We  are delighted to invite you to the first Learning Wild event in  collaboration with the Fell Heritage Trust in Cumbria this July 2024. In  the heart of the Lake District the semi-wild herds of Fell ponies have  helped create the landscape and are part of the heritage and history of  the area.

Learning Wild courses are  designed to provide a unique experience for participants from around the  world to explore the role of free-living equids in cultures,  environments, and histories in a variety of international locations. We  attract participants from a wide range of careers and backgrounds which  allows us to facilitate conversations that engage with all levels of  society and create opportunities to engage with the local community and  needs of the horses and culture in which we are hosting the courses. We  firmly believe that, by providing a space in which people can learn  about the unique traits of the horses we are visiting, they can better  understand the role these horses play in the history of the landscape,  the local culture, and the environment. We believe that, by providing  these experiences and perspectives on horses we can move forward to  encourage greater biodiversity, with horses as part of the dynamic  ecosystems that can improve the health of our planet.

Join Dr. Emily Kieson as she conducts research in the social lives of horses and explores  applications to domestic equine welfare and developing stronger  friendships with our own horses.
 

Share the experience and enthusiasm for the observational study of feral ponies with Bonny Mealand who is passionate about enabling others to learn from the richness of  this perspective. In addition there will be local experts and  representatives from relevant organisations.

​

For  the Learning Wild Cumbria Course which will take place in July 2024, we  will be working closely with the Fell Heritage Trust - www.fpht.co.uk   to learn more about the characteristics of this unique breed, the links  between people and ponies throughout history, the contribution of the  ponies to conservation grazing and the work of the Cumbrian hill farmers  who are the stewards of these important ponies. The venue for the event  will be Gowbarrow Hill Farm,  where regenerative and sustainable agriculture is practised to preserve  and restore natural landscapes through low impact farming.

ITINERARY

This is an outline of the structure of the 5 days.


The delivery of the course will be determined

mainly by the weather.

July 1

Environment

Ecology, conservation,
history and culture. .

July 2

Equine evolution, physical and behavioural. Putting together a simple ethogram. 

July 3

Behaviour - horse and human. Regenerative grazing, the value of equids in a landscape

July 4

Strong foundations, relationship before training.

July 5

What we have learned and how we can 
best implement this to improve the lives of equines.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

TERRAIN GRADING

Moderate

As  we will be exploring the environments inhabited by the ponies,  challenging terrain may be encountered so a reasonable level of fitness  is suggested.

WEATHER

The  Lake District can be cool and wet even in the summer. It can also be  hot and sunny. Layers including waterproofs are recommended along with  stout walking boots.

​

TRAVEL TO THE EVENT

The  event will be hosted at Gowbarrow Hall, Watermillock, CA11 0JP. The  nearest train station is Penrith (North Lakes) which is 11km away. Lift  sharing between course participants is recommended.

ACCOMMODATION

Accommodation is not included in the price of the course.

​

1. Camping/Caravan/Glamping
The Quiet Site Glamping and Camping - The Quiet Site, Ullswater, Lake District
Ullswater Holiday Park - Camping in Pooley Bridge, Ullswater

2. Hotels
Another Place - The Lake, Another Place, The Lake
Leeming House Hotel - Ullswater Bed & Breakfast Deal

3. Holiday Lets
Ullswater View Apartment (walking distance) - Serviced Apartments in Penrith
High House Cottages (also probably walking distance)
 

There are lots of options in the village, so if none of the above are  suitable or available, then participants can always search for places in  Watermillock or even Pooley Bridge, which is slightly larger and has  some small shops etc.

Gowbarrow  Hall Farm is a family run farm on the south facing shores of Ullswater  in the Lake District. The farm is under the management of Sam and Claire  Beaumont, as the third generation. They are passionate about  maintaining the natural beauty of the landscape and enriching the  wildlife that falls within it.

They  are caring for the environment and are conscious of how farming fits  within the wider global issues that our planet is facing.

​

YOUR HOSTS

Bonny Mealand (Touching Wild) qualified as an Equine Podiatrist in 2005 and has been committed to  understanding, implementing and promoting a whole horse approach to  health and well-being ever since. Bonny specialises in working with  wild, free-living equines and “difficult” domestic equines by building  trust and helping them learn to be handled in a low stress way.

A short clip of Bonny working with some Takhi (equus prezwalski) can beviewed here - BBC Inside the Zoo.


Bonny  is committed to constantly learning as much about and from equines as  possible. Believing that it is possible to define what a life of quality  looks like at both a species and individual level. She then uses this  perspective to implement a high standard of welfare into their  domesticated lives.She is also a retained Firefighter, Somatic Yoga and  Mindfulness Teacher and BHS Welfare Advisor and is a MSc student at the  Dick vet (University of Edinburgh) studying  Equine Science.

Emily Kieson (Equine International) holds a PhD in Comparative Psychology, a MS in Psychology, and a graduate degree in Equine Science.

Her  research focuses on equine behavioural psychology, equine welfare, and  horse-human interactions as they apply to both horse owners and  equine-assisted activities and learning programs. Her current research  focuses on equine affiliative behaviours to study how horses create and  maintain social bonds and how those can overlap with human affiliative  behaviours to create authentic lasting friendships between horses and  humans.

She  also has a passion for supporting sustainable systems of horse  management and husbandry that promote physical and psychological welfare  of the horse while simultaneously supporting sustainable ecosystem  practices on small and large scales (for both feral and domestic  equids).


Libby Robinson

From  a very young age of 3 or 4 growing up on my fathers farm in Ireland I  watched the working partnership the farmhands had with the farm horses  which were still doing most of the jobs on the farm in the early 1960's.  By the time I was 8 we were living in Cumbria and my chosen breed was a  Fell Pony for their working versatility and clever nature from growing  up on the wild fells and learn common sense from the herd that helped  them to be a working friend you could trust when trained to ride and  drive and work the land which was my interest in the breed. From 1979 I  have had a Fell pony or two in my life making my living for over 10  years with them. Woking with my partner on a organic smallholding with  pony power, Carriage driving instructor, Curator at The Black Country  Museum to establish a working carters yard, showing the public all the  different jobs the ponies did in the year1900 in Dudley as a living  Museum in the West Midlands. From that I went on to farm for 20 years in  France on the Charente Limousine near the mountains of the Massif  Central region with sheep and Breeding Fell Ponies under the  Globetrotter prefix. Fell ponies get there name from the Cumbrian fells  that the live on and need to stay there for their wilder side that makes  them the breed they are.

In 2017 a small group of hill breeders with myself founded the Fell Pony Heritage Trust.

In  2018 we came home to Cumbria to help the declining hill breeders and  hill herds who look after the core of the breed and to work with them to  give a strong voice to their cause to keep the Fell Pony on the Fells.