October Calendar...Conservation Grazing Without Stallions

October's calendar photo of Maisie, Star and Misty is quite well timed as it gives me the chance to talk about our conservation ponies and the fact that we don't produce unwanted foals each year...in fact we don't produce any foals at all!  We don't run stallions with our conservation ponies - we've either had groups of mares; or geldings and mares together.

The ponies are brilliant conservation grazers because they produce just the right environment for the wild flower species to flourish.  We're very lucky to have special sites for the ponies to graze on and each site either has an owner or warden that checks on the ponies each day.  We do a "round-up" once a year so the ponies can have a check up and have their feet trimmed if necessary.  All of our ponies are handled before they go out grazing.  They are not completely wild but they are also not tame enough to mug people for their lunches!!

When Paul and Cilla took on the original herd of 53 there were 7 stallions/colts in the group and the priority was to stop the breeding.  They separated the stallions/colts from the girls and foals and both groups then lived in separate fields.  This worked well, with the boys having plenty of room to graze in.  Cilla noted "This separation was accomplished in October 2003 and the bachelor boys settled down in their group, usually quietly grazing but occasionally behaving like a lot of jack the lads". Of course, our advantage, compared to those on Dartmoor is that we are the only people involved in our areas and we're not battling with other people sharing the same area who might have other ideas!

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