Equiculture endorsements - read what people have to say about us and our work

Management on previous yards was mainly limited to the sorry options of solitary confinement in bare paddocks, confined to box with soaked hay pillows, or strip grazing. Not ideal and I knew it. Stress has also always been a trigger for Max, so while trying to manage his intake and movement for his physical well-being in difficult circumstances, I was also struggling to keep his mental well-being sound.

Last year, we found Puckshott Farm. We went from carefully measured feeds with supplements and intense micro management to 24/7 turn out with all hours access to grass, roaming, hay/haylage on tap, topped up with bountiful feeds of carob, coconut and Agrobs Musli with no supplements.

With good advice on feeds, excellent field management and wonderful herd wanders over terrain purposely designed to encourage movement and strong, healthy hooves, Max found his balance quite quickly.

Within months, despite eating more than I would ever have dared to allow in the past, Max transformed into a fat-pad free, healthy and happy horse among happy horses. In less than a year, the weight tape indicated that he had lost circa 60kg!

Max is now sound physically and mentally, my vet is delighted (and slightly astounded) at the physical change in him, and I am beyond thrilled to finally give my best mate the life I wanted and intended for him.

The third photo is 2 years after changing to The Equicentral System, with no daily workouts, 24/7 grazing most of the year, and ad lib hay that I don't even know is low NSC. Clipped and no rugs the first few winters, and he no longer gets overweight even in the summer. He not only looks like a different horse, but he is more energetic and expressive. He feels better!

The middle photo is my herd in the pasture another 7 years later. This photo is 2 months after rain that broke a 3 year drought. The Equicentral System helped us get through that too. Happy horses living naturally and sustainably on healthy land.

The principles of The Equicentral System WORK, and you get amazing results if you follow it as a system, without cherry picking just the interesting sounding bits. Its the parts that I thought weren't all that important to me that have made the most difference to my horses in the end.

The Equicentral System works, and I am forever indebted to Jane Myers and Stuart Myers for how incredibly supportive and generous they have been over the years with their advice and time. Their knowledge and experience is worth its weight in gold.

I can't recommend enough that anyone that owns a horse pay the small course fee and learn how The Equicentral System really works and why. And you still might not really get it until you implement it as it is intended (I know I didn't!), but then - wow, suddenly you see how everything falls into place and is interconnected, how easy it is, how it makes your life and your horse's lives better, how the horses get healthier when you thought they were healthy to start with! You can't put a price on that!

Well, turns out you can, and its ridiculously cheap.

Seriously, you can't learn this from random groups and forums. Its a system, and you'll get the best results (that you don't even know you need!) if you bother to learn how it all fits together. You won't ever look back.

In recent years my opinion on horse impact has softened significantly as I have come to realise that there are logical, simple and practical ways to avoid land degradation when running these hard-hooved heavyweights.  I now also realise that the blame for serious degradation of a horse property, lies with the landowner and not the horse. Key to that change in my mindset was meeting Jane and Stuart Myers and coming to understand the concepts that lie behind their Equicentral System.

At least once year for almost a decade, I have engaged Jane and Stuart to present their horse property management course to the owners of small rural properties. Each course typically attracts the owners of around 30 properties where horse keeping is the primary interest. 

The feedback after each course is always extremely positive with many accounts of significant ‘light bulb moments’ and a high percentage of people feeling inspired to modify their land and horse management strategies.  

This inspiration then translates into changed management practices providing real improvements for our natural environment; better soils, more productive pastures, cleaner waterways, improved biodiversity and healthier horses. 

In Nillumbik Shire Council, the municipality in which I have worked for over 15 years, I estimate that these courses alone would have helped to improve more than 3,000 hectares of land; that over 500 horses have better living conditions and around 300 people are having an easier time of managing their property and their horses.  

I believe that simplicity is the key to the success of the strategies that Jane and Stuart have developed and also the fact that horse health is a key component of their philosophy.  Course attendees quickly understand that Equiculture’s message is as much about horse health as it is land health and that both go hand in hand.  Furthermore their information is extremely well researched and presented in a very user friendly manner.

Jane and Stuart are keen purveyors of new information; travelling the world to investigate ideas and methods.  Over the years the information in their courses and resource documents has evolved to include new ideas and strategies that are logical and relevant to the overall aim of improving the health of horses and the resources that they need. 

