The Dülmen Pony - Wild horses in Dülmen

Dülmen is known far beyond the borders of North Rhine-Westphalia as the "town of the wild horses". A few kilometres west of the town lies the home of Europe's last wild horses in the Merfelder Bruch.

The fenced Wild Horse Sanctuary of the Merfelder Bruch covers an area of 3.5 square kilometres. The terrain has meadows and grassland as well as marsh, heathland, birch, oak and coniferous forests. This offers a wide range of food and also an adequate coverage and protection for the horses. There, the ponies live completely on their own. The herd - both adults and foals - consists of approximately 300 animals. Only in extremely cold and long winter periods the horses get hay at some feeding sites. Accustomed to a life in the open, the animals do not need any stables. They find refuge from snow and rain underneath the treetops.

In North-Germany there are wild horses called "Dülmen ponies". People named them so because the horses live in the region around the city "Dülmen". They don't live really wild, they only have a limited area. But the horses live alone, without help of people. This is why they're wild horses, Dülmen ponies.