THE EQUICENTRAL SYSTEM: The alternative horse, land, grazing management system - for the health and wellbeing of horses, people and the wider environment

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This page explains a little about how The Equicentral System works to create the best possible equine lifestyle

There are various ways you can learn more about The Equicentral System - you can read this page (keep scrolling down), listen to our podcasts, or watch videos by signing up for the free mini-course

We also have a popular blog post called: Equicentral/Track System compared for horse & land management

The Equicentral System will:

Reduce your 'bought in' feed costs (by maximising the feed the land produces).
Reduce those time-consuming routines that leave you little time to enjoy your horse/s (eliminating outdated, unnecessary, unethical practices).
Improve your horse's 'lifestyle' (by creating the most natural way of living a domestic horse can have).
Improve the condition of the land (by eliminating mud/dust/weeds etc.).
Turn you into a good land custodian (by teaching you how good horse management and land management go in hand.

The land your horse lives on does not have to look like this:

''I have a horse with dreadful allergies to bug bites. Your system has changed his life. On humid buggy days, he can freely take himself into the barn. He is a different horse this summer because he has a choice.''

Jane Everitt-Walker

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Fortunately, there is an alternative to traditional horse management systems.

You need to learn about a more progressive way of keeping horses.

Why should we change from the way we have traditionally kept horses?

The way that many people currently keep their horses, and manage their land, is not SUSTAINABLE.
This means owners often spend money on the wrong things and create an unnecessary workload for themselves.
Not to mention creating land management issues such as mud/dust, weeds, soil loss, soil compaction etc. etc.
These issues tend to get progressively worse each year.
They are also missing out on the benefits of better environmental management.
Traditional horsekeeping was developed for humans, not horses, and can be detrimental to their mental health and wellbeing.
It is time to look at a better way to harness nature's power.

More reasons why we need to change how we keep and manage horses and land... Read more...

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So what is the alternative?

The Equicentral System works by utilising horses' natural and domesticated behaviour to benefit them, the land and their owners.

We (Jane and Stuart Myers - Equiculture) are the founders of The Equicentral System. We have studied horse grazing behaviour extensively, including the research that I (Jane) carried out as part of my Masters in Equine Science (MSc Equine) at Edinburgh University (The Royal Dick Veterinary School). We have owned and managed large numbers of horses during our long careers in the UK and Australia.

The Equicentral System combines good (progressive) land management practices with equine welfare and natural behaviours. It includes and incorporates the concepts of Permaculture, Regenerative Agriculture and 'rewilding' etc. into horsekeeping. This creates healthy pastures and healthy horses. If it sounds complicated, don't worry it isn't. Once established, it becomes easier to manage your horses and the land they live on because you work with natural systems rather than against them.

By understanding horse behaviour, particularly their grazing behaviour, horse/land management becomes more straightforward. Once you know the relationship between horse welfare and their health, pasture and soil health, and how to balance these, you will be amazed at the benefits. It is not always a quick fix, but things usually start to turn around quite quickly. Each year, as the land becomes healthier, so do your horses. The Equicentral System becomes easier to implement as time goes on.

The Equicentral System works on a continuous cycle of improvement, whereas most other horse management systems are, at best just maintenance. But more often, they are not even that. Think about how most horse properties have increasingly degraded land (more mud/dust and weeds, more feed expenses etc.). Once you become aware of the possibilities and become an 'Equicentric' you will never look at the land that horses live on in the same way again.

If you cannot implement everything we suggest immediately, don't worry, even a 10% yearly improvement is a positive step. If you can repeat this improvement every year, imagine where you will be in a few years!

Below are two very different articles for you to read:

Here are just some of the benefits of using an Equicentral System to manage your horses and your land:

The Equicentral System benefits... read more...

This is a very much condensed version of the full benefits:

Horse health/behaviour/welfare benefits:

Horses (like all animals) need to be able to express normal behaviours otherwise they become stressed. When living on an Equicentral System the horses carry out natural behaviours such as socialising naturally, moving around the ‘home range’ at will, traveling to water, shade and shelter.

This results in much calmer horses due to less or no stress.

The horses have choice; they can choose as a herd whether to graze, walk to the ‘water hole’, snooze in the shade etc. Instead of us deciding when a grazing bout will start/finish, the horses can decide for themselves. These are all behaviours that naturally-living horses take for granted, but domestic horses are usually ‘micro managed’ in such a way that a human decides where they will be at any point in the day. This might not seem like a big deal but it really is.

The Equicentral System facilitates much more movement. Healthy biodiverse pasture encourages movement because horses have to move around the pasture to graze. The horses also travel between the grazing areas and the loafing area for water, shade and shelter.

More movement also means better hoof quality as the hooves rely on movement to function properly.

As rotational grazing increases the diversity of plants in a pasture, the horses benefit from access to a larger variety of plants. This means that the horses eat a more natural, varied diet. In addition, healthier plants are safer to graze than stressed, overgrazed plants (more fibre and less sugar per mouthful).

The Equicentral System maximises time spent grazing aims to avoid food restriction.

The stress of not being able to get to food at will, along with all of its associated problems, is removed.

Horses are not being forced to stand in mud, especially around gateways when weather conditions are wet.

Eliminating mud also means eliminating dust because they derive from the same thing (bare soil) at either end of a spectrum.

Time saving benefits:

You do not have to lead horses in and out to the pasture. You do not have to spend time carting feed around the property The horses move themselves around the property, taking themselves out to the paddock that they are currently grazing, and bringing themselves back for water and feed.

The single water trough in the loafing yard is all that you need to check each morning and night, saving you having to go out to a paddock and check the water.

It is far quicker to pick up manure from the surfaced holding yard than from pasture if you collect your manure.

Any time you save can be spent on other horse pursuits such as exercising them!

Cost saving benefits:

Money spent on the loafing yard is money well spent, as this area is used every day of the year for at least twelve hours a day.

Money spent on vet bills for treating skin and hoof conditions (caused by mud) is reduced or totally eliminated.

The expense of installing and/or maintaining a water trough in each paddock is spared.

The expense of installing individual shade/shelters in each paddock is spared. Instead, one large shade/shelter is erected in the loafing yard.

This large shade/shelter will be in use every day of the year, unlike shade/shelters that are situated in paddocks and are only in use when the paddock is in use.

Annual maintenance including time and expense, of numerous shelters (especially if they are made of wood) is avoided adding to the cost effectiveness of The Equicentral System.

Laneways (and their associated costs) can be kept to a minimum. In areas that do require laneways, any money spent on surfacing them is well utilised as the laneways will be used by the horses several times a day.

Better land management means more pasture to use for grazing (and safer healthier pasture) and more opportunities for conserving pasture (as ‘standing hay’ for example) or making hay. This all leads to much less money being spent on bought-in feed.

You do not need to buy and maintain a vehicle for ‘feeding out’. The horses come to where the feed is stored rather than you having to trail around the paddocks ‘feeding out’.

Setting up The Equicentral System will increase the value of your land through good land management.

Safety benefits:

Horses move themselves around the property, therefore there is less unnecessary contact between humans and horses. This is an important point if you have (usually less experienced) family or friends taking care of your horses when you are away. The Equicentral System allows them to see to your horses without them having to catch and lead them around the property.

The Equicentral System reduces or eliminates the incidence of horses and people being together in a paddock gateway.

Public perception benefits:

The Equicentral System helps to create a positive image of horsekeeping.

The Equicentral System is most likely to be regarded as a good way to manage land by landowners, the general public and the local authorities. There is a general expectation that land should be well-managed e.g. less mud/dust and fewer weeds rather than more mud/dust and weeds.

Manure and parasitic worm management benefits:

The manure, along with the horses, comes to you. More manure is dropped in the surfaced holding yard and much less in the paddocks (as much as 75% less if you fasten the horses in the surfaced holding yard/s at night with hay). This allows for much better manure management.

If you usually collect manure that is dropped on the pasture then it is physically easier to pick up manure from the surfaced holding yard/s.

This collected manure can then be composted (which also reduces parasites on your property, as thorough composting can kill parasitic worm eggs and larvae).

Composted manure is much better ‘product’ than ‘fresh’ manure.

Less manure on the pasture is less opportunity for parasitic worm larvae to attach to pasture plants.

Better manure management also means less reliance on worming chemicals.

Rotational grazing also aids in parasitic worm management by increasing the time that a given area of pasture is resting, which means that some of the parasitic worm larvae (on the pasture) dry out and die as they wait - in vain! - for a horse to eat the plant that they are attached to.

Land/environmental management benefits:

Read the excellent article below by Gemma Holmes.

Read this brilliant article by Gemma Holmes - A qualified ecologist and keen horse owner, & learn about how The Equicentral System works to increase biodiversity...

I am a horse owner of 10 years. My first horse, Mac came to me whilst studying Ecology at University. Mac came home with me and I had no student loan left to speak of. This was my head first dive into the complicated, sometimes painful, sometimes rewarding, often frustrating world of horsemanship and horse management.

Mac had every problem under the sun. He had been managed terribly and had lived on short, overgrazed grass most of his life. I bought Mac home to a yard in the Essex lowlands. Our yard was on clay and a steep slope. We lost around 30% of our grass yield to mud, and in the summer months these muddy patches turned to ruts and dust. It was a painful mud-sharp ruts-mud cycle.

This unsustainable unrestricted grazing also created an ecologically devoid habitat consisting of plants adapted to high-stress environments. Such plants, including common rye grass, white clover and creeping buttercup are generally unsuitable for horse consumption.

This near-monoculture (or green carpet), along with mud/dust is seen time and time again when driving past horse properties. They appear sorry and lacking in life.

A qualified ecologist and keen horse owner; I have been reviewing my horse management practices in recent years. In the simplest sense, traditional horse-keeping practices drive wildlife off the land. A food chain; that is the sequence of the transfer of energy from one organism to another in an ecological community must begin with a producer, usually a green plant that creates its own food through photosynthesis. A simple food chain might then look like this: Plants - invertebrates - amphibians - birds of prey. However, if stocking densities are too high or pasture is not rested or there is a lack of structure (i.e. only short green grass), there is little for invertebrates to feed on or pollinate and the food chain falls apart.

Why is this important?

You may ask why your small horse property matters because it is a tiny dot on the landscape. It is important because a huge amount of our land (particularly lowland Britain) is grazed by horses. This lack of empathy for the environment is causing ecological loss and soil erosion on a national scale.

So how can we manage horse properties sustainably?

The Equicentral System encourages splitting your land into paddocks that are rotated, and the grass rested until it reaches a certain length. Longer grass has more structure and supports a larger number of invertebrates, in turn increasing pollination efforts on your land and improving your wildflower, grass, and herb yield. Surfaced holding yards are used to hold horses when grass becomes too short; reducing or even eliminating mud. Water, hay, and hard feed are also located in the yard to reduce stress on your land. Utilising this system can eliminate your mud/dust/mud cycle for good and begin to restore your soil biome, resulting in an improved grass yield! It’s a no-brainer.

A larger diversity of insects also encourages foraging bats (not the blood-sucking kind!).

As well as being a great indicator of a healthy ecosystem, bats (we have 17 species breeding in the UK) consume large numbers of undesirable insects including mosquitos, which can cause great stress for horses in summer - particularly at dusk. As well as improving your pasture, you can also install bat boxes on boundary trees and retain/plant boundary vegetation to create commuting corridors and make your land irresistible to bats. Bats are your ultimate pest control; look after them!

