The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.
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46 TheHorse.com THE HORSE February 2016 collect scrap metals in a safe, horse-proof place. These include nails, screws, hard- ware, old wire fencing, and horse shoes. "Horse shoes can go to scrap metal and add up to a significant income, depend- ing on current metal prices," Crabbe notes. "We are working on setting up a collection system from all of the barns, farriers, and vet practices in our area to collect horse shoes for a local horse rescue charity." Don't toss torn pillow leg wraps, grungy saddle pads, or beyond-repair blankets. Most Goodwills accept any and all textiles for recycling—even the unus- able ones, says Crabbe. Here are other ways to recycle and repurpose barn materials: ■ Turn thrown horse shoes into tasteful hooks, latches, and decorations. Weld them together into a water hose storage rack. ■ Reuse old kitchen and bathroom towels, washcloths, and worn-out T-shirts, saddle pads, and wraps as rags for drying legs, polishing boots, and wiping down stable surfaces. ■ Save zippered comforter bags for blanket storage. ■ Hand your ripped horse blankets down to your dogs during winter. Bundle them up as beds or transform them into doggie jackets. ■ Save empty (and clean) condiment and spray bottles to store hoof creams, detanglers, fly spray, etc. Sprayers are especially important to save, so you can replace others that clog or break. ■ Reuse any type of paper feed bag as poultice wraps, a cover for a hoof pack, to desensitize your horse, to soak up spills, or as shredded additions to compost. ■ Transform cracked buckets, those with missing handles, milk crates, and supplement containers into storage for grooming or wash stalls, jump cups and pins, and more. You can also use small square buckets to help create bases for cavaletti. ■ Save an old broom handle and some baling twine to create a portable blan- ket rack. This can also be accomplished with rope and PVC pipes or wooden dowel rods. ■ Use plastic feed bags as weed lin- ers beneath the mulch in your barn landscaping. ■ Use empty coffee cans to store supple- ments when on the road for an event. It's easier and lighter than taking a big bucket of supplement with you. ■ Nail empty tuna or cat food cans to tack room walls as bridle racks. ■ Wad up old newspapers and use them as boot trees. ■ Use old (completely intact) tires as feed bucket holders in stalls or other feeding areas. ■ If you can get your hands on any large plastic barrels, cut them in half and use them as feeders and water troughs. (Don't forget to cover the sharp edges first.) Old water tanks can also make great decorative flower beds around the barn or temporary coolers during a barn party. ■ Ask nearby therapeutic riding pro- grams or youth riding camps if they'd take your old or broken tack. Many are happy to make repairs or modifications and put it to good use. ■ If you do any barn repairs or remod- eling, see if charitable construction projects, such as Habitat for Human- ity, will take your construction waste (old cabinets, doors, window frames, etc.). Or, repurpose it yourself to build picture frames, planters, shelves, and much more. Make the Switch to Green Materials Besides recycling, simply using more eco-friendly materials around the barn can make your facility much "greener." Take the light fixtures in your aisleways or tack and feed room, for instance. Switch to fluorescent or LED lighting— these last about nine and 20 times longer, respectively, than traditional bulbs. Or, if building or remodeling, leverage natural EQUINOMICS Old tires can make safe feed bucket holders. Fashion rope and PVC pipes or wooden dowel rods together to make portable blanket racks. ALAYNE BLICKLE JENNIFER WHITTLE Recycling Resources Different cities and states have different recycling requirements, and these can change frequently. So how do you know what your area's recycling program will accept and where? "We usually start by calling our local transfer station—they do an amazing amount of recy- cling, and if they don't take something they often know who will," says Barbara G. Crabbe, DVM, of Pacific Crest Sporthorse Equine Veterinary Services, in Beavercreek, Oregon. "Certain places will take a specific item for a while, then not for a period of time. I believe it depends on what the markets are doing. For that reason, a good piece of advice is to always make a quick call to confirm you can take unusual recyclables to the same place you took them last time." Styrofoam, for instance, is variable, as are certain types of hard plastics. You can also do a quick Internet search for "Is XYZ recyclable?" or visit Earth911.com. The free mobile app "iRecycle" allows you to look up a variety of items. Local feed stores often recycle plastic feed bags and baling twine, Crabbe adds.—Alexandra Beckstett