Conservation grazing allows us to manage grassland habitats through the use of livestock, reducing the need for management by machine. As part of the grazing process, rank grass and other vegetation is consumed, which helps prevent grassland areas becoming grass dominated habitats that eventually scrub over with willow, brambles, etc. Movement of livestock through the area transports seeds and opens up pockets of bare earth, which are an important aid to the germination process.

The National Trust in Fermanagh has a group of nine Shetland ponies on the Crom Estate nature reserve of mixed gender and age. They are owned by a local farmer, and to some degree are now present on the estate year round. They are of greatest use during the winter months however, when they graze areas left for summer wildflowers and after that graze areas of parkland that the tractor has been unable to crop.

Movement of livestock through the area transports seeds and opens up pockets of bare earth, which are an important aid to the germination process

It’s said that wild ponies and horses can self-medicate for ailments such as worms through a varied and natural diet. By and large, the ponies look after themselves. The farmer that owns them keeps an eye on them and if issues are noticed, they are responded to – but they are very self-sufficient and resilient grazers.

The ponies will go above and beyond the standard palette of consuming grass and grass alone – they will quite happily chew their way through a range of wildflowers and woody vegetation that other livestock typically wouldn’t entertain.

A variety of pony breeds are used quite extensively by the National Trust for conservation grazing – Exmoor ponies at Murlough in Co Down, for example, and Konik ponies at Wicken Fen in England.

The areas where the ponies are utilised for conservation grazing are typically small, unfenced parcels of land

Many Trust sites also utilise a range of rare cattle and sheep breeds for conservation grazing purposes, breeds that are typically able to cope better with our climate, are lighter on the ground, and are less selective in their grazing habit.

The Shetlands on Crom move between the estate and the homeplace of the tenant farmer that owns them. Since 2020, a small number have been retained on-site year round as general grazers, mixing with the conacre tenant’s sheep during the summer for example – but it is during the autumn and winter months where they are deployed and come into their own as conservation grazers.

The areas where the ponies are utilised for conservation grazing are typically small, unfenced parcels of land. To contain them in these areas, electric fencing is erected ahead of them.

Breeding is not interfered with and this year, two new foals arrived as the blackthorn blossom was blooming

If it is a small distance from one paddock to another, the National Trust deploys plenty of people to herd them along – if they are going a bit further, then the farmer and his car trailer come in handy.

The ponies seem to prefer drier ground with a crop of fresh grass, though also seem perfectly at home in wetter areas with less palatable vegetation. The National Trust rangers always try to ensure that they have some shelter in the areas that they fence off for them, be that in the form of trees or mature scrub to shelter under, or hedges to shelter against.

Breeding is not interfered with and this year, two new foals arrived as the blackthorn blossom was blooming.

The conacre tenant would occasionally mix the ponies in with his sheep without any detrimental impact. As far as mixing with the estate’s feral fallow deer population goes, living here, personally I have never seen them mix at close quarters, but they will graze together within the same paddock.