Picture: My own setup, a work in progress.

As well as being a passionate horse owner dedicated to sustainable, ethical horse management, I am a consultant ecologist with nine years of experience supporting clients in securing planning permission. Embedded in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) paragraph 109 is a requirement for all development to conserve and enhance biodiversity.

If you require planning consent for a hard standing yard area as part of an Equicentral setup, consider using a consultant ecologist to support your case as our in-depth knowledge of protected and priority species (combined, in my case with a passion for sustainable horse property management) could give your planning officer the confidence to grant consent.

Please do spread the word about this revolutionary way of managing horse properties. The benefits for humans, equines, and ecology are indisputable.

Read this article by April Chalklin-Costa, Puckshott Farm, UK & learn about how The Equicentral System works in a livery / boarding / agistment situation…

If there is one thing there is plenty of in the horse world; it‘s advice. And when I announced my intention of converting my medium-sized livery yard to 100% barefoot, people queued up to tell me how stupid I was.

There wouldn’t be any demand, the business would fail, I would only get weirdos who were into crystal ear massage and yoghurt enemas. It wasn’t easy, but the new style barefoot yard did indeed flourish and grow, and the yoghurt brigade, i.e. those who didn’t share my empirical rather than ideological approach, didn’t last long. We started to gain something of a reputation.

But it wasn’t enough, I wanted to push the boundaries harder, I became more and more obsessed with the mental health of horses, while all around were invariably focussed on their bodies.

In the human world we seem to have made the connection between physical and mental health, at least to some degree, but in the equine world there is a gaping, yawning, mile-wide chasm.

Some research and discussion on the internet led me to mull over and explore ‘The Equicentral System‘ in concept. However, it was as I was slogging along to hay out on a wet wintery day, hoping I wouldn’t get stuck in the mud again, that I realised our hardcore surfaced farm trackway that leads from the stable yard to the school to the fields would make a foundation for an Equicentral System with very little effort. I would just have to tidy up, and install water and slow feeders for the hay. It was right in front of me, almost ready to go. These surfaced areas would lead out to the grazing areas and I would have effectively created a 'Home Range‘ for my herd in line with the philosophy of The Equicentral System.

Clients were intrigued but open to the changes, the horses adapted to being one big mixed herd with a home base (loafing area) very quickly and we saw a ‘real shift‘ in ‘horse behaviour. The nighttime foraging, and daytime loafing and socialising brought a unity and peaceful atmosphere which everyone still remarks upon.

The horses are out day and night together, and even with the comings and goings that are normal on any livery yard, the herd have a stable but complex social life that adapts well to change, protects the vulnerable, and allows the boisterous horses space to play.

The hardcore surfaced areas entice them in for shelter, a companionable share of a hay net, a sleep in the sand school, or a mutual grooming session; it’s shady and cool in the summer and ‘mud-free‘ in the winter.

And it serves us well as built-in hoof conditioning, stimulation and wear both for the feet of retired or young unbacked horses and the ridden ones if the winter is unkind for hacking out, or if the owner needs to take a break.

The baseline of fitness is far higher than it was before The Equicentral System was implemented. Clients love the fact that their horses bring themselves in to the surfaced areas during the day, no more trudging across fields, the horses catch themselves.

And I, a small slightly creaky woman in her 50’s, can hay out and clean up, after a herd that normally consists of 11-15 horses, in two hours tops.

We all have more time with our horses. Field maintenance is easier, harrowing in manure and mulching are time and cost-effective ways of getting the best out of our land and have eliminated our need for fertilisers and sprays.

But best of all, we have time and time again turned horses around that were living miserable, isolated, food-deprived lives. The peri laminitics and IR/EMS horses, previously condemned to tiny solitary paddocks of mud, or long lonely hours in a stable with a tiny soaked haynet, have thrived and blossomed when they have come to us.

The Equicentral System works with the horse, body and mind, and our thriving business with a year-round waiting list is a testament to its performance.

The story about Max on the endorsements page (insulin resistant and borderline ACTH (aka Cushing’s/PPID)) lives on this property.

Read what more people have to say about The Equicentral System...

Mary Brown - UK

'The Equicentral System simply blew my mind when I first came across it. Now that I understand it, and all of its benefits, I wish I had found out about much sooner. It encompasses everything I have always dreamt about for my perfect 'equine lifestyle'. I now have happy, healthy horses and that gives me great pleasure.'

Rena Jones - AUS

'I just love how something that is great for my horse's wellbeing, is also great for the environment, and saves me time and money! Jane and Stuart Myers are just brilliant for sharing this information. I bought the course last year and have not looked back since. The Facebook group that goes with it is just another (brilliant) bonus to becoming an ‘Equicentric’.

Erica Symonds - USA

‘I love how this approach takes the 'natural' behavior of horses and uses that to create a system of management that is as natural as possible for domestic horses. Pure genius. Jane and Stuart know their stuff and are really brilliant at teaching others, true pioneers. I tell everyone who will listen all about them and The Equicentral System.'

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Cleo Collins - UK

The damage/stress we cause to our horses by micro-managing every aspect of their lives! It's not until you give them freedom of choice that you realise how restrictive and contrived their previous existence was. A real eye opener when they suddenly become relaxed/happy and all you've done is allow them to decide what they do and when.

Karen Shaw - USA

Keeping horses in this practical way has done wonders for my horses and my land, it has left me feeling really good about what I am doing. I just love all the fabulous, practical information. I keep telling all of my friends about The Equicentral System hoping that they will take up this management system as well.

Jan Woods - AUS

I was unwittingly 'micromanaging' my horses for many years - and their health and the land they live on was getting worse every year. Then I discovered The Equicentral System and we have not looked back since. Why, oh why, do us humans always think we know better than nature? I just love this system of management.

Would you like to learn more about The Equicentral System in practice? The best way to do this is to sign up for the FREE mini-course below:

By the end of this course, you will know a lot more about horses and pasture and how to manage them sustainably (it takes about 30 minutes to do).

The Equiculture Horse Grazing Characteristics Course

Read even more of what people have to say about us and our work

We teach horse owners how to manage their land

And to do it in a way that is good for: HORSES - by improving their welfare. PEOPLE - by saving them time and money. The ENVIRONMENT - by improving biodiversity and soil, creating habitat for wildlife, etc. A true win-win-win.

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I (Jane) am also a Rider Biomechanics coach - check out the links below to find out how I can help you rapidly improve your riding position and balance

The Horse Rider's Mechanic (HRM)

The Horse Rider's Mechanic ARTICLES & VIDEO blogs

The Horse Rider's Mechanic course

The Horse Rider's Mechanic books

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THE EQUICENTRAL SYSTEM: The alternative horse, land, grazing management system - for the health and wellbeing of horses, people and the wider environment

This page explains a little about how The Equicentral System works to create the best possible equine lifestyle

The Equicentral System will:

Fortunately, there is an alternative to traditional horse management systems.

Why should we change from the way we have traditionally kept horses?

More reasons why we need to change how we keep and manage horses and land... Read more...

So what is the alternative?

Here are just some of the benefits of using an Equicentral System to manage your horses and your land:

The Equicentral System benefits... read more...

Read this brilliant article by Gemma Holmes - A qualified ecologist and keen horse owner, & learn about how The Equicentral System works to increase biodiversity...

So how can we manage horse properties sustainably?

Read this article by April Chalklin-Costa, Puckshott Farm, UK & learn about how The Equicentral System works in a livery / boarding / agistment situation…

Read what more people have to say about The Equicentral System...

Would you like to learn more about The Equicentral System in practice? The best way to do this is to sign up for the FREE mini-course below: