Wild horse in National Park the Utrecht Hill Ridge. by Jasper van de Gein Photography

This beautiful Konik horse was photographed in the National Park De Utrechtse Heuvelrug located in the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands.The konik is originally a wild or semi-wild breed of horse in Poland and Belarus that is small in size and very frugal. Ko? is Polish for horse, konik (konjiek) for horse.In the Netherlands, koniks were first introduced into nature management in 1981 by biologist Gerben Poortinga. The introduction was not exclusively intended as a way to counter afforestation as previously the use of farm cattle, but as an integral part of nature. In this vision, grazers and the nature around them should develop in interdependence. Poortinga required the managers to ensure that strictly natural herding would take place without animal care measures and that overcrowding would only be random and based on ecological developments of the area. After long negotiations, Poortinga reached agreement on a free choice of starting material. This can still be seen in the quality of the koniks at Ennemaborg, according to Margriet Markerink, author of the book "Koniks, wild horses in the Netherlands". Following the success of nature development on the Ennemaborg estate, the breed is now used for grazing purposes in European nature reserves such as the Oostvaardersplassen , Goudplaat (Noord-Beveland) and the Gelderse Poort. Here, the kon