Horse Herb Garden

Horse Herb Gardens… what horse lover wouldn’t want one! If only would could plant a few seeds and grow more horses! Wouldn’t that be cool? But the Horse Herb Garden that I’m talking about here are simply herb gardens that horse owners create for their equine friends.

Most horse owners would agree that adding enrichment in any form for their equine partners is a good thing. The types of enrichment that creative owners come up with vary almost as much as the methods they devise for offering these enrichments. One idea gaining popularity among horsemen and women is water buffets, which I wrote about in an earlier post (here). Another is tracks, which seems to be more popular in Europe than in the USA, although they are slowly catching on here, as well.

In this post, I want to explore another form of enrichment that is related to water buffets but takes less maintenance and work after the initial set up process, and would in fact, make a good supplemental program to use with the water buffets: horse herb gardens (aka planter buffets). I’ll provide instructions for making the planters, but if you’re creative, please feel free to fashion your own design. This is a great way to give your horses an enticing variety of free choice treats while keeping your hard work safe from trampling hooves. Planting a horse-specific garden also requires doing some research to find out what herbs and vegetable plants won’t harm horses and may appeal to them. I’ll help out with a few possibilities, but as with all things that you provide to your beloved equine partners, please do your own research. Please check online sources, as well as your vet and/or equine nutritionist.

Step 1: Source crates.

You can often find pre-built crates on Facebook Marketplace, or (if you’re handy) you can build your own from used pallets. I’m not very handy as you’ll see from the photos, so I bought pre-made crates and just had to make the lids. Choose any size that works for you. One amazingly creative person, Kayla Woods, built hers out of half-barrels, and they may even be a little safer for accident prone equines because there were no squared edges. My horses are (formerly wild) mustangs, and aren’t particularly accident prone, so I don’t mind using the pre-made crates. If you’d like to check out Kayla’s post with photos of her lovely planters, click this link: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16DWjUZZ3R/ (Please note that you may have to join the Enrichment for Horses Facebook Group to view the link. But trust me, not only are Kayla’s wine barrel planters really cool, there are a ton of other ideas for enrichment for your horses. If you love your horse and want to provide enrichment, it’s totally worth the join!)

Step 2: Provide drainage/ keep soil contained

If your crates have open slats, you’ll need some sort of landscape fabric to keep the soil inside. On the other hand, if you’re using a solid crate or other solid container, you’ll need to drill some drainage holes in the bottom and perhaps add a layer of gravel or river stone so water can drain properly. Most vegetables and herbs don’t like to stand in water.

Step 3: Choose a location to set the planters up.

You need to choose your final location before you fill your planters with dirt because filled crates are hideously heavy. Locating them near a water source is a good plan, if possible. It’s going to defeat the simplicity point if you have to lug buckets of water all summer to keep the plants alive.

Step 4: Select the fill.

Garden dirt, potting soil (though that can get pricey in a hurry if you have large planters or if you have several to fill), top soil, or other decent quality dirt will be fine, though if you use a poorer quality soil, add compost and mix thoroughly to improve it. I chose top soil, mixed with organic compost matter, premixed by the local hardware store. I bought a half-scoop, which is a loose measurement, but was more than enough to fill two planters (24x18x24 and 18x18x18) with enough left over to fill a third planter (24x18x24) that we used at home to plant celery when we ran out of room in our garden. You can probably estimate how much you need, but if you have trouble, contact your county extension agent to see if they can help.

Step 5: Fill your crates/barrels/ raised planters with dirt.

You have a couple of options for filling your garden: fill to the very top, or fill a few inches short of the top so that the plants aren’t right up against the top covering/lid. I left about 3 inches of “headspace” between the dirt and the wire of the lid. The advantage to leaving a few inches is that it gives plants space to grow before the horses start nibbling at them. The disadvantage is that shorter plants may not reach the openings easily, preventing your horses from enjoying that particular plant. For example, thyme is a very short plant, inclined to spread out, rather than grow up. If you are going to have multiple planters, try to group the plants by mature height so that you can fill the low-growing plant crates higher, and leave a few extra inches in crates with the high-growing plants.

Step 6: Build a lid or cover for the garden.

This keeps the horses from yanking the plants up by the roots before they’ve had time to settle and become firmly established. My lids are rather ugly, but functional. I used furring strips, braced at the corners with L-brackets, to form the frame for the lid. If possible, you should mitre the corners rather than using square cut corners as they are stronger and more aesthetically pleasing. I stapled chicken wire to the underside of the lid. Chicken wire is nice because it has holes large enough for almost any plant to grow up through comfortably, but small enough to prevent a horse from getting to the base of the plants. The disadvantage to chicken wire is that it has sharp edges, which might hurt your horse, so you must make sure to safely secure those edges. I stapled the ends tightly every inch so they couldn’t slip free.

