OUR PRACTICES

We engage our resident herd of wild horses and burros (donkeys) in a range of holistic land management practices, with the aim of demonstrating how as keystone species and ecosystem engineers, these animals are uniquely beneficial to the land. Equids are the only single stomached (non-ruminant), large-bodied herbivores in the US, meaning that they do not ferment and digest seeds from their forage, but pass them fully intact through their digestive tract, covered in nutritious fertilizer and ready to germinate. In effect they replant their preferred forage as they move across the landscape.

Unlike cattle and ruminants that tear grass up from the root, equids possess both upper and lower incisors, permitting the careful pruning of vegetation, and having single-soliped hooves, as opposed to cloven hooves, they trample undesirable plants into the ground before they go to seed. When supported to live in a way that mimics their natural lifestyle habits, equids will nourish the soil by fertilizing the ground, re-seed the land with their preferred wild forage, restore a healthy balance of grasses, forbs and legumes, and reduce the risk of wildfire through the removal of dry brush fuels.

Our practices are focused on utilizing these natural benefits to regenerate the land, and support an abundance and diversity of plant and animal life. In addition, we make use of their manure to make good quality compost for growing food and medicine.

Meadow Making

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ADAPTIVE GRAZING

In contrast to the myths perpetuated by modern industrial agriculture, which are often used to justify the use of toxic, soil-degrading herbicides and pesticides, "weeds" are mostly beneficial plants that provide nutrients for microorganisms, feed wildlife and other plants, are essential to pollinators, and provide a source of food and medicine for humans. This is one reason why our focus is on transforming our pasturelands into wild, biodiverse meadows, and in honoring the benefits of certain introduced species, rather than joining the ill-informed war on so-called invasives.

Our regenerative agricultural and holistic land management practices include planned adaptive grazing methods, whereby we rotate our animals through different areas at different times to mimic their natural movements in the wild, constantly adapting these rotations to changing ecological conditions. This supports the herd to naturally restore and maintain a healthy balance of grasses, forbs, and legumes, which eliminates the need for machines powered by fossil fuels or lithium batteries. Ironically, it is the market for some of these industrially extracted, polluting energy sources that is contributing to the removal of wild horses and donkeys from US public lands.

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GROWING FOOD

We grow organic vegetables, fruit trees, and medicinal herbs using the compost we make from the raw manure we collect from our resident equines (we also leave a lot of it on the ground) at different times of the year), combined with pasture debris such as fallen leaves and coastal amendments, including crab and oyster shells. In the gallery below, you can view some photographs of our compost-making program, along with some of the organic fruit, flowers, vegetables, and herbs that our animals have helped us to grow.

OUR VALUES

"Know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that you may take care of them. Introduce yourself. Be accountable as the one who comes asking for life. Ask permission before taking. Abide by the answer. Never take the first. Never take the last. Take only what you need. Take only that which is given. Never take more than half. Leave some for others. Harvest in a way that minimizes harm. Use it respectfully. Never waste what you have taken. Share. Give thanks for what you have been given. Give a gift, in reciprocity for what you have taken. Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever."

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass