Archives-Advocacy & public lands

Last month more than 35 people spoke at the Open Space Board of Trustees (OSBT) meeting, with 29 speakers in favor of trail access to horses at the Joder Arabian Ranch along with parking (this was a huge response). Even more incredible was that the OSBT and City Council received more than 350 e-mails on this topic. Thank you to all those who have taken the time to respond on this. Your response was completely unprecedented, and it shows the amazing level of support for equestrian access and the horse community’s personal involvement with the future development of the Joder Arabian Ranch. The future of the Joder Arabian Ranch is still in the planning stages and the discussion is still going on. The OSBT has scheduled another meeting this Wednesday, January 14th.   It is important to let OSBT and the Open Space Board of Trustees know how you feel about the Joder Arabian Ranch and trail access and parking for horse recreational use. Remember if you don’t say anything, they won’t know how you feel about the future of this special property. Please try to attend the next meeting of the Open Space Board of Trustees: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at 6 PM Boulder City Council Chambers (Municipal Building), Broadway & Canyon Speak under the: Public Participation Items Not on the Agenda If you can’t make it to the meeting, click here to send a personal e-mail to the Boulder City Council and Open Space Board of Trustees. Please write a short paragraph about your interest in the […]

by Suzanne Webel The City of Boulder has just completed its West Trail Study Area process, having convened a new group of stakeholders to determine the fate of existing trails, future trails, and off-trail use of this very large area. Popular trails in the block include the Mesa Trail, South Boulder Creek Trail, Shanahan Ridge, Bear Canyon, Flagstaff, Chautauqua, Mt Sanitas, Wonderland Lake, and Foothills… all the Mountain Parks Trails as well as the foothills trails. Unfortunately for horse people, we gave up a lot of our equestrian habitat in the spirit of cooperation and got very little in exchange. You can learn more about this project, and which trails are open to horses. It is estimated that the West TSA process entailed over 20 hours a month per person for more than a year. If every volunteer on the committee put in the same amount of time, that came to almost 3,500 hours of citizens’ time spent on determining the fate of trails west of Broadway. If staff and the alternate(s)’ time is counted, you can more than double that time, to, say, 7,000 hours. Give it a time-value-of-money of $25 an hour, throw in the consultant’s fees, and we got a project “worth” around a quarter of a million bucks. Was it worth it? Nope.  We did achieve two extraordinary things:  after a full year of negotiations and discussions, the entire Community Collaborative Group and the Open Space Board of Trustees reached consensus on the horse recommendations.  However, in its infinite wisdom and very

From The Horse Channel: Edited Press Release Historic flooding across Colorado has destroyed thousands of homes and farms. Thousands of horses have been displaced or are stranded across 4,500 square-miles of flood-ravaged terrain. This area is densely populated with horses, including many large breeding and training facilities all along the Front Range. Hay and feed are being airlifted to hundreds of stranded farm owners and delivered to hundreds more in dire need of feed for their horses. Recovery from a disaster of this magnitude will be arduous and ongoing, but not impossible. When the flooding stops, the recovery is only beginning. The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) is calling on the equestrian community to aid fellow horse owners by donating to the USEF Equine Disaster Relief Fund. With the support of USEF CEO John Long, the USEF asks that equestrians, equestrian fans, and all people who share a love for horses make a donation to the USEF Equine Disaster Relief Fund. These recent storms have struck the heart of Colorado’s horse country and have made the cost of relocating, feeding, and caring for horses overwhelming. With the support of the community, the fund will help make sure horses are not overlooked, forgotten, or abandoned, and help to relieve the burden of affected horse owners and caretakers in this, and in future, times of crisis. This fund was established with the goal of delivering aid in the most effective manner possible. “It is important to understand this fund is a dollar in and a dollar out,” says

By Pat Jarvis “Last year over 170,000 horses were abandoned in the U.S. and this year it seems more and more horses have met that same fate. Even our wild horses and burros are being rounded up by the BLM only to be held in holding pens or sent to slaughter.” – Annie Oden, President, Horse Protection League The more I learn about the Colorado Unwanted Horse Alliance (CUHA) and one of the rescue organizations, the Horse Protection League (HPL), the more I admire, and am in awe of the people who have dedicated their lives to helping the “unwanted horse”. CUHA’s statement is “Horses are a cherished symbol of our Western heritage and an important part of our culture and economy. Today, Colorado’s horses are facing a new threat due to the tightening economy, over breeding, loss of farmland to development, and increased costs of feed and care. The American Horse Council defines unwanted horses as those whose current owners no longer want them because they are old, injured, sick, or unmanageable, or fail to meet the owners’ expectations. The CUHA added a further component: an owner’s inability or unwillingness to continue to own and care for a horse.” The CUHA is a not-for-profit corporation which works to reduce the number of Colorado’s unwanted horses and to promote public and private collaboration and education concerning their welfare, ownership, and disposition. Some of the CUHA’s programs are Equidopt, Grants, Research and Tax Write Off. You can learn more about these programs at counwantedhorse.org. Through the CUHA

Introduction The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has instituted its Animal Disease Traceability Program (ADTP) to improve its ability to trace livestock, including horses, in the event of a disease outbreak.  The new system applies to all livestock moving interstate. Under the new federal regulations, horses moving interstate must be identified and accompanied by an Interstate Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (ICVI).  The new system is built on methods of identification and movement documentation that are already employed in the horse industry, e.g., written descriptions, digital photographs, brands, tattoos, electronic identification methods, and interstate certificates of veterinary inspection. The person or entity responsible for moving the horse interstate must ensure that it has an ICVI or other document required by the new rule. The ADTP will be administered by the states with federal support. The new rules also apply to movements to and from a Tribal area.  In those cases, the Tribal authorities are involved in the system. Background The horse industry has been dramatically affected by serious disease outbreaks in the last ten years, which have halted or restricted the movement of horses and the commerce surrounding the horses.  The new program is intended to help the Department, state authorities and the horse industry better deal with such disease outbreaks and to minimize disease effects on horses and economic effects on owners and the industry. This new rule is based on the previous National Animal Identification System (NAIS), which was the original voluntary system proposed by USDA to deal with disease outbreaks and traceability.  Since the

Did you know that there are more horses than cows in Boulder County? In fact, there are approximately 15,000 cows (H. Lovins / Nat Cap Solutions 2011), and approximately 15,330 horses (Deloitte Touche/American Horse Council, 2005; and National Agriculture Statistics Service, 1999). Boulder County ranks fourth in the total number of horses in Colorado, with 6% of the state’s horse population (NASS, 1999). The horse community contributes approximately $94 million to the GDP of Boulder County every year (Deloitte Touche/AHC and NASS). This annual economic contribution includes hay and grain purchases, tack and supplies, trucks and trailers, tractors and equipment, veterinarians, farriers, horse trainers, lessons, breeding, horse sales, horse shows and clinics, therapeutic riding programs, and many other categories. The market value of all farm products in Boulder County is $34 million (Cropland Policy, p8). The market value of horse hay in Boulder County is $8 million (Lovins’ estimate of 21,319 acres in forage x ave. yield of 3T/ac /2 (half to horses, half to cattle) x $8/bale average price.Thus the market value of horse hay alone is 25% of the market value of all farm produce. A large proportion of Boulder County farmers produce hay and other forage for horses, in addition to other crops. Selling horse hay is a huge source of economic security for local farmers. Horse people maintain undeveloped (“open”) land throughout Boulder County as grazing land and for hay production. Many horse owners manage their horses on 40 acres or smaller parcels, whereas it is difficult to manage cattle on small