Our Animals

Sarah is a committee member of Animal Therapies Ltd Victoria and upholds a high standard of living for our animals who live and work on the farm, enjoying a natural lifestyle. Some of them contribute to the Barefoot & Boots programs. These ‘Animals in Practice’ contribute to our therapeutic riding program and our animal assisted programs which in the true spirit of animal-assisted therapy are only involved in mutually beneficial practices with plenty of rest time and wellbeing activities.

Equiculture

Sarah trained in Equiculture and The Equicentral System in 2014. Jane and Stuart Myers who are behind this system combine good (progressive) land management practices with equine welfare and their natural behaviours. This creates healthy ‘happy’ pasture and healthy ‘happy’ horses.

Understanding horse behaviour and their grazing behaviour guides our horse and land management. The relationship between horse welfare and their health, pasture health and soil health creates balance. The Equicentral System works on a continuous cycle of improvement, rather than maintenance and erosion management. We have applied similar philosophies to our management of the land for asinines (donkeys) and caprines (goat) and our husbandry, training and welfare practices.

Chickens are free range and provide eggs to the farm shop. They graze in our orchard to provide a natural fertilizer for our fruit. Parasite management for our chickens uses traditional herbs and vinegar so there are no chemical wormers in our chicken poop which is naturally spread around the trees.

Our vegetable produce also thrives on homemade compost which is a central part of a system including horse manure to nourish the soil and grow tasty, natural crops. We engage in the practice of worm counting and use of essential oils for parasite management so there are no chemical wormers in our horse manure. You can buy compost at the Gadara Farm Gate Shop.