If you’ve been listening to this podcast, you know I’ve been visiting with people who are the process of transforming the property they own. I want to see what others are doing to restore biodiversity and ecological function. Some of the people I visit have been at this for years. Their experience becomes a valuable resource for all of us. Others are newer to the process. Their questions can sometimes be just as valuable as the information the more experienced landowners provide.

In the previous episode I was visiting with Julia Field in Australia. Julia lives in a dry climate where water conservation is a must. In this episode we are zipping around the planet to a very different climate. I’m visiting with Amanda Martin. Amanda lives in Scotland, not far from Glasgow. Even in normal times Scotland is a wet climate, but the past year Amanda shared with me the rains never seemed to stop. There was barely a day when she wasn’t soaked to the bone taking care of her horses. Her pastures are bogged down with too much water. We’ve had years like that here. You wonder how anyone is going to manage to make hay. Fields that would normally be dry enough to cut in June or July are still wet enough to bog down a tractor in August.

Amanda has owned her property for three years, so she is just in the beginning stages of transforming her very windy, very wet fields into manageable pastures. Our conversation highlights the importance of research and networking.

In training our horses always tell us what they need to work on next. The same thing holds true for land. Amanda has been letting the land tell her what it needs. Amanda has been taking her time, letting her land tell her what needs to be done to create a viable horse farm, a working business, a beautiful landscape, and a wildlife sanctuary. Good management lets you have all of this and more. With good care of the land, horse people can make a difference. Together we are learning how.