena, your lungeing arena, presumably an owner's or manager's house - you've only minimal land left for sufficient paddocks for 12 horses. A half acre paddock is really small, and is soon ruined and horse-sick.
And it is proven that indeed horses do NOT fare well if they are too confined - they weave, crib-bite, kick their box walls [there is a post here somewhere on the neurotic behaviour of horses in pipe stalls with no paddocks], colic easily, etc. etc. etc.
Who is going to judge the performance standard? It is never going to be objective. Obviously we are talking of commercial ventures here who rarely put the welfare of the horse first or take into account his needs for as natural a life as possible. Being stabled 100% of the time, with maybe an hour or so in a tiny paddock is not catering to the needs of the horse but to the convenience of the owner.
Hopefully local government will stick to its guns. |
DAN LINCOLN
| | Posted on Monday, Apr 17, 2000 - 12:02 am: | |
Actually, we are not talking about large commercial operations,but rather the backyard stables that are still common on the fringes of the sprawling western cities. These horses are mostly used for recreational trail riding and maybe a little competition in local arenas and 4H meets. Equestrian trail easements are often included in development plans so riders can exercise their horses on public or common land. If these small operations are zoned out, the only alternative will be the high cost boarding stables described above. For many, this is not an affordable solution, and we will lose some good horse people who had happy horses. Anyway, I am less interested in arguing than hearing how other communities have written their regs. |
