The first birth of the year in a herd of wild konik horses is being celebrated.

The horses live on Stodmarsh Nature Reserve, near Canterbury, where they were introduced by the Wildwood Trust as part of an innovative project to conserve the wetlands through grazing.

The foal was born a few weeks ago and is coping with the cold weather. The konik is a particularly hardy breed directly descended from the wild European forest horse, the tarpan, which is now extinct.

Wildwood chief executive Peter Smith said: “The birth is our first of the year and great news. The horses are part of the plan for developing conservation grazing systems to restore natural ecological processes to help the Stodmarsh reserve teem with life again.”

The reserve was created when coal mining subsidence formed marshland with large reed beds and meadows. It is now a haven for a wide variety of migrating birds, rare plants and invertebrates.