Konik horses from Oostvaardersplassen

Last weekend I had a chance to visit lovely Oostvaardersplassen. It is a Nature Reserve Park  in The Netherlands in province Flevoland. The park is inhabited by many interesting animals, amazing diversity of bird species and also number of big mammals including a herd of Konik horses. They live here in semi wild conditions. They are not afraid of humans so it's relatively easy to come quite close to them and photograph. As I learned later - this herd of Koniks is one of the first introduced to the nature parks outside Poland.

Here is album with the photos, I hope the link works: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

They behaved very naturally and they seemed to ignore humans almost completely. It was really inspiring for me, I love observing natural behaviour of horses for example mutual grooming or playful "fights". I was also amazed by the diversity of shades within the grullo colour. Konik horses cannot be bay dun - bay gene do not occur in the breed, so even the ones that appear more "beige" in shade must be actually sun bleached grullos.

For me it was really heart warming to see familiar Konik horses. In Poland koniks are sometimes used as working horses especially as riding ponies for kids or light adults. The working koniks I used to know were really hard to forget - each one had amazing personality. They were so smart and extravert it's almost possible to hear them talking or laughing at some situations

If the link didn't work the photos are also visible at my blog: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thank you for looking here

It's nice to read somebody has a positive look to these horses in the oostvaarderplassen.
I have got a case solving thing in my school for those animals in winter time.
A really big problem is that there are to many animals in the reserve and they can not move away to feeding ground in other places.
There are many animals suffering in the reverse every winter...
Its not a very plessant idea to know for my as an animals lover (horses and dear as well).
The possibilety's are andless so far;
shooting the ''to many'' animals - the baby's ore the males ore the older animals.
Letting wolfs lose in de reserve (natural anemy)
Relocate a lot of the ''to many'' animals in the reserve
just getting a lot of the animals to get spayed ore nutared
Kill the suffering animals before dieyng a painfull honger death
ore give the animals food like hay in the winter.

I really would say just go there in the spring ore summmer all the animals are so happy in that time of year.
Don't go in the winter its just an alfull scean of death on the path

Beautifull pictures of the horses great to see them in little lovely family's :)

Beautiful photos of beautiful horses <3

Thank you Karin!!
And thank you for your comment Dum-my! Yes, the problem you are describing isn't new at all and occur in every nature park if the big predators are absent. It's hard to say what would be the best solution, perhaps looking how other herds like this in Europe are solving this problem (Horses from Dülmen in Germany for example).
The most natural solution would be introducing wolves but the area is too small for that I think and would also make a potential danger for humans who are visiting the park (I think wolves need much bigger living place?). Maybe neutralising some of the stallions and selling to people as working ponies would be a good idea too. After training they really can became good riding ponies. In Poland these horses live also in the wild in Bialowierza but there is also considerably large population of wolves and they solve the problem in natural way.
In my opinion shooting some of these horses is not an option to consider!
Another thing, a bit sad to say but in nature hunger is also one of the limiting factors for animal populations. But I believe it's very sad to see these suffering animals in winter and if it's really a park and not a real wilderness perhaps people should think how to solve it