24/01/2025
Over the years we have constantly looked for new and different ways to find work for the horses. We often talk about working on inaccessible sites but what does this mean in reality? Sometimes it is a narrow entrance or path, maybe it is really steep but also remote. This recent site was another site to clear scrub and bracken to replicate the traditional methods of management that would have been there before. All to primarily benefit the biodiversity, especially for the Pearl bordered Fritillary butterfly. But this site was a long way from a road, across an undulating and then steep field and then down an even steeper bracken bank into the heart of the site. We were to burn all the brash and so had to get sheets and blocks to the site to lift the fire off the ground. We had to take water for the fire, horses and humans, food for us all too, chainsaws and all the usual work kit. We employed our sledge to get most things to the bracken slope and also on some days we packed our pony up with all the gear dangling like a bucking bronco! Thankfully they are used to carrying a pack. It is not quite so comfy hooked on their harness as it bobbles about a bit but if we balance the weight they can carry a lot. We had to rig up an onsite baler twine and stick marvel to drag the sheets about and the ponies even pulled them back up this steep bank! Which I didn't expect them to do as it was a sheer up! We used the hawthorn we were clearing like a harrow by dragging branches of it through the bracken to the fire. It probably all sounds a bit crazy but we are nothing but determined, inventive and willing. Another task completed with Pony Power!
I work with my cob horses doing horselogging, bracken rolling, harrowing, teaching and demonstrations