Step 7: Add hinges and a hasp.

Fasten the lid onto the crate with hinges, making certain to attach them in such a way that nothing is sticking out. As the saying goes: “Horses are constantly trying to un-alive themselves,” so we have to make sure we aren’t helping them and costing ourselves vet bills to boot! After the hinges are attached, add a hasp or another way to secure the lid so that the horses can’t lift the lid and destroy all your hard work. If your horse is the Houdini type, you can also add a lock. I placed the hasp on the back, against the fence, so that my horses couldn’t work it loose.

Step 8: Plant your plants!

If you’re a gardener, this is the fun part! Since I knew I was going to be mixing taller and shorter plants, I made sure to plant the tall stuff toward the back so it wouldn’t hide the shorter stuff. I’ll include a list below of what I planted and a diagram of how it’s arranged. This is just one idea out of many, which you are welcome to use or modify to suit your needs. Be creative, and have fun!

My planter herbs: Celery, rosemary, thyme, mint (spearmint and peppermint), parsley (I chose the smooth-leaf variety), sage, and carrots.

Now comes the fun part!

After your plants are in and you’ve secured the hasp, the only thing left to do is observe your horses to see what their favorites are. My horses seem to prefer celery, rosemary—although they only nibble the tips—and parsley. The thyme isn’t quite up high enough for them to reach yet, and though I keep pulling it up, it sags back down to its normal horizontal habit pretty quickly. The carrot seeds in the smaller planter aren’t up enough, but I bet they will love them based on how crazy both Floki and Lagertha are about carrots.

Caution and Winter Care

I don’t recommend removing the top caging because it prevents the horses from getting a good grip on the plants and there’s a good chance they will take everything that they can, eating the plants down to the roots, or pulling them up roots and all. Horses aren’t known for their restraint in the face of food, kinda like kids that can’t save one treat for half an hour on the promise of receiving a second treat if they wait.

You will almost certainly have to weed. Weed seeds are easily carried on the wind, and some will land in your planter and love the environment. I’ve weeded twice, pulling the weeds out when they were less than an inch tall. If you let the weeds take over, they will be a lot more work, and pulling them may damage the roots of your “good” plants. Of course, you’re welcome to let them go. Some may even be palatable to horses. But in my experience, there are enough of these unwanted plants growing around your pasture that if your horse wants them, he can find them there. I prefer to keep my planters weed-free so my herbs are able to thrive for my horses.

Other containers that would make good planters include tractor tires, tubs, and anything your imagination can turn into a container for holding soil. Graveney Equine: Horse Track System has a neat video on Facebook here with their version of a horse herb garden made in a repurposed water trough. It’s much more creative and well-made than my version, but undoubtedly more expensive as well.

Throughout the spring (after frost), summer, and fall (before frost), you can easily keep your horse herb garden thriving. Just provide water when needed, and if you find that your plants are getting too hot in spite frequent light waterings, you can rig up a shade to help cool them enough to survive. Just remember to make the shade you build safe for your horses.

Your plants probably won’t survive the winter if your temperatures typically get below freezing for more than a night or two, and it’s undoubtedly better not to move them to a warmer spot for the winter because of the weight of the planters and the relatively low price of the plants you are growing. It’s generally less expensive and less work to just put in new plants in the spring each year. In warmer climates your plants may grow all year round.

A final word of caution: Absolutely do not treat with insecticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers of any kind. Whatever your plants absorb, your horses will too. If you need to fertilize your plants, use only composted organic matter.

Here is a list of some of the plants that are generally considered to be safe for horses in small amounts, and some that are fine for grazing, but are treats because they’re not grown in pastures as a rule: Mint, rosemary, lavender, red clover*, fennel, calendula, thyme, oregano, chives, plantain**, mugwort, thistle***, sage, chamomile, parsley.

Footnotes

*Red clover is not good for horses in large quantities, but they love it and it’s okay for most horses when given in the limited supplies in a planter. Consult your vet or equine nutritionist about this and all herbs if your horse is metabolic. Also note that red clover is an aggressive grower and will take over your planter if you aren’t careful, as will the mints, thistle, and sometimes also plantain.

**I’ve never had luck with horses eating plantain, but I’ve heard others say they will eat it when they “need” it. I’m not sure I’d put any in my planters because it grows heavily nearby and my horses can graze on it if they choose.

***Horses really love thistle flowers. It’s fascinating to watch them pick the flowers from the prickly stems very gently with their lips. As with all aggressive growing plants (aka weeds), be careful that it doesn’t seed and take over your pastures.