Friday 20th March - staff check

Apologies for late posting. We were visited per usual on the volunteer task - Hooopy having a good nibble of the tea kit and some of the mugs. Ponies have been enjoying our clearance works and getting into the new glades created. They are all starting to moult a lot. We have woven a load of cut branches into our cut Blackthorn stems - partly to keep dead wood on site for invertebrates and fungi, partly to create a nice dense habitat for nesting and for small mammals to use. But also of course for ponies to have a good nibble and bark strip, and they were getting stuck in to this straight away! I think Hoopy is looking a little skinny - she is longer in the leg than the others so that does make her look thinner, but please keep an eye on her. We would expect her to lose weight over the winter but I really hope that now she should put some weight back on. The site is looking gorgeous with the Blackthorn coming into flower, and I had a walk around and spotted Peacock and Comma butterflies.