Greener Thinking

Going Green to keep our environment safer for our future and our children's futures should be a number 1 priority on everyone's list of things to do every day.

It's amazing when you look at what is around your home and then, when you look in the horse barn. Holy Cow, there are so many things that we have chosen to do out of convenience that have a huge impact on the world. We all need to stop and take the time to really examine things.

This summer, I met a young horsewoman who has her own cleaning business. Her cleaning business is based on "greener" methods of cleaning. She uses vinegar and lemons, no harsh chemicals, sprays, etc. So, we got to thinking about all the products we use in the barn and over the summer, we started to make the change to becoming greener.

The first real significant step we took was to stop buying the harsh chemical fly sprays. We'd buy two mixed spray bottles per week. Or a gallon bottle to refill the original bottles. We always had a bin full of bottles, half of them weren't even recyclable bottles. We changed that and went to mixing our own fly spray from water, vinegar, ivory soap and skin so soft oil from Avon. I had two empty spray bottles that I recycled and have been using all summer and we mix batches of spray in empty gallon juice bottles from our favorite cranberry juices.

#1 We saved ourselves a lot of money.

#2 We stopped poluting the environment and our horses with the chemicals in the sprays.

#3 We stopped buying 2-3 plastic bottles of spray per week.

#4 we used empty juice bottles to keep gallons of our mix on hand.

#5 we reduced our unrecyclable waste.
The change and the response from the fly population was amazing. Our horses stood outside amongst 30 others at the farm. Their tails hardly moved all summer. The other horses couldn't stop swatting. Their owners kept using the chemical sprays that smelled like ant and roach spray. Our horses had shinier coats, smelled very pleasant all the time and when it came to being bathed, they already had a little soap on their coats from the ivory soap and we ended up shortening our bath time, saving water and making less run off into the sewer system. We didn't need to buy any special bath soap for them, they were clean in minutes.

Now, I'm sure there are a few things in what we did use that may not be so green, but, when you look at the overall change that took place, we saved ourselves and the environment a lot. We actually did better for our horses who weren't so bothered by the flies anymore.

Taking a look at what we do every day will totally help our environment. We still have a long way to go, but, we will get there.

Taking a little from my cleaning lady friend, I no longer buy the harsh chemicals to clean my house, just vinegar and lemons. The change in my house is huge. The vinegar kills the germs and the lemons with the acid and great smell do there part too.

If everyone does their part, a lot will change for the better!