Ponies; the ecological missing link.
by Georgia Wingfield-Hayes
Horses and ponies have been a domesticated, faithful companion to humans for so long, that it is easy to forget their important heritage as a part of the European wild megafauna, and perhaps nowhere more so than the UK. The UK is home to 12 distinct breeds of ponies, most of which still roam semi-wild in their respective parts of the country.
From the Highland and Shetland ponies of Scotland, to the Dartmoor and Exmoor ponies in Southwest England, Britain stands out in Europe for its diversity in populations of feral ponies living in their home habitats. Ponies, especially the Konik horses from Poland, are used extensively in rewilding projects across Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, but in Britain we don’t have to look so far to find the breeds best suited to the local landscape.
See the Exmoor ponies at home in the rewilded Knepp landscape.
We feel it is important to explore, not just the heritage and economic value of these beautiful beasts, but also how they are uniquely important to the function of native ecosystems, and therefore the role they can play in rewilding and regenerative agriculture.
Some wild pony populations are in decline, which could be to do with the fact they fall outside of government classifications of ‘domestic’, ‘agricultural’ or ‘wildlife’ populations, inhabiting an ambiguous no-man’s land. According to the researcher Mariecia Fraser, the Dartmoor Hill Pony herd, for example, declined from a high of 12,250 in the 1960s, to just 1,200 today. Helping build populations of feral and domestic native ponies is therefore also important to us at Wilderculture.
Cumbria is home to the native Fell pony which has recently moved from the ‘watch’ list to the ‘critical’ list with the Livestock Conservancy, and classified ‘vulnerable’ by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, there being fewer than 900 breeding mares. There are no truly wild populations of Fell ponies today, the feral herds all being owned, live hefted on the fells, just like the sheep.
The ecological niche that ponies fill is important, especially in the upland fells where the environment has been subject to the monoculture of sheep. Sheep eat their favourite species preferentially, and as each one declines they move onto the next. Over time this results in a serious loss of plant diversity, which has multiple direct and indirect consequences. For example the loss of diversity leads to the loss in variation of plant root depth. The loss of many deep rooting plants contributes to soil compaction, which we see a lot in upland fells. Soil compaction is difficult to resolve without the deep rooted species that would solve it for us. Compact soils don’t hold water well, so in heavy rains, run off is rapid, resulting in soil erosion, floods, and land that is less resistant to drought. And so the knock-on effects go on.
Just as the knock-on effect of monocultures can be extensive and complex, so too, in a positive way, can be the reintroduction of a species which has been long absent from a landscape. One of the joys of rewilding and regenerative agricultural projects are the unexpected outcomes. Wolves reintroduced into YellowStone National Park resulted in the regeneration of riparian ecosystems because wolves changed the behaviour of grazers. When cattle and horses were introduced as wild populations to the Oostvaardersplassen, the resulting carrion in the landscape saw the return of the extinct Sea Eagle.
The large grazing animals native to our lands: cattle, ponies, elk and deer, all evolved together, and fill different niches in the ecosystem. These big animals have the largest impact on the ecosystem because their long digestive systems are capable of digesting hardy plant material; they can create greater disruption because of their size, even uprooting and debarking trees, creating openings in woodland.
Horses and ponies are grazers like cattle, but unlike cattle, sheep, goats and deer which are all ruminants, horses and ponies are not. They are consequently less able to digest the tough cellulose of mature grasses, preferring new young growth or old dried grasses, where the cellulose has already started to break down. Their different digestive systems and diet make their dung a unique contribution to the soil ecosystem, increasing the diversity of foods for dung beetles, fungi, bacteria, etc.
The Borkener Paradies in Germany is the nature reserve that inspired Frans Vera and his idea that wood-pasture, rather than closed canopy woodland, was the naturally predominant ecosystem across Europe before man started altering the landscape with agriculture.
The Borkener Paradies is nestled in the oxbow of a river, and has poor sandy soil which means the management has changed very little in centuries. It comprises a beautiful patchwork of dense woodland with pockets of pasture. A small number of horses and cattle lazily graze the reserve. At the edge of each patch of woodland there is a thick rim of blackthorn; so it is as if the woodland is marching, very slowly, into the pasture. Young oak trees grow up through the blackthorn, protected from the mouths of browsing animals. Meanwhile within the woods, horses will occasionally ring-bark a mature tree, killing it and allowing in light and a new patch of pasture to emerge; also standing dead wood is one of the most important aspects of a diverse ecosystem. This very slow ebb and flow of woodland to pasture and back to woodland again, is evident to see, a dynamic process that quietly goes on over very long periods of time, creating the greatest diversity possible.
Wild horses in the Cantabrian mountains of northern Spain, are proving important to populations of wild bears. Because horses help open up dense woodland they create places for fruiting shrubs to grow, providing important food for the bears. Also horse dung increases the population of beetles, another important bear food.
Frans Vera’s work was a great inspiration for rewilding projects here in the UK, no less Knepp Castle in Sussex, where they have had extraordinary results seeing the return of many threatened species such as Nightingales, Turtle doves and the Purple Emporer butterfly. Alongside Long-horn cattle and Tamworth pig and three wild deer species, Knepp is also home to Exmoor ponies, all adding the dynamism of the ecosystem, preventing it returning to closed-canopy woodland which is far less species diverse.
Moving back closer to home, Gowbarrow Hall Farm, here in the Lake District, is one of Wilderculture’s hybrid projects with aspects of rewilding and regenerative farming. Fell ponies are an integral part of the living system of Gowbarrow Hall Farm, along with cattle and pigs. This broader diversity of large animals, increasing the diversity of the soil-food-web, the place from which all other biodiversity springs.
Learn more about the Cumbrian fell pony.
Horses’ economic value is perhaps the hardest part of this discussion. Horsepower, once an integral part of any farm, where horses and ponies were bred for use and sale, is a thing of a long ago past. Fell ponies however still fetch a good price in the marketplace, but perhaps looking for their direct monetary value is missing the point. If ponies improve the ecosystem dynamics of the land, then they are improving the function of the farming landscape; therefore the animals they live alongside that are grown for food, will be healthier and of greater food value, due to the presence of the ponies.
References:
https://rewildingeurope.com/blog/horses-help-bears/
https://rewildingeurope.com/blog/faia-brava-as-a-showcase-of-rewilding/
https://www.countrysideonline.co.uk/hobbies-and-leisure/pets-and-animals/the-fell-pony43558/
https://www.scotlandbigpicture.com/rewilding-stories/rewilding-gone-wrong
https://knepp.co.uk/the-drivers
https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wildlife/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/
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