EXMOOR ponies are helping to create and restore wildflower meadows by eating competing grasses and coarse vegetation and making space for rare and more delicate plants to flourish as part of a new plan to build a “thriving nature network.”

It’s part of the “Sowing the Seeds” initiative run by the National Park and other partners to create more wildflower meadows across Exmoor. The project has 59 sites on the moor, including one run by scientific instrument manufacturer Singer Instruments, based in Roadwater.

Lucy Cornish, Sowing the Seeds project officer, said: “Wildflower meadows are habitats rich in wildlife.

“They are grasslands traditionally managed for hay so left to grow and flower over the spring and summer, feeding and sheltering a wide array of wildlife, but most of these habitats have been lost in the landscape.

“Since 2021, the park authority has been working with landowners, farmers, community groups, schools, and parish councils, to create, restore, and promote wildflower meadows and habitats across Exmoor.

“We are working with communities to restore this rare habitat and make more wildflower areas that will in time join up to create a thriving nature network, where wildlife can flourish.”

The intention is that Sowing the Seeds will prepare the ground for a long term self- supporting legacy to revive and restore species-rich grassland across Exmoor.

Studies have found that Exmoor ponies’ natural selective grazing habits are ideal for managing wildflower meadows - they tend to avoid eating the plants they help to cultivate.

Singer Instruments CEO Harry Singer said: “Humanity needs biology now, more than ever! We’re super proud to be making a global impact in this regard, as well as a local impact by creating our own wildflower meadow. Thanks very much to Exmoor National Park Authority for driving this initiative!”

A successful grant application to the Farming in Protected Landscapes Fund in 2023 funded the re-fencing of the company’s field before Exmoor ponies were introduced.

Pony owners Lloyd and Gemma Parry said: “Exmoor ponies are mentioned in the Doomsday Book and are renowned worldwide for their hardiness and skilled conservation grazing.

“The current three - Ambrose, Megs Mary, and Hazel were born on Dunkery in the Tawbitts herd, bred by the late Jackie Ablett and Gill Langdon.

“The ponies keep the grass in check, eat through brambles and scrub, provide fertilizer for the seeds, and get a workout in the steep field in the process.”

Wildflower seeds harvested from donor sites were sown by staff once the ponies had grazed the meadow in the first year, with top-up seeds being sown in the second year too.

Singer Instruments environment manager, Sally Parish added: “The meadow is now in year three of a five year management plan and already there has been an improvement in the variety and cover of flora.

“More Exmoor pony visits will be required in the years to come which we look forward to as they give us a warm welcome in the mornings, hanging their heads over the gate to see what’s going on.”