Essex Wildlife Trust has taken on 4 Exmoor ponies to help with restoration work of the heathland at Tiptree Heath. The ponies were given to Essex Wildlife Trust by the RSPB in Suffolk, who currently breed Exmoor ponies for grazing the Suffolk Sandlings. The ponies are going to be a real asset for the on-going grazing programme run by the Trust. These hardy native ponies do very well grazing on heathland, as their native homeland of Exmoor is very low quality grazing and they are used to browsing to find food. Luckily for us, the ponies like to eat saplings and bramble, they will even eat Gorse, nibbling it off and turning it around in their mouths to avoid the sharp ends. This will mean that the ponies will help to reduce any new scrub encroachment on Tiptree Heath, especially birch saplings, and help maintain the existing open areas of heather.  The ponies will be used to graze a range of sites belonging to Essex Wildlife Trust to support our grazing regime with our other livestock. 

Essex Wildlife Trust already have a flock of sheep and our own cattle, which are regularly used on reserves to help maintain grassland. Whilst these do a very good job of managing our grassland sites, we have been struggling to find the right animals to graze heathland. At Tiptree Heath we have had Dexter cattle grazing for some time from a grazier and these are doing a great job in some areas of the heath, but are not able to impact on certain types of scrub regrowth. Some of our staff went to visit other conservation organisations that use ponies prior to acquiring this herd to see what they do. On a visit to the Suffolk Sandlings, Andy Needle from the RSPB kindly offered us 4 Exmoor’s, we decided to take these native ponies so that we would also be supporting the UK’s native breeds that are at risk.
 

The four Exmoor’s are all geldings and fairly wild. They have not been handled much and are going to remain as conservation grazing animals. We would like visitors to go to see the ponies, they look very cute as they are getting their fluffy winter coats at the moment. However, we do ask that the ponies are not approached directly as they could bite or kick. We also ask you not to feed them anything, even grass, if a pony begins to associate people with food they can become aggressive towards each other and people. The ponies are quite inquisitive, so please give them a wide berth and we ask you to keep dogs on a lead until you can be sure that they will not react to the ponies when inside the fenced areas.
 

Our native ponies are very hardy and can almost live on fresh air, as many horsey people will tell you. They can become susceptible to laminitis if they continually get too much grass and not enough rough grazing, this is why they are so suitable for grazing heathland which is of low quality. At the moment our little ponies are round balls of fluff with big bellies from the late grass that grew through September, but as we come into winter we expect them to drop weight, so that they are ready for the new spring grass. Please be assured we will be doing regular condition monitoring to maintain a good healthy herd of ponies. We hope you will enjoy seeing the ponies on Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserves.