Horses and ponies in the Cotswolds

Within the Cotswolds National Landscape, there are around 18,000 horses kept for a wide range of recreational and business purposes as well as for racing. These include casual riding, competition riding, hunting, pony trekking, and polo. The value to the Cotswolds economy is estimated to be at least £54 million a year based on feed, bedding, farriery and livery charges – and the total value could easily be double.

With a rising popularity of horse riding, the number of horses kept has grown considerably. Whilst this expansion has had benefits for the local economy, in some cases the way horses are kept is having an undesirable impact on the character and quality of the Cotswold landscape, as well as on animal welfare.

Climate change predictions for the Cotswolds include milder, wetter winters, drier warmer summers, and more frequent, unpredictable extreme weather events. This could result in soils becoming more prone to winter poaching, and grassland more susceptible to desiccation in the summer – and therefore a need for pasture for horses to be managed more carefully.

In the right context, horses can have a positive impact on landscape and biodiversity where the land on which they are kept is well managed. For example, native ponies are used across the country to graze wildflower rich grassland including a number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Impacts

There are a number of potential issues associated with the keeping of horses in sensitive landscapes, many of which can be exacerbated where there is an over-concentration of equine activities, or where they are not developed or managed correctly.

Impacts on the landscape

The physical structures and equipment associated with horse keeping, if not sited correctly and sympathetically, can have a detrimental effect on the quality of the landscape. There needs to be appropriate siting of stabling, field shelters, manèges, fencing, muck heaps, parking for horse boxes, lighting, schooling rings and jumps. Any tree planting should be appropriate to the area in terms of scale, location and species selection to ensure it contributes to the character of the Cotswolds.Our guide to woodland and tree planting which is available opposite. A particular concern is the increased use of white electric tape to divide paddocks which can be visually intrusive. Green or brown tape, which is readily available and equally visible to horses, should be used in preference to white tape. Many of these physical structures require planning permission and are therefore under the control of the local planning authorities.

Impacts on pastures and trees

Horses are selective feeders with a preference for the finer grasses and herbs. This can create pastures with some areas which are closely-grazed and others which are rough and tussocky, particularly in fields where the droppings are not removed regularly. Without appropriate pasture management, important grassland species may be permanently lost through overgrazing.

Damage to pasture can also occur in other ways. Some areas may be worn completely bare by horses rolling, fence walking, or congregating in one place. In wet conditions, horses may damage the sward by trampling or ‘poaching’ the ground. All of these problems are likely to be exacerbated where paddocks are too small for the number of horses they contain.

Damage to pasture may result in the permanent loss of beneficial plants, as well the proliferation of undesirable invasive species, such ragwort, dock and thistle, which thrive on bare ground. Trees can be damaged and even killed by horses that develop the habit of ‘crib clutching’ resulting in bark being ripped off trees. A minority of horses can develop a taste for the bark with devastating effects. Previous survey work has shown this to be a particular problem in orchards.

Horse welfare

Increasingly, horses are being kept in individual paddocks isolated from one another – but horses are social animals and preventing them from exhibiting their natural social behaviour can result in behavioural problems. These include fence walking, where the horse, out of boredom or frustration, continuously walks around the perimeter of the fence or back and forth along the fence wearing a rut in the ground.