Alayne Blickle 
Make the Right Choice! by Alayne Blickle, Horses for Clean Water Footing material is useful for winter paddocks and confinement areas or for high traffic areas such as gates or watering points. The purpose of footing material is to build up an area to keep your horse or animal … Read More
Compost Should be as Wet as a Wrung-out Sponge by Alayne Blickle, Horses for Clean Water Previous articles of mine have covered different aspects of composting so now it’s time to step up to the compost pile and see if your compost passes the squeeze test. Moisture is an … Read More
6 Steps to a Useful Product by Alayne Blickle In the past we have covered why composting manure is important and useful on horse properties. I have even discussed how to build a manure composting bin system. Here are the specifics on how to manage the compost process. Make … Read More
Plant Buffers on Horse Properties by Alayne Blickle Many horse owners don’t realize how helpful native trees and shrubs can be on a horse property. People, wildlife (including our valuable native pollinating insects), horses, and the environment can all benefit from a landscape of native plants. Native plants are … Read More
Control the Smell with this Easy Solution by Alayne Blickle, Horses for Clean Water The “black spot of ick” is how Jay Mirro refers to the paddock area where some horses repeatedly urinate so that it becomes nasty and smelly. Mirro is a senior farm planner for King Conservation … Read More
Sacrifice Areas Essential for Pasture Health by Alayne Blickle Probably the most important aspect of managing pasture is the time when you take your horses off your pasture. Grasses should not be grazed below 3-4 inches, and horses should not be on pasture when soil is saturated. You can … Read More
Giving Back to Nature Benefits Everyone by Alayne Blickle, Horses for Clean Water It’s spring and one of the treasures we horse owners enjoy is communing with nature. On a relaxing trail ride we might spot a fleeting fox or hear the melodic song of the varied thrush. And then … Read More
Turn a Problem into an Asset by Alayne Blickle Manure management is such a huge issue for horse owners who care for horses on their own property. One horse produces about 50 pounds of manure per day which is over eight tons per year! Add to that the 8 … Read More
First do a Cost-benefit Analysis by Alayne Blickle At Sweet Pepper Ranch, that’s what we’re doing: building an indoor arena. While it’s very exciting, the “go-ahead” decision was not something we took lightly. It required a lot of penciling out and some tough decision making. Is building an indoor … Read More
Be Prepared for Mud Season by Alayne Blickle Fall is exactly the right time to improve your confinement area footing. Doing so will help ensure that your winter doesn’t end up a chore nightmare with people and horses deep in muck. It’s much easier to do this in the fall … Read More
