Don’t overlook grass as a habitat for game
There is a little field right next to an old Kentish farmhouse that carries the name First Horse Marsh. In its heyday, it produced enough grazing for one working horse and, being close to the house, it was used to graze the best horse overnight, so that it would be quickest into harness in the morning.
The name serves as a reminder that, even in mainly arable country, there would always have been some grass fields to pasture the horses. Indeed, I have heard it said that at the peak of horse-powered agriculture, one-fifth of the land needed to be devoted to feeding them.
Today, we tend to think of
