Hello and welcome to Blithbury Reindeer Lodge, home to England’s largest reindeer herd outside Scandinavia. My name is Steve Swinnerton, the owner of Reindeer Lodge, and probably better known as The Reindeer Man in England and Scandinavia.

I feel very passionate about the reindeer as I have worked for many years with the Sami in Norway, Sweden and Finland and have gained an immense amount of knowledge about the reindeer. People often ask me “what is a reindeer like” and the best way I can describe them is to say that they act like cattle, they graze like goats, their husbandry is like sheep and their brain is like a border collie and there is nothing they forget.

The reindeer at Blithbury Reindeer Lodge live a very happy, contented peaceful life with any fear of predators or people wanting to shoot them or eat them. I said before that anybody that has got an issue with reindeer working at Christmas, they can come to the farm at any time, any day to see for themselves how we look after our reindeer. We gained a full Zoo Licence for the farm after two Ministry Vets visited to inspect. They spent all day with us and couldn’t find anything wrong regarding the welfare issues or the husbandry requirements at all.

Please browse through my journal articles (from the menu on the right) to learn about the lodge and our reindeer.