The Equestrian Blog

Volunteer to spend time with horses ?

The World Games 2010 Foundation has announced it is launching a volunteer recruitment Web Site,  to manage the thousands of volunteers needed for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer can log on to www.feigames2010.org to register and receive more information about volunteer opportunities and benefits. Volunteers are needed before, during, and immediately after the Games. Interested volunteers must also fill out a profile detailing when and how they could serve.

All volunteers will be required to go through an orientation and training program before they can begin to serve with the Foundation.

More than 6,000 volunteers will be needed to fill more than 20,000 shifts/opportunities over the course of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, and you can be part of history. Donate your time and talents to help event organizers, Kentucky Horse Park staff, tourism officials and many others in organizing this historic event. Register as a volunteer today!

BENEFITS : 

Volunteers will receive a variety of benefits for their efforts, including official 2010 Games apparel, volunteer credentials, and general admission tickets.

"We plan to give our volunteers special recognition for their efforts during the Games ," said Cathy Rutter Director of Community and Volunteer Relations. "We will be depending on our volunteers to help make the Games a tremendous success—and it’s going to be hard work and an incredible experience. At the end of the Games, we hope our volunteers will walk away feeling that they had an impact on the Games’ success."

So;

You love horses, you want to work with horses, you want something special to do during your upcoming gap year....... then go for it !!

Horse Poop & Alternative Energy

Any horse owner that maintains their own stable yard is only to well aware of the problems created by horse poop and how to dispose of it and muck heaps can grow to very large sizes, very quickly, if you have two or more horses to look after.

The old DIY disposal system was to give it away to gardeners and rose growers but gardens are being turned into car parking spaces and governments are legislating more and more against the dispersal and DIY use of what could be a valuable natural resource.

Well there may be a little light on the horizon.....

The state of Florida has just awarded Dr. Jose Sifontes, a biofuel researcher, roughly $500,000 to pursue efforts to create a facility that converts horse droppings into fuel for vehicles and generators as well as a peat-like soil additive.

Florida's Marion County alone, generates 400,000 tons of horse poop from its 50,000 horses so there should be no supply shortage. The dung and bedding from stabled horses, which represent about half the 50,000 horses, could cover a football field 200 feet high.

An average 1,000-pound horse produces 9 tons of manure a year, all of it contains valuable fertiliser, which could enrich the soil in your garden or your vegetable patch.

Maybe, just maybe, the UK government in their urging to have farmers diversify into equine livery yards and riding or hacking centres, will consider the local use of waste products and encourage the composting and sale of this resource rather than the bureaucracy that seems to be building around keeping a muck heap?