I have started reading a book on ponies by Jenifer Morrissey. It is titled The Partnered Pony. One of the first chapters highlighted a job that a particular woman’s ponies had been carrying out since 2010: conservation grazing. In fact, she says:
Beginning in 2010, my ponies have done a very different kind of work. As conservation grazers, their job is to keep down the shrubs and coarse grass to keep the habitat suitable for rare butterflies to breed. I have no idea what my ponies and I might do next, but I’m sure they’ll do well. They’re all-rounders!
Conservation Grazing and Horses
What an interesting concept! This woman and her ponies are based in the United Kingdom and a quick search online allowed me to come across the Grazing Animals Project. The focus is on encouraging grazing from animals that helps to benefit wildlife, landscape and also cultural heritage.
The benefit of conservation grazing is twofold. It meets the welfare needs of livestock whilst also allowing natural processes to occur. It is a process that focuses on less intensive land management techniques. The type of livestock utilised for conservation grazing takes into consideration feeding preferences of stock, their physiology and also animal behaviour. According to the GAP website:
Grazing livestock and associated activities played a key role in the formation and maintenance of many semi-natural habitats including grassland, heathland and pasture-woodland, through slowing or altering the successional trajectory of these habitats towards increased woodland cover. In addition to maintaining or restoring such habitats, grazing is also an essential component of many habitat (re)creation projects for example managed reversion from arable fields to species-rich grassland or the recreation of heathland.
I had never considered the use of horses or ponies by doing what they naturally do. And yet how wonderful to make use of grazing animals to benefit a particular habitat! If you’re curious, you can read about the Focus on Equines section of their site. Training is also provided as shown on their site.
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