Originally, in addition to roe deer and wild boar, there were also elk, red deer, beaver, bison, aurochs and wild horses here on the Oder, as in large parts of Europe. You once helped to shape the landscapes that we know today only in human form. With the year-round grazing by a small number of large herbivores, an attempt is made to come closer to the original landscape character. Nature should be able to develop here as freely as possible without requiring a result that has been planned in advance, an ideal addition to process protection in the national park. Year-round grazing also makes sense from an economic point of view.
Konik
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- Koniks in the Lower Oder Valley National Park
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- Koniks on a dry grassland near Gellmersdorf
Up to the end of the 18th century there were also wild horses in Central Europe, the Tarpans. Today it can no longer be clarified whether tarpans were real wild animals or — similar to the mustangs in America — go back to feral early domestic animals. Around 1780 the last tarpans had been caught near Bialowieza and brought to a wildlife park. In 1806 these animals were distributed to local farmers. They mixed there with other domestic horses. In 1936, Tadeusz Vetulani selected animals from the descendants of these animals in order to breed horses that should come as close as possible to the Tarpan. The Konik (Polish: little horse) was created.
Around the same time, the Heck brothers in Germany began to breed a horse that was to resemble the Tarpan by crossing Dülmen, Gotland and Icelandic ponies, Przewalski horses and Koniks. Since both breeding lines have often been crossed with each other in the meantime, they can hardly be distinguished today. Common features of today’s horses, which are similar to their wild relatives, are the gray-yellow coat color and the dark eel line on the back. Often there are also zebra crossings on the legs. Be on the pasture in the dry polder between Lunow and Stolzenhagen Aurochs (Heck cattle) and tarpans (Koniks) kept together. They perform various tasks in the pasture ecosystem. They both eat differently and differently. Horses, for example, can bite off the stalks just above the ground, while cattle tear off their food with their tongues. Horses and cattle therefore have different effects on the vegetation. This creates a rich mosaic of different plant communities.
Exmoor pony
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- Exmoor pony
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- Exmoor pony with foal
The appearance of the Exmoor ponies is still very reminiscent of the extinct or extinct western wild horse, Tarpan called. It is considered to be the most pristine and wild horse-like small horse in the British Isles. Some herds still roam freely in the moors of south west England. That’s why we brought them to the lower Oder valley, which is strongly characterized by low moor locations. Exmoor ponies are not kept free in the lower Oder valley, nor are they kept in their own herds, but rather socialized with the backbred ones Aurochs , the so-called Heck cattle, not least because of their different eating behavior compared to the cattle-like cattle. Together horses and cattle graze the wild pastures better and more sustainably than in separate herds. In fact, horses and cattle avoid each other in the wide pastures and form their own separate groups. The sturdy Exmoor ponies are also hardy, summer and winter on the pasture, where they give birth to their foals and are protected by thick winter fur. Like the “aurochs”, the Exmoor ponies are also fed in winter with hay advertised on our own land. The offspring can certainly be sold on the horse market. However, economic aspects are not decisive for keeping the Exmoor ponies.
