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Wild Carneddau ponies at the RSPB Conwy

The horses were saved from a mass cull by Henry VIII 400 years ago after he declared they must be destroyed, as they couldn’t carry a knight in full armour.

 

Today they remain part of the landscape in North Wales.

In 2013 the ponies were declared completely unique after researchers from Aberystwyth University discovered they were a genetically exclusive population, after being protected by generations of hill farmers.

 

Free to roam Snowdonia National Park they are a protected species with no more than 200 thought to exist.

 

 

 

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Uploaded on July 4, 2017
Taken on July 4, 2017