Re: RE: Re: manure at rides et al.

["Duncan Fletcher" <dfletche@gte.net>]

I have a 3 horse slant load. I manage to carry 3 32 gallon plastic trash
cans. One is attached inside the trailer in the wide empty corner at the
rear of the trailer. The other two are strapped outside on the lower fender
platform just to the rear of the wheel wells at the rear of the trailer.
That leaves the high portion of fenders over the wheel wells for 2 bales of
hay and the short platform just forward of the wheel fenders for 2 15 gallon
water drums. I still have empty the space just behind the tongue.

Each of those trash cans will hold a days worth of manure and hay
contributed by 3 horses (assuming some resonable control of wasted hay -
which is the biggest problem from a volume standpoint.

Each trailer is different, but if the will was there, a way would be found.

Other folks use plastic bags, and while breakage is certainly possible, the
heavy duty ones those folks use seem to hold up well. And if 'yuck' is your
description of a broken bag, think of the 'yuck' factor experienced by those
not use to shit.

Manure dumps are one solution, but who cleans out the manure dumps. In the
case of the one at Haney Meadow in the Wenatchee NF in Washington, it is a
member of our chapter of Backcountry Horsemen of Washington who takes his
dump truck with his tractor on a trailer a couple of hundred miles each way
to clean out the manure dumps. Nothing like having free maid service. And
what happens when that service is no longer available. Other BCH chapters
take of some others, and the balance require you to haul it home.

The stuff shouldn't be going to a landfill, but to the same place the rest
of your manure goes. It makes wonderful compost which is where mine goes.
But it is not left at campsites for the next guy to deal with.

Duncan Fletcher
dfletche@gte.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kathy Mayeda" <kathy_mayeda@atce.com>


> At most of our county and state parks here in the SF Bay Area are okay
> with the amount of manure being left in the parking lots.  We have been
> happily  cleaning out our trailer messes without a single thought about
it.
> And these are pretty public use areas.  One is actually a paved parking
> lot and on weekends there are usually several horse trailers there.  But
> then again, it's usually only 1/10th full and I could see where if it
> was filled to 100% capacity and there was manure in the parking lot
> it could become a major issue.
>
> I have camped at a horse camp where they have a designated manure pile,
> wheelbarrow and fork for cleanup and it was pretty clean when we arrived.
>
> I have also been at both types of rides where we were asked to clean all
> hay and manure and where they said "just scatter it."  I have also
> volunteered where I had to help pick up bags of manure only to have
> the bag break on my hands... Yuch.  I can't even imagine trying to
> haul it home to dispose of it - where would I put it so that if the
> bag breaks I wouldn't have .... all over it?
>
> All I could say is that if the ride management requests that the
> area be clean, take it seriously.  Most people seem to comply and
> the few that don't, shame on them.  I personally would not want to
> ruin the chances of not have a ride due to this issue.  If the
> landholders, whoever they are - government, private, etc. are
> sensitive to this issue, we should be sensitive to their wishes
> as well.
>
> I also have a hard time thinking about those bags of manure
> going to landfill when it would make wonderful compost for
> some lucky gardener.  So who's making ecological sense here?
>
> So much for the "hot" topic of the week.....  They should
> elect Howard for governer of Florida then things will the
> whole election thing would make more sense, huh?
>
> K.
>