LONG WEEKEND and holidays are used to be awaited by the Wright Park pony boys here, but without the tourists and with the pandemic still plaguing, they have to find ways to make a living.
The 200 members of the Wright Park Pony boys association came up with producing compost soil and fertilizer as a source of income while tourists are not yet allowed in the city.
Member Scott Madon said they started making the compost fertilizer after the declaration of the enhanced community quarantine in March.
“Sometime in March, there was a person who bought horse manure. We saw the fast sales and we all followed making the compost fertilizer,” he said in the Ilocano dialect.
They have costumers and big buyers who get as much as 100 sacks of compost and fertilizer.
He said they sell a 25-kilo sack of plain compost -- black soil or horse manure -- at PHP150.
The 6-in-1 compost with coco feed, Alnus, black soil, compost, rice hull, and vermicast is sold at PHP200 per 25 kilos.
He said that from serving as guide to those who rent horses, they eventually formed into groups, all doing the same activity, each getting a market to sell the compost and fertilizer.
Madon said that sales are just enough to sustain their needs as well as for their horses.
He said that the horse manure that they used to just give away is now helping them survive amid the pandemic.
Surviving the horses’ needs
Another pony boy for seven years now, “Manong Likoy”, 37, said they have to look after their family and the horses.
He said he is a widower with three children, two in the elementary and one in high school. He is also tending for three horses but one recently died of flu.
“They (horses) are used to having people riding on their backs and they regularly walk, but with the pandemic, they stayed in the stable. The confinement probably made them stressed, got sick and died,” he said in the dialect
Manong Likoy shared that like children, horses too need to be taken care of and provided with proper nutrients.
They use to buy grass at PHP80 per sack and horse feed at PHP900 per sack "that will last for a week”.
With the pandemic, they decreased the meal proportion to make the feeds last longer, making the horses malnourished which he hopes will not last very long.
“When they (pony boys) were earning before the pandemic, they (horses) had sufficient food and were pampered, but not at this time,” he said.
Manong Likoy said that Mayor Benjamin Magalong donated 500 sacks of horse feeds for the association.
“That will last a month, we are very thankful to him,” he said.
At present, the city government is currently conducting consultations with various stakeholders on the proposed resumption of economic activities including the city's tourism resumption and recovery plan. (By Liza Agoot)
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