Author Archives: m.haddrill@btinternet.com

December 2023 : Artist Sally Duckers produced two new images of the Carnog team which are available as greetings cards and prints. From her designs we are developing a new logo which appears on the new uniform.

September 2023 : We worked in a record 35°C on this challenging site. Ultimate care and dainty hooves were required to ensure that felling and extraction on these old workings left them as we found them with the historic features preserved. We completed this first trial stage with close observation by CADW and NRW and impressed them with our approach so will be back for further work soon.

March 2023 : For the eleventh year Carnog Working Horses one day ‘Introduction to Horse Logging’ courses at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) near Machynlleth. The course gave a practical introduction to working with horses in low-impact woodland and land management. More information can be found on the CAT website and we will share news of the new courses when programmed.

February 2023 : We were working at this small farm woodland site, a larch and beech plantation which was overdue for thinning. It was one of the steepest hills we have ever worked, but the horses took it in their stride. Thankfully, the timber was all coming downhill.

January 2023 : We burnt off any Christmas excess with a hard start to the year, coppicing near the Wrekin. Although the trees were small it was a long, up and down extraction route, so the horses worked hard. The woodland owner is a wonderful craftsman (M T Greenwood Crafts) and turned the wood, a mixture of hazel, rowan, holly and silver birch, into woodland produce including bowls and spoons. (Photo: Neill Mapes)

July 2021 : The Carnog team was invited to the Devon County Show in Exeter. We worked with the Woodland Trust, White Wood Managementand Little Acorn Furniture, to demonstrate the sustainable use of horses in the ‘woodland harvest to timber’ process. Molly (right) and Bluebell (left) performed six times over the three days of the show and attracted lots of attention from the visitors.

November/ December 2020 : The horses worked hard with a new team, Kehoe Countryside Services. We helped to clear some ash dieback for the Woodland Trust on a community woodland in Caernarfon.

August 2020 : Carnog has been bracken rolling at The Cliffe near Shrewsbury for five years. It is a tough site, but working alongside Shropshire County Council and the local community, we are starting to see changes for the good. We had great help from the local community in a trial project to use the horses to rake up and remove smothering bracken litter. Bracken is a tough problem to crack but the heather is looking great in treated areas and we can’t wait to see the effect next year of this extra work.

Summer 2019 : Following the filming back in the summer, Carnog featured on the BBC’s Inside Out West Midlands as part of an item about retaining heritage crafts that are being lost. The 10 minute item focussed on woodland owner Mike Taylor and his work. The episode was broadcast on 21st October 2019.

October 2019 : The Carnog Team joined the National Trust’s West Exmoor Rangers for their fun autumn event at Watersmeet, near Lynmouth, Devon on 22nd October. We had a great day meeting lots of people enjoying a fine half term holiday.