Your horses can thrive,

your land can thrive,

synergistically.

THE QUADRIGA VISION

To revive and maintain historic “fundamental” knowledge and to weave the threads of these interests together in a synergistic system within which ALL thrive & benefit. 

As a species we have somewhat lost our way, be it in agriculture, nutrition, community and so forth. 

Picking up some of the old, tried ways and integrating them with modern ideas and technologies is not moving backwards, but putting together the best proven practices from each, so that we have the opportunity to live a bright and fulfilling future.

Agriculture does not have to go back to back breaking, pre industrial, methods, we can hand pick the good and work within natures parameters to restore healthy, abundant and flourishing ecosystems.  We must step away from degenerative practices that include mining the soils and poisoning the environment to gain every last drop that can be extracted, and help to draw down carbon to help ameliorate impacts from climate disruption.

UPCOMING EDUCATION

FREE. Fundamental Principles of Small Farm Composting

O1. Fundamental Principles of Healthy Farm Ecosystem Management & Proper Design

O2. Advanced Planning & Design

Restore. Support. Educate.

THE QUADRIGA ORIGIN

Quadriga Fundamentals has evolved through a BLENDING of a passion for classical horsemanship & regenerative or conservation farming.

The name Quadriga pays homage to both my European Heritage and my love for Classical Dressage. The definition of a quadriga is four horses harnessed abreast in front of a chariot like those seen on the Berlin gates, or emerging from the fountains of Versailles. Versailles can be seen as one of the seats of Classical Dressage in Europe, as this endeavor was greatly supported in France at the time by monarchs such as Louis XIV. Antoine de Pluvinel was an early leader in this change by producing horses willing in their work rather than by the previous, forceful and often brutal methods. François Robichon de La Guérinière took this work of Antoine de Pluvinel and further finessed it. Guérinière was a leader of change in France and continued to champion a more humane training method of military horses, and was responsible for the development of the shoulder in exercise. He held the position of Equerry to Louis XIV until his death in 1751.

Quadriga Farm, which has now morphed into Quadriga Fundamentals, as it currently no longer owns a land base, started in Crestomere Alberta on 25 acres. We schooled horses here and hosted clinics in dressage and relational horsemanship and along the way developed a serious interest in managing our pastures to benefit the health of the horses and the land.

We eventually incorporated sheep and chickens and never used any chemicals on the property….or so we thought. With further education, we realized that chemicals not only come via direct applications such as herbicides, they also enter the system indirectly through vehicles such as animals when we use wormers, medications, processed feeds etc. With education and practice, we improved our forages and got a handle on the weeds without chemical inputs, but by using animals in an appropriate manner mimicking what nature would do. Our horses thrived!

The farm was sold in 2022 so that I could free up time and resources to seriously pursue these subjects. Having worked on oil and gas rigs and living in camps for many months of the year, I had also developed weight and health problems which I was able to address with nutritionally dense food grown well in healthy soils and thereby stimulated an interest in food grown and processed not just for animals, but also for us humans.

This then for me is validation that our horses and other livestock also benefit from healthy feed grown in healthy soils as everything is connected.

A healthy horse is going to perform to its higher potential to help us reach out goals!

  • Building drought resilliancy through soil building and health. For every 1% increase of organic matter (Carbon) in your soil, it is estimated that it can hold and extra 20 000 gallons of water per acre. Flooding is not a rain problem, it is a soil problem due to poor soil health and lack of porosity and permeability. Keep your water in the soil instead of diverting rain off the property.

    Save your workshop spot

  • Regenerative agriculture is a paradigm that believes that we are a part of nature and can improve it, by restoring and building healthy ecosystems and soils. You often hear the word sustainable, but think about why you would want to sustain something that is broken. By regenerating your ecosystem, you will see increased resilience to flood and drought, grow healthier and more abundant forages, lower weed pressures & healthier livestock.

    enroll in a course today

  • Many people struggle with high input costs such as veterinary costs, supplements, fertilizers, herbicides and labor. If pasture health is improved, you will not only grow nutritionally more balanced and complete forage to better meet the needs of our livestock, reduce disease and parasites, improve drought resistance, and generally improve the aesthetics and health of your ecosystem

    pasture design and consulting

  • Soils are the foundation of all healthy terrestrial life. Plants are the keystone player in this system of life as they are the harvesters of the suns energy and convert this via complex relationships with the soil and the organisms therein to produce and begin the cycling of nutrients so that life can thrive.

    get your soil analysed today

OUR FUNDAMENTAL OFFERINGS

QUICK ANSWERS

Our offerings are meant to serve you

  • The courses offer and extensive overview of the basic concepts and science to give you the tools to see your land with different eyes and begin to make a new and improved management plan.

  • Workshops are an in person dive into the same subjects as the course, in a group and hands on learning style. Along with informative pasture walks and demos, there will be opportunity to begin the planning of all the participants properties and collective brainstorming to help to cement the concepts.

  • For in person pasture consultations, we will come to your farm and spend time with you to address your concerns along with pointing out possible issues. We will be helping with ideas for you to move forward with to maximize your properties potential. You will be provided with a personalized, comprehensive written report sumerizing the day, along with the main points of discussion for your files and future planning reference.

  • Whether you are undertaking a new build, or are retrofitting and existing property, we can help you to make an efficient plan to suit your properties and your own best needs. We will come to your property discuss, and guide you as we collect information from you to help put together a working base map and future site map that best suites your needs. In the true permaculture spirit we will work with you to maximize your yields and efficiencies to build future resilliancy . .

‘Without life there is no soil,

& without soil there is no life.’