Transhumance

Our purpose is to accompany horses and structure the territory with Transhumance, to save the forests of our country.

We move with the horses on their journey from the Pyrenees to the sea in autumn, and from the sea to the Pyrenees in spring.

The Project structures the transhumance of the Foundation's horse herds, with the recovery of a ancestral practice almost extinct. We travel transhumant paths, today interrupted, forgotten, silenced and broken by roads, highways, factories, municipalities... the memory of a way of living, of communicating, of cooperating, a model of sustainability, a cultural legacy and historical memory that we are discovering, while pulling this exciting thread of transhumance.

For 5 or 6 months a year, from May to November, the horses live in Pyrenean and high mountain pastures, in November we move to warmer lands where the horses spend the cold months, grazing from November to May.

We do the Transhumance of Cavalls de Marina towards the Garraf Park along the Camí Ramader de Marina, passing through Montserrat and the Transhumance along the Camins de Sal and the Camí dels Bonshomes towards Alt Berguedà and crossing the Cadí towards Alt Urgell.

And so we are networking the territory and moving throughout Catalonia wherever the opportunity for new pastures opens up.

We have been pioneers and are experts in reconnect horses with the natural environment. The horses of the Miranda Foundation with the guidance of Cavalls Guiabosc Baridà, have been the first to retrace the Camí Ramader de Marina, after 70 years without anyone passing through it. Experts, scholars, heroic shepherds and lovers of the territory have been recovering it stone by stone, footprint by footprint… a path where no one passes, it loses its meaning, it ceases to be a path… With our step, we have brought it back to life!

The horse is nomadic.

In winter, when the high mountain grass stops growing, it is necessary to move to the lowlands, to prevent the horse from standing still waiting for humans to provide it with the food that it does not find within its reach in the alpine pasture. Respect for its needs and its nature has led us to seek and manage natural spaces with many hectares of mountains and forests to ensure that our herds can continue to graze freely throughout the year, and that they are self-sufficient and continue to move during the winter.

Nature has designed the horse as a being prepared to survive in the natural environment, and if it has a group, pasture and water, it does not need humans to thrive.

The horses of the Miranda Foundation they graze freely all year round, while improve the territory, restoring health and balance to our forests, and constituting an agent of biodiversity, and a very powerful fire-fighting factor.

We work with nature and not against it, and that is why the management of the herds is done in the most sustainable way, respecting the family and friendship bonds that the horses establish, and saving the high and anti-ecological cost of buying and transporting dry grass to supplement their diet. Instead, we facilitate their movement and secure their pastures.

Custody of the territory

In Alt Urgell, with the transhumance of the Camins de Sal, we have grazed and improved the communal land of Ossera, a village of artisans, for two years, by agreement with the City Council of La Vansa. In this way, the horses have supported the fire prevention.

We have also grazed the Solana de la Muntanya d'Alinyà for two years thanks to an agreement with the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera. The undergrazed lands of Alinyà have become greener thanks to the presence of these large herbivores.

At the Foundation's summer headquarters in the Serra de Catllaràs, Alt Berguedà, we have 103 hectares of very rich high mountain pasture.

In Garraf, with the transhumance of the Navy Horses, we graze 400 hectares of Mediterranean steppe in the Garraf Park based on an agreement with the Barcelona Provincial Council. The presence of these large herbivores is of great interest to protected species like the Mediterranean tortoise, which cannot thrive in places where the vegetation is too dense, or like the Bonelli's eagle that needs open spaces to hunt and feed. The horses keep the spaces open and keep the undergrowth in optimal conditions, in this region with a very high risk of fire.

In Garraf we also enjoy the cession of 600 hectares, in agreement with private owners. In total, about 1.000 hectares of Mediterranean steppe with some very sheltered areas, which horses have gradually conquered, especially when their presence is combined with the sustainable forest managementThanks to them, old wells, lime kilns, old agricultural terraces, paths and shortcuts are being discovered and recovered.

The farms that we graze in Garraf almost all belong to the friendly municipality of Olivella, and a small part belongs to Avinyonet del Penedès and Olesa de Bonesvalls.

When we talk about dry terrain like that of Garraf, where food or water resources are scarcer or more dispersed, more space is needed for a smaller number of horses. This way we guarantee that the equines can ingest the amount of digestible vegetable fiber they need to stay in top shape. This condition forces them to move more, than in areas of rich pasture where food is everywhere like a large edible mat, and movement favors their health. Drier terrain or limestone rock also contribute positively to the wear and strengthening of the hooves, reducing the need for intervention for their maintenance.

We have seen how the horse, a 100% herbivorous animal, adapts perfectly to the poorest and lowest protein vegetation on the coast, and how it also adapts to stays in very rich summer pastures.

By an agreement signed with the Avinyó City Council, we graze 70 hectares in temporary use of the municipal pasture at Font de La Rovirassa.

We enjoy a 500 hectare pasture at the foot of the Montserrat mountain, courtesy of the Súnico Family. On this farm we have a permanent pasture project in the development phase for a small group of equines, and a space for temporary use in Transhumance.

Recently, the Equilibre France Project invited us to spend two months of summer on the 2.000 hectares of pasture it manages in the French Cerdanya.

In total, more than 3.500 hectares of pasture for 50 horses throughout the year.

We recover the historical, natural and cultural heritage

At the Miranda Foundation we work to generate with this movement, the ancestral practice of Transhumance, a unique experience for people who want to accompany us.

Transhumance also generates value for the territory, the people and the institutions that host the horses (accommodations, restaurants, friendly roofs, municipalities, artisans, etc.), as it becomes an event and a draw for the influx of people and tourism.

We have recovered old paths, shortcuts and lost itineraries that connect towns and mountains. The passage of horses keeps them open. This is the case of the path that goes from Molí de Fórnols to Ossera, from Ossera to Coll d'Ares to go to Alinyà, or the Camí ramader de Marina that goes from the Pyrenees to the Garraf.

Bonshomes and Trementinaires paths, of ancient transhumance, paths full of history that connect nature and culture, territory, horses, forests and people.

Institutions and people involved in the Transhumance of the Foundation's horses

Town halls and municipalities that are Friends of Transhumance:

Olivella, Avinyonet del Penendès, Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues, Sant Quintí de Mediona, Hostalets de Pierola, Avinyó, Castellgalí, Vilanova i La Geltrú, Santa Margarida i Els Monjos, Canyelles.

Institutions:

Barcelona Provincial Council, Garraf Park, Garraf Coopera, ADF Olivella, ADF Sant Pere de Ribes, ADF El Bruc, ADF Penedès Garraf, Camí Ramader de Marina Association, Catalonia Foundation La Pedrera, Camí dels Bonshomes, Berguedà Tourism, Mossos d'esquadra.

Friendly roofs:

Pere Garet (La Font Sostenible), Súnico Family (Montserrat), La Passada Cooperative.

Accommodation Friends of Transhumance:

Puigcercós Refuge, Món Sant Benet, Cal Gras Hostel in Avinyó.

People:

Team of volunteers from the Miranda Foundation.

Project management:

Rosa Galindo and Marc Giró.

Horseback riding:

Baridà Guide Horses.

Carles Lluch, Joan Rovira, Alfons d'Ossera and Roser Gómez, thank you for paving the way.

Thank you Aigua Films for telling our story and that of the territory by recording images of our first descent into the sea.