Blue Star Equiculture

‘Horse helping us to heal our environment’.
Blue Star Equiculture is a non-profit, draft horse sanctuary and organic farm. Founded by Pamela Rickenbach and Christine Hansen in January 2009, located in Palmer, MA. Pam and Christine were commercial carriage drivers in Philadelphia, Christine still is to date.

They wondered what happened to the horses they were driving once they retired. What they discovered dismayed them immensely. They matched their passion for working horses with a passion to save the environment, thus Blue Star Equiculture was born.

At Burgundy Brook Farm, home of Blue Star Equiculture, retired carriage horses and homeless horses find sanctuary as well as jobs! Pam and Christine wanted to make it clear that they are not just draught horse enthusiasts. They see working horses as an essential part of sustainable community, and ‘a responsible way to respond to the energy crisis’.

There is a need to grow food locally and organically and heal the soil decimated by industrial farming, which uses large amounts of chemical fertiliser and petroleum fuel. Pam grew up in the Amazon, learning about living sustainably, from the native people there, and is an organic horticulturist by training.

Using horses instead of gas-driven vehicles can reduce our carbon footprint. To understand how essential horses can be in maintaining a sustainable lifestyle, we need to look at what ‘thinking globally’, but acting ‘locally’ actually means at the community level. Working horses have been used in Vermont to lay high speed internet as well as to pick up garbage.

Horses can bring back agriculture to the community and how this can make sense economically and environmentally. While horses may not be cost effective on a large-scale industrial farms, according to Christine, an historian, they can be more efficient and cheaper on farms up to 75 acres.

This means they are great for smaller farms that produce locally and provide jobs for these horses, and people too. What better argument for the working horse to work, side-by-side with us as we strive to heal our environment. Horses have been working alongside us for 6,000 years and an important part of the development of our society.