The free horses of the forest

The horses in the forest are of the Konik breed. The Konik horse was an attempt in the 1930s to breed backwards to the original European wild horse, the Tarpan, which had become extinct in the early 1900s. The starting point was horses that were believed to be descended from Tarpans, that came from a closed zoo. The result was a horse that resembles the Tarpan and has all of its good qualities, such as a thick winter coat, thin summer coat, broad hooves, and so on. The only problem is, that when DNA analysis was invented, it was discovered that there were no Tarpan genes in the Konik horses. Genetically, the horses are a hodgepodge of all kinds of different European horses.

The horses are in the forest to achieve nature conservation, such as keeping the birch trees down and the forest open – which they are not good at. But also because their behaviour disturbs the forest floor, eating in one place and defecating in another, thereby distributing the available nutrients and helping new plants to grow and old ones to thrive. The horses are outside all year round, but are checked daily by us and regularly by a vet.