On the 8th November 1995, five Polish ponies arrived at Redgrave and Lopham Fen National Nature Reserve. They were the start of a pioneering conservation project aimed at restoring this internationally important wetland site. The ponies are the result of a selective breeding programme in Poland which is attempting to recreate the primitive Tarpan horse, now extinct, from which these 'modern Tarpan' horses, or Konik ponies are direct descendants.  In Poland, the modern Tarpans are called konik polski which means small horse in Polish.

Left: One of the foals born in 2008  Centre: some of the herd grazing Redgrave Fen in 2008 Right: Grazing on Middle Fen in 2009

Native breeds of pony were looked at first. None are truly wetland animals. Most are moorland breeds - Exmoor, Highland and Shetland ponies, for instance. They are very hardy, but they do not cope well with prolonged very wet conditions or open water.

The New Forest Pony, which has evolved in the valley bogs, grasslands, heaths and woodlands which make up its natural habitat, will occasionally venture into the soggy mires of the Forest. It was thought that, of all the native breeds, they would be the most appropriate, and a small herd was brought up to the fen. However, there have been problems managing these ponies, as they tend to be nervous and shy and prone to biting and kicking. With time, these problems could be ironed out, but of more concern was their ability to graze in the very wet conditions of the fen in the future. It is in the wettest areas that the most important restoration work will take place, and it is vital to have a stock type that would not be shy of water. It was therefore decided to look further afield for a more suitable animal.

The Trust already knew about the existence of Konik ponies in Poland from the friendship of the then Director of Suffolk Wildlife Trust , Derek Moore and Marek Borkowski. Information was also received of koniks being used to graze the massive Oostvaardersplassen Reserve on South Flevoland in the Netherlands.

Koniks were chosen...

Koniks are very manageable and very efficient browsers and grazers. They are at home in the wettest of conditions and can graze in permanently wet conditions without health problems. They are very hardy and are used to wintering out of doors in their native Poland where temperatures regularly drop to below -14 C. Their husbandry requirements are minimal, since they are rarely ill and wounds heal quickly, although they occasionally require worming, hoofcare and some preventative medicine such as immunisation against tetanus. They have a higher fertility than domestic stock, with easy births.

The ponies have successfully eaten their way through areas of the fen which had been left unmanaged for years. They have proved their worth and are achieving the pioneering conservation worth for which they were acquired.

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From prehistory to extinction...

For most of the ice ages Equus, the horse, moved into Europe and Asia from the Americas. The process stopped about 10,000 years ago when the ice retreated and the land bridges disappeared. The horse became extinct in the Americas at this time, although the reason for this is unclear. Cave paintings at Lascaux in the Dordogne, south of France, dating from 13,000 BC show primitive horses with a dun coat and black dorsal (or eel) stripe, similar to that of the ponies at the fen.

It is generally agreed that three types of primitive wild horse evolved in Europe, the Forest Horse (Equus caballus silvaticus), the Asiatic Wild Horse or Przewalski's Horse (Equus caballus przewalskii), and the tarpan (Equus caballus gmelini antonius). There are believed to have been two types of tarpan, one, which lived on the east European steppes, and the other inhabiting the lowland forests and woods of central Europe.

By the 18th century, when the tarpan was first studied scientifically, there were probably very few animals of pure tarpan blood, as most had mated with domestic stock. S.C. Gmelin, a naturalist who captured four wild specimens near Bobrowsk in Russia in 1768, carried out the earliest study of the konik. Gmelin described the horses as being mouse-coloured, with prominent black points and "disproportionately thick" heads (probably referring to the convex profile); the ears were sometimes as long as an asses and may have occasionally been lop-eared. The konik was named and catalogued by Helmut Otto Antonius, Director of the Scholbrunn Zoological Gardens in Vienna.

The only picture of the original tarpan is a drawing from life by an artist called Borisov, published in 1841. It shows a swift and slightly-built, slender-legged animal with a convex profile, and has been the inspiration for many illustrations since.

The tarpan is known to have inhabited the great forests and wetlands of Bialowieza in Poland until the 18th century. Herodotus the Greek historian, writing in the 5th century BC, described wild horses grazing in the northern marshy lands, which modern historians have taken to refer to tarpans grazing the Polesie bogs near the Bialowieza Forest. Some of these wild horses were brought into a private zoological park near Bilgoraj, in the Tauric steppeland of Poland. It belonged to Count Zemoyski, one of the great 18th century landowners.

Another reserve was later established in the Bialystock forest, some of the horses coming from the Zemoyski herd and some from Eastern European peasants. The herds gradually dwindled, however, many of the animals being captured by peasants who tamed and crossbred them with their local mouse-grey mares. Tarpans were hunted extensively in the wild since their flesh, like that of the Przewalski horse was considered a delicacy. The last member of the breed living in the wild, a mare, is reported to have died falling down a crevasse at Askania Nova in the Ukraine in 1880 while attempting to avoid capture. The last konik in captivity died in Munich Zoo in 1887.

...and back again

Although the last horse with pure konik genes had disappeared, most of the ponies in the central European area had tarpan genes, diluted to a greater or lesser extent with genes from oriental (or Arab) horses. In Poland these ponies are called 'Koniks' which means 'small horse' and refers to several breeds of pony. The Koniks, which exhibit many primitive features, e.g. the dun coat and dorsal stripe, are the Bilgoraj Konik. These ponies inhabit the marshy, low-lying area to the east of the River San in eastern Poland. The Bilgoraj Konik was to become the target for scientists attempting to recreate the konik.

The German zoologist and Director of the Berlin Zoo, Professor Lutz Heck noticed that occasionally among the Polish Koniks a pale mousy foal was born, in colour and type similar to the extinct konik. In the early 1930's he started a selective breeding programme in the hope of bringing back the konik, by mating Przewalski stallions with mouse-coloured Konik mares. Although at first the Przewalski influence was too strong, producing animals which were too heavy, by the 1960's a lighter horse was being produced which resembled the skeletal evidence of the extinct koniks in the archives of Munich Zoo.

In 1936, Prof. Vetulai of Poznan University also began attempts to breed the konik back to its original state. The Polish government commandeered all the Koniks, which displayed konik-like features. A national park was created in the Bialowieza Forest in which the breeding project could take place. Two of the horses, 'Tref', a stallion and 'Czajka', a mare, had the property of turning white in winter in common with many other wild animals. The face, fetlocks, mane and tail retained the dark colour. After three years there were 18 horses at Bialowieza, eight having been born in the forest. Another reserve was established in the Popielno Forest, where, as a result of this breeding programme a semi-wild group of 75 head of modern koniks can be seen today.

The modern konik is an excellent example of primitive vigour - it is long lived, very strong, and resistant to harshness of climate. It is also a prolific breeder which rarely aborts, it's great fertility being passed on to its progeny unimpaired. It never catches colds or coughs and if it receives a minor injury from another herd member the wounds heal without attention. It is used to foraging in the wild and can adapt its diet to live and thrive on very rough grazing and browsing when little food appears available.

When searching for an animal to graze the wetter areas of Redgrave and Lopham Fen, it was these features of the modern konik, which made it an ideal choice.

All pictures: A.Excell