How two wild ponies are helping nature to thrive on a Devon estate
Watch as ponies Sylvi and Stella are released on the Devon estate.
Two wild ponies have been released at Sharpham Estate in Devon as part of a project to rewild 50 acres of former farmland.
Sylvi and Stella, a pair of 15-year-old Konik ponies, have been introduced to graze the land between Ashprington and Totnes close to the River Dart to help improve biodiversity.
It’s part of Sharpham’s 'Wild for People' rewilding project which has already seen a return of other native wildlife.
Jack Skuse is the director at Ambios Ltd, a partner of Lower Sharpham Farm, and says releasing the ponies was a hugely exciting moment.
"There's so much deep culture about wild ponies and wild horses", he said.
"That imagination that comes from having wild horses back in the landscape which we miss running wild in these parts for so long now.
"So to encourage this, to allow them back in, feels like a really special day."
Sylvi and Stella were initially kept indoors for them to be accustomed with each other before being released.
Jack said: "They've come from a reserve in Kent and for the last week we've kept them in a stable and running them down to a paddock just to get familiar with their characteristics and their character.
"For the rest of their lives they're really going to be out on our rewilding site, helping nature's recovery, bringing back wildlife to this part of the Dart Valley."
Sharpham's rewilding project - 'Wild for People' - has been supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
In 2021 two Mangalitza pigs were released - their job being to mimic wild boar, and since then they've been joined by these Belted Galloway cows - their grazing mimicking that of ancient cattle.
Jack said: "Well we've been rewilding here at Sharpham for around four years.
"The ponies are really the last piece of our puzzle, they're browsing a lot of the woody vegetation, knocking that back as it starts to take over the site.
"It's really that dynamic relationship between the grazing pressure from the animals and the growth what's called succession from the plants coming into the field."
Sharpham says that the decline in wildlife is at a crisis point.
Julian Carnell, the director at Sharpham Trust, said: "One of the learning curves we've been on really is we are going from quite a neat, grazed sort of pasture which we see around here in South Devon a lot to something that is a lot more messy.
"I have to accept that sometimes it is going to look different, it's going to be messier but the benefits are huge for nature and wildlife".