EVENT DETAILS

A four-day exploration of how thoughtful stewardship can support ponies, people and landscapes to thrive together.

The workshop is offered in two parts. You can attend Part One on its own, or join us for the full four days.

This workshop brings together conservation grazing, equine welfare and practical experience to consider how ponies, people and landscapes can thrive together.

Living with Wildness is for people interested in the opportunities - and the difficult questions - that come with supporting ponies living in conservation landscapes.

Every conservation grazing project is different. Different landscapes, conservation objectives, ponies and resources call for different approaches. Across two or four days we will look at the principles, practicalities and decisions involved, from designing the wider grazing system to working safely and cooperatively with individual ponies.

Part One  welcomes anyone interested in restorative grazing with ponies, creating a space for practitioners, equine professionals, researchers, veterinarians and others to exchange experience, make connections and think together about how we can do this well.

Part Two is intentionally limited to a small group. Working closely with minimally handled ponies requires a genuinely horse-led approach, where opportunities for observation, interaction and handling emerge in response to the ponies themselves. Limiting participant numbers prioritises the welfare of the horses while creating a rich, immersive learning experience for everyone involved.

Your Hosts:

Bonny Mealand

Bonny Mealand is an Equine Podiatrist specialising in the hoof care of wild, free-living and minimally handled equids. Her work brings together equine behaviour, welfare and ecology, from the development and management of conservation grazing systems to welfare assessment, handling-system design and low-stress essential care.

Her award-winning approach draws on ethology and species-appropriate management to develop practical ways of meeting essential care needs while preserving choice and agency. Bonny works with major conservation organisations managing pony herds, zoological collections caring for wild equids and the professionals responsible for their day-to-day care.

She is completing an MSc in Equine Science at the University of Edinburgh and writing a book that draws on research and observations of wild and free-living equids around the world to explore the behavioural and ecological foundations of equine welfare.

Jenni Nellist

Jenni Nellist's work bridges the gap between clinical animal behaviour work with domestic horses in conventional husbandry settings and ponies kept in semi-wild settings. It all started in the late 90s when she followed the lives of hill ponies on common land on nearby Cefn Bryn as part of her Equine Science degree (U.W. Aberystwyth) and she's struggled to stay away from Gower, and free roaming ponies ever since. 

She helps to provide and manage locally sourced hill ponies for nature led recovery projects in Gower and Carmarthenshire including the herd living on the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales' South Gower coastal reserves of Port Eynon Point, Overton Mere and Overton Cliff.  

PART ONE | 12–13 November

Planning and Designing Conservation Grazing Systems

ABOUT:

The first two days look at the whole system.

Through talks, discussion, field visits and real examples, we will look at how ecology, landscape, pony welfare and human decision-making come together in conservation grazing.

Whether you are developing an established grazing project or standing at the beginning and wondering where to start, these two days are designed to help you think through the whole system.

We will move between the bigger questions and the practical detail: from defining the purpose of a project and understanding the landscape, to choosing suitable ponies, planning herd structure, infrastructure, monitoring, handling and veterinary provision, and preparing for the unexpected.

The focus is on what matters, what needs to be considered and how those considerations can guide good decisions across different landscapes, ponies and conservation goals.

Some of the questions we'll tackle include:

• What does a successful conservation grazing project actually look like?

• What do ponies need to thrive in these environments?

• How can welfare be designed into a system from the beginning?

• How do landscape, herd composition and management decisions influence one another?

• When should we intervene - and when should we step back?

• How do we approach difficult decisions around health, handling, ageing and end-of-life care?

• How do we explain the reasoning behind our decisions to colleagues, stakeholders and the public?

• Field sessions with the resident ponies will give us opportunities to read the landscape, examine infrastructure and management systems and talk through the realities behind the theory.

• We will also look honestly at what can go wrong, what we can learn from it and how good planning and responsive decision-making can help.

We will cover:

Conservation grazing models and objectives • Reading landscapes • Species-appropriate lives • Positive welfare • choosing suitable ponies • Herd and population management • Infrastructure and handling systems • Welfare monitoring • Veterinary planning • Contingency and emergency planning • Intervention and end-of-life decisions • Public and stakeholder communication.

Who is it for?

Conservation practitioners, reserve managers, ecologists, land managers, veterinarians, equine and welfare professionals, researchers, students, horse owners and anyone considering or already involved in conservation grazing.

Part One is open to a larger group, creating plenty of opportunity for discussion, sharing experience and making connections across the conservation and equine worlds.

PART TWO | 14–15 November

Working with Minimally Handled Equids

ABOUT:

The second two days move from designing the system to working with the ponies within it.

Conservation grazing ponies can challenge many of our assumptions about horse handling. Some may seek human contact; others may actively avoid humans. Working well with them requires observation, patience, adaptability and a willingness to let the individual pony shape our approach.

Using the HELP Framework (Holistic Equid Learning Plan), we will look at practical ways of building safety, trust, communication and confidence while developing individual approaches to essential care. Developed through work with minimally handled wild and free-living equids, HELP is now being used in conservation reserves and wildlife parks to support low-stress, safe and cooperative approaches to essential handling and care.

WORKSHOP CONTENT:

Working alongside the resident conservation grazing ponies, we may look at approach and touch, movement and handling, hoof care, veterinary preparation, the use of companions and the design of low-stress handling systems.

• Horse-led means horse-led

• There is no fixed programme of handling exercises and no expectation that everyone will handle every pony.

• What we do will depend on the ponies.

• Their behaviour, emotional state, confidence and willingness to engage will determine what is possible on the day. Learning to recognise opportunities when they arise - and knowing when not to proceed - is an important part of the workshop.

• This is practical work grounded in real situations, not demonstrations designed to reach predetermined outcomes. We will talk through what we see, consider the options available to us and make decisions in response to the individual ponies in front of us.

  
  

WE WILL COVER:

Reading behaviour and emotional state • Safe working practices • Low-stress handling systems • Social relationships and companions • Building trust • Cooperative care • Veterinary and hoof-care preparation • Individual handling plans • Balancing welfare, practicality and safety.

WHO IS IT FOR?

Conservation grazing staff, veterinarians, equine behaviourists, hoof-care professionals, welfare organisations, reserve managers, zoo and wildlife professionals and experienced horse people working with minimally handled equids.

PLEASE NOTE:

Places for Part Two are strictly limited to protect the ponies' welfare and preserve the small-group, horse-led nature of the experience.

Participants joining Part Two must feel confident working safely around ponies.

As Part Two includes practical work with minimally handled equids, participants will need to hold appropriate liability insurance for their professional or equine activities. Proof of current cover will be required before attending the practical workshop.

Joining us

You can book:

Part One | Planning and Designing Conservation Grazing Systems | 12–13 November - Book online

or

Apply for The full Living with Wildness experience | 12–15 November

Places for the full four-day Living with Wildness workshop are strictly limited. Please complete this short form to apply. We’ll contact you to confirm availability before payment is taken.

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