A HERD of ponies introduced to a Cwmtydu beauty spot by the National Trust have turned the area into a mudbath.

The animals, which were brought into Cwm Soden Wood to help increase the population of a rare colony of blue butterflies, are said to have caused ‘mayhem’.

Locals say the wood – one of the few Welsh habitats for the pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly – has been turned into ‘a quagmire’ by the animals.

“It’s a mudbath,” walker Ann Kibble told the Cambrian News. “Ponies have been introduced to hopefully increase the population of blue butterflies, but the ponies have come from somewhere where they were well-fed and put in this wood which has no pony food in winter.

“New barbed wire fencing has been put up and the machines have caused a lot of damage but ponies, in a new place, will explore and run about – the result being that every place, including bits of grazing, is now mud-covered.”

Mrs Kibble says she has told the National Trust that the ponies might need more feed and has now notified the RSPCA.

“It would have been sensible to introduce these ponies in the spring – a growing time which should have drier weather, too,” she added. Mike, my husband, phoned a National Trust employee who said the ponies didn’t need feeding yet as they would survive on bramble leaves. Perhaps he could try this theory on himself in winter!”

In an email to the trust, she described the condition of the wood as “seriously dangerous”.

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