Exmoor ponies will be coming back to Chailey Common in the spring (2021)! The Chailey Commons Society is helping form a group of local people who will check on the ponies on a rota system. They are currently preparing for the arrival of the ponies which will on loan from the Moorland Mousie Trust which is based close to the Exmoor National Park. The plan is to establish a small herd on Red House Common north of the A272 to help control gorse and other vegetation expanding once again onto the open heath.
When managing the Sussex Pony Grazing & Conservation Trust, I had from 2012 following a request from the ESCC, up to 20 Exmoor ponies grazing across the various parts of the Common. This was accomplished following a huge fencing operation and installation of cattle grids funded by Natural England. The ponies together with mowing, scrub removal and tree felling operations carried out by the ESCC, fairly quickly open-up the Common. Indeed the ponies were too successful and went from a ‘mountain to climb’ to a situation bordering on over-grazing! After about for years we were asked to remove the ponies; presumably the vegetation has again been gaining out on to the open heathland hence the re-introduction.