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Shetland Pony Welfare Trust Grassroots Equine Rewilding Project

The Shetland Pony Welfare Trust Grassroots Equine Rewilding Project started 2022 now in its second year and is proving to be very beneficial .

Rewilding is about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to repair damaged ecosystems and restore degraded landscapes, its about working with nature rather than against it. The Shetland Pony Welfare Trust Grassroots Equine Rewilding project is using ponies as a major component because their natural grazing behaviours promotes a biodiverse environment

The concept of rewilding as a valuable tool for grassland management in the fight against climate change is becoming more important. Governments worldwide are allocating resources to assist landowners/managers in improving their lands health. In turn this helps the environment, increase biodiversity and protects species of flora and fauna some of which are in danger of becoming extinct.

Horses play a crucial role in shaping natural habitats. From grazing through to trampling, wallowing and scenting, their influence benefits a multitude of species. Horses and ponies love coarser grasses and herbs. As a bulk grazer, they will break up tussocky grasslands to form sward mosaics with characteristic, and species-rich, short-sward lawns. This fosters and maintains diverse communities of grasses and wildflowers.

 

Horses and ponies also tackle woody vegetation, debarking some trees and shrubs, although as a non-ruminant they struggle to digest woody material. By wallowing in dry, sandy soil, horses create habitat that numerous warmth-loving, basking and burrow-nesting insects require, including pollinating bees and wasps. Rewilding is bringing things back to an original state of being,” horses are only one of the myriad of species that help enrich our ecosystem through their natural behaviours not only on our doorstep but all over the globe. Rewilding is the key to maintaining and creating biodiversity and we can join this cause by; aiding the repair of damaged landscapes, the reintroduction and restoration of wild species and educating others on the severe loss of wildlife our world has endured through man.By eating unwanted plants and fertilizing the ground with their feces and urine, the large feral herbivores “serve as a part of a functioning ecosystem,” much like their predecessors did thousands of years ago.

the reintroduction of a large grazer with an ecological history in the region can lead to rapid responses in the number of plant species, functional type and form. The particular role of ruderal species and ruderal functional traits has often been surprisingly overlooked in studies of disturbance ecology. It is also useful and interesting to see that insect species, in particular pollinators, are sensitive to these small-scale habitat structural and compositional changes, adjusting their behaviour to benefit from them. they're fulfilling a general large herbivore role. We've domesticated everything or hunted it. The only large herbivore we've got left roaming are deer. So the ponies are mimicking what would have been here before, to try to add a bit of balance back to the environment. 

Land owners  are in a unique position to make a huge difference, and we can show you how you can do this in a way that benefits you,and the environment..

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