Can Agria help horse owners to go greener? I put its carbon tool to the test

In a previous post, I mentioned that Agria was inviting horse owners to try its Carbon Calculator. In the spirit of my sustainability challenge for the year, I decided to test it myself to understand the environmental impact Willow and I are having.

The calculator was quick and easy to use, and it generated a result of 2,354 kg of CO₂e for our combined footprint. What the follow up email didn’t provide, however, was any context - no indication of whether that number is high, low, or somewhere in the middle.

For that I'd have to go back to the carbon calculator page and check out the 'Hoofometer', which places my carbon usage somewhere between that of a Shetland and a thoroughbred that travels up to 100 miles to events (which I don't) and does five vet visits per year (I don't do that many at present and also my vet has up till now travelled to my yard). Instead, it immediately offered me the option to offset our footprint for £21.

The email does explain that this contribution would support environmental projects ranging from preserving mature trees in Uruguay to providing clean water filters for vulnerable communities in Cambodia and Mozambique.

Agria also encouraged me to take further steps to reduce Willow’s “hoofprint” by visiting its top tips page. Unfortunately, the link didn’t work (see screenshot below).

For a company that positions itself as the UK’s first carbon‑positive pet insurer and says it’s passionate about “everything we can do to care for the world we share with animals,” this kind of broken signposting undermines the mission.

I genuinely applaud the intention behind the calculator - but if Agria wants horse owners to take meaningful action, the tools and information need to work seamlessly. For now, the result has left me with more questions than answers and makes me wonder how accurate it is.