In recent years the owners of horse-keeping properties in the peri-urban area to the north of Melbourne have greatly improved their collective knowledge and sharing of ideas and strategies that relate to management of horse properties.  In Nillumbik alone we have the Nillumbik Horse Action Group (NHAG) and also the Yarra Valley Equestrian Landcare Group.  These groups have come together over roughly the same period as when Jane and Stuart and their Equiculture business became active in the area.  I believe that this is no coincidence and that Equiculture has been a major player in driving change and inspiring horse owners to seek more information and support and thus join with like-minded people to create new horse-focused associations. 

Although I still see many rural horse properties in Nillumbik that are being severely degraded by poor land management, I no longer blame the horse.  It is clearly the owner of the horse and land that holds the key to whether they wish to degrade or improve their property. 

Jane and Stuart often talk about a desired change in mindset where horse owners see themselves primarily as grass farmers rather than horse managers.  Once this thinking is in place, then on-ground improvements via implementation of simple but effective strategies won’t be far behind and the winners will be the land, the owners, the horses, the environment and the whole community.

Jane and Stuart hugely underplay it when they talk about trying to have horse owners become grass farmers.

It's WAY more than that. It's essentially founded on enabling high welfare for horses in a way that is sustainable for the land. Worldwide.

They've invested a huge amount in their own education, and in developing materials and approaches that are viable on every continent with every kind of pasture and weather condition imaginable.

They've traveled the world to bring superbly well presented and easy to understand material to eager audiences and calmly faced opposition at times from people entrenched in old beliefs about how horses should be kept.

If you own or loan a horse this information is priceless even if right now you don't feel you have much influence over how your field or yard or barn is managed. One day you might. One day you might realise that it's feasible to keep your horse on your own land and manage it ethically and sustainably.

From the moment I met them I found Jane and Stuart to be generous with their time and their ideas.

The on-line resources are being added to all the time because they've built collaborative supportive relationships with all kinds of people who want to give something back.

There is a difference - a huge difference - between the price we pay for something and the value it represents.

For me the price of being part of the Equiculture Movement is peanuts in comparison with the other sizeable expenses we all have if we own horses and are taking care of our horses properly.

And the value to be gained from it is immense in terms of horse welfare, and the health of the land on which they live.

Good on ya Jane and Stuart. Behind you all the way.

...Discovering the Equicentral System is as life discovering as the holy grail! I love the way it replicates natural horse behaviour and is flexible to be implemented in almost every setting. I’ve taken great delight in drawing up plans for implementing it this in my winter field and have had a more extensive plans as to how I could extend it over time to include a neighbouring field which just might come my way.

I moved our horses away from the livery yard we’d been at for years last autumn as my daughter went off to university and I knew I couldn’t manage both our horses on the strict regime of turn out they have which always resulted in our horses getting stressed and difficult to manage on my own.

By moving them I allowed them to choose where they wanted to be, in the field, our yard or in the open stables. Within a short space of time I had relaxed, happy horses! An additional advantage was the change of setting enabled me to transition from shod to barefoot, something I’d wanted to do but it wasn’t possible at the livery because of the traffic from field to stable over stony ground, but at my little set up my ex racer could manage in the early days to come in from field to yard. All this was great but I was still looking at the field as it turned into a quagmire as the rain kept falling and thought there must be more I can do to make this better.

The field has been harrowed, rolled and I’ve reseeded it with two different seed mixes, one to increase biodiversity and one which is supposed to withstand greater wear and reduce poaching. I think that with the support and guidance from the Equicentrics my efforts to improve my land and the lives of my horses this is just the start of a rewarding journey. 😊

So pleased I found Equicentral!

As a pony mad child I always dreamed of having an Arab Appaloosa. Fast forward and I gave myself one for my 37th birthday.

I have saved an incredible amount of time and money by being able to minimise my work (even simple things like placement of water / hay nets / hay storage and compost bins...) a friend who has been on her property 20 yrs recently mentioned they have just put in their 70th gate (10 acre lifestyle block fenced for sheep - this gate tally includes two yard areas) even at cost of materials - say $NZ250 (going rate here for labour only for a single 6 foot gate is also $NZ250) that is a fair investment. We recently put in a single gate ourselves using a spade and it took a whole day ... So if I think about just gates - and of how many gates I’ve avoided putting in by following the Equicentral approach - the book series I purchased and the seminar I attended have proven their value to my over and over again. Even the type of gate! And the vet bills I’ve avoided :)

I’ve also saved myself hours of maintenance time with placement of hay / water , compost etc. 3 years into Equicentral and learning more every day :)