What Are the Advantages of Portable Stalls for Sustainable Farming?

What Are the Advantages of Portable Stalls for Sustainable Farming?

How important is portable stalls? Horses have played an important role in society for thousands of years. Now, many horses take part in equine activities, such as endurance riding, dressage, and even farm work. Although the use of horses for farming activity has declined dramatically, there are still plenty of farmers who take care of these animals and use them to help with certain farming tasks.

Equine care is a complicated subject. Those who engage in equine activities for either farming or competitive purposes must care for these majestic animals so they are fit, healthy, and happy. One aspect of equine care is transportation and boarding, for which stalls are often used.

Portable stalls offer a distinct advantage for horse owners; they promote sustainability. When you have an upcoming equine event, investing in portable horse stalls is a great way to cut costs and reduce your impact on the environment. Let’s break down some of the reasons why these products can promote sustainable farming.

Fewer Permanent Structures

drought in a horse farm by Sue Allen Wikimedia Commons

Housing horses requires a shelter of some kind. Usually, this comes in the form of a stable, which can be built from numerous materials. However, building a permanent structure on your land does damage to the environment, hurting local plants and animal life that could otherwise thrive if that land was left alone.

With portable horse stalls, you can avoid building a permanent structure to contain your horses, especially if it is only for a temporary event. If you host equine events on your land, you can preserve the environment by renting these temporary stalls rather than building a stable that is only used a few times a year.

Sustainable Materials

The construction of a portable horse stall is also significant in how it impacts the environment. Some vendors that sell or rent out these products use metal as a primary building material, which can last longer and is easier to assemble and disassemble than other materials.

The result is less consumption of natural materials to construct horse stalls whenever they are needed. Metal is commonly used for sustainable building since it tends to last longer than other materials like wood before requiring repairs or replacements.

Constructing permanent shelters is just one of the environmental impacts horses have, but doing so with more sustainable materials reduces the damage.

Lighter Transportation Burden

A_Yakutian_horse (Wikimedia Commons)

Portable stalls made out of metal are much lighter and more durable than other materials. Transporting other forms of shelter for a horse can put a bigger burden on the environment by requiring larger vehicles to move them.

These larger vehicles consume more gas and produce more carbon dioxide that goes into the environment. With lightweight stall components that are easier to transport, you are contributing to fewer emissions and oil consumption when moving these stalls from place to place to house your horses.

Water Conservation

Water plays an important role in the care of a horse. They must be watered to stay hydrated and their stalls must have good drainage to ensure their hooves are not exposed to the damp too much. Horse hooves are made of organic materials that can break down if exposed to too much water, so drainage and conservation of this resource are important.

One advantage that portable stalls have is they generally are very flexible. That means they can be designed with good drainage systems and feature attachments that help with watering the animal.

Additionally, rainwater can be collected by certain stall attachments to help with watering the horse, promoting water conservation even further.

Materials That Can Be Repurposed or Recycled

recycle plastic sustainable life

Permanent stalls are usually built with materials that cannot be recycled. That means when they reach the end of their lifecycle, they must be replaced. A portable metal stall, on the other hand, is made with a material that can easily be repurposed for something else.

If the metal is in good condition, it could even be used in the construction of another stall. If not, there are still many purposes that recycled metal can serve when it can no longer be used in stall construction. Using recycled materials reduces the environmental impact of your equine activities since repurposing the components is a possibility in the future.

Practice Environmental Care With Portable Stalls for Equine Activities

This is the only world we have, and therefore, we must take care of it. Although there are plenty of equine activities that are not too harmful to the environment, the equine community has a long way to go to promote sustainability.

You can play your part by investing in portable metal stalls for your horses rather than more permanent structures. From water conservation to material sustainability, this type of shelter will allow you to take better care of your animals and the planet.

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