The place of heavy horses in today's farming

Heavy horses have once again returned to the fields at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) in sessions to show students the sustainability benefits of using horses rather than agricultural machinery.

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In a scene reminiscent of those which would have taken place on the fields surrounding the campus throughout the University's 180-year history, Ardennes heavy horses Sol and Kipp helped teach the University's agriculture, agroecology, and equine students how horses can be used various agricultural and countryside management tasks, including logging. Organised jointly between the RAU and the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) South West, which runs the GREAT Zerodig site on land next to the University's historic Cirencester campus, the horses were working on land at the Zerodig site with their owner Kate Mobbs-Morgan.

Dr Andrew Hemmings, RAU Associate Professor in Equine Research Leadership, said: “Today we have been able to show our students first-hand how horses can be used in small and larger scale farming operations and how working in this way can have enormous sustainability benefits.

“There is increasing industry demand for low impact logging strategies and the advantages of horse logging, compared to the use of machines, in sensitive woodland areas are huge. There is also the potential for horses to 'regenerate as they work' with selective grazing that promotes the growth of valuable plant species.