Northumberland’s snowy wildlife

There are eight ponies at Northumberland Wildlife’s Trust at Prestwick Carr near Newcastle upon Tyne. Conservation Officer Kevin O’Hara and the Flexigraze team were there yesterday to move them into one field before they are moved further into Northumberland this weekend.

The ponies belong to the Moorland Mousie Trust in Exmoor and Northumberland Wildlife Trust uses them for conservation grazing, mostly in Northumberland.

Exmoor ponies are very hardy creatures who are happy grazing in most environments, so the current snow is not a hardship to them as they have a thick winter coat.

When Kevin arrived yesterday there were two of them totally white, covered in snow, who only became visible when they started moving around and the snow fell off.