At La Corona Horse Residence, we focus on the vulnerable areas of the context where our activity takes place: equestrianism, the agricultural environment and the natural world. Our commitment to Corporate Social/Animal/Environmental Responsibility is an integral part of our business. You cannot have one without the other.
Support for equestrian aid associations
At La Corona Horse Residence we offer financial, logistical and publicity support to associations that work to defend, rescue and care for horses in vulnerable situations. We are partners or sponsors of the following organisations:
Adopting horses and ponies in vulnerable situations
At La Corona, we adopt horses who were at risk of an uncertain or fatal future. These are abandoned horses that are not suitable for equestrian disciplines, either because of their advanced age, because they have irreversible injuries or because they have suffered physical or mental abuse. They are part of the family and are perfectly integrated into the rest of the herd.
Equine Ethology
We have started a study on the behaviour of domestic horses living in semi-freedom and as part of a herd, simulating their ancestral lifestyle.
We aim to gather information about the origins and experiences of each horse before their arrival at La Corona Horse Residence, and then document how they adapt to living in freedom.
We have verified that factors such as the horse's riding discipline, the intensity of its sporting activity, the time spent with its biological mother, the number of owners it has had, the affection it has received, its experiences with good treatment or abuse, and the type of accommodation the horse is used to, have an impact, to some extent, on the horse's self-esteem, its ability to integrate into a herd, its position in the herd hierarchy, and even the state of the animal's health.
There is extensive literature on the behaviour of wild horses in herds, but scarce studies on the behaviour of the domestic horse once returned to its original lifestyle in a herd, free, and in a totally natural environment.
We promote insectivorous birds that provide horses with relief from flies and horseflies
In cooperation with the Institut Català d’Ornitoloia (ICO), we act to increase the populations of insectivorous birds at La Corona, after having been drastically reduced due to conventional farming practices (which included the use of agrochemicals) that were previously used in the fields of La Corona Horse Residence.
After years of various actions (which also include the placement of nest boxes throughout the farm), bird populations are growing significantly in the number of individuals and in diversity of species. A relevant fact corroborates our success: in the samples observed outside the limits of La Corona, both the number of individuals in each bird population and the diversity of bird species decreases substantially compared to what we achieve at La Corona.
The information that we obtain is shared with the scientific world. This is why La Corona Horse Residence has been set up as the biological platform of the project SOCC, the Catalan Common Bird Survey (Seguiment d’Ocells Comuns a Catalunya). To transfer the information, the ICO has georeferenced where the nest boxes are placed, while we have ringed the birds and we track their behaviour.
We recover and enhance Mediterranean ecosystems
We have modified the Forest Management Instrument at La Corona. We prioritise protectionist and forest fire prevention objectives over the production-oriented objectives that dominated before. In short, we prioritise the protection and improvement of nature in our sustainable forest management activities.
Using this new forest management tool, we have planned the forest improvement actions we will carry out over the next 20 years. Horses play a leading role in these actions, because the management of the forests on La Corona premises has adapted to them. We have created a magnificent natural wooded pasture for them, to offer them a variety of ecosystems and environments and to provide them with open spaces and forests that offer them shelter when they need it.
We have international PEFC accreditation that guarantees our Sustainable Forest Management
La Corona adheres to international PEFC certification (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification). This certification accredits that both our sustainable forest management and the resulting forest products are enhancing forests and natural areas to maximise the benefits they bring to the planet and society.
We increased the CO2 sink capacity of the forests at La Corona
Our forest management system is not only sustainable, but it also increases the atmospheric carbon sequestration capacity of the forests at La Corona by at least 1,000 kg of CO 2 eq for each hectare (we have 140 hectares of forest and around 30 hectares of farmland!) and so on, every year.
To reaffirm our commitment, La Corona cooperated in the European project LifeForestCO2, producing information to enhance the sink effect of the forests through sustainable forest management activity.
Therefore, we actively participate in mitigating the effects of climate change, reducing the concentrations of CO2 that heat our planet and fixing this carbon in the trees and shrubs of our farm.
We improve the adaptation of natural ecosystems and associated wildlife to climate change
We manage forests so:
In this context,
horses and ponies are the stars of the show
. They coexist perfectly with the wildlife, greatly reducing the risk of forest fires by paring back the undergrowth and “grazing” on shrubs and trees, thereby breaking the continuity of the vegetation between the ground and the trees, fertilising cultivatable and forest land and helping to upkeep the quality of the landscape in this fabulous natural environment.Would you like to participate in our CSR activities?
We offer you a very easy way to do so: you can purchase some of our articles of clothing and sustainable accessories created by Elena Granollés, a textile and fashion designer and a good friend of La Corona.
In addition, two socially oriented organisations, Comunitat Els Avets and Fundació Roure, are involved in creating the products. All the proceeds from these products are used to fund La Corona’s CSR activity. With your purchase, you will:
Would you like to cooperate?