A Strangling Dilemma

 The New Verderers have now issued a warning about cases of strangles on the Forest. 

"STRANGLES IN THE NEW FOREST - JULY 2024
Strangles has been seen at Fritham and Longcross in recent weeks and now also at Woodgreen, on Godshill Cricket Pitch and in Pittswood. In addition, there are cases in North Gorley. It is mostly young ponies, (not foals) which are affected. The outbreak may affect the drifts which will not take place in areas where strangles is clearly evident. The Agisters are monitoring the situation carefully. The veterinary advice that the Court always follows is to leave animals with strangles alone unless they are very sick and need veterinary intervention. Most ponies recover well and at this time of year, when most are in good condition, strangles is not usually a serious problem."

Unfortunately this is all rather too late. There was strangles at Fritham in March of year and since then there has been a live sale at Beaulieu Road and, as far as I know, no restriction on where those ponies came from, and there have been stallions out - which have now gone home or to live together in a field - that have gathered mares together, and migrated from group to group all along the areas affected. There are donkeys with strangles hanging out outside public houses and in car parks, and despite the large yellow signs and the new laws about feeding and touching, the general public are always breaking the rules. Hopefully, strings of green snot and pus dripping from abcesses might put them off, but I doubt it. 

White Blue, the pony that came into contact with one of my neighbour's ponies, recovered quickly and looks as right as rain now whereas her ponies were so badly affected that one of them had to be put down after weeks of veterinary treatment, and the other one is still struggling to recover four months later. 

Nanny, Blue's constant companion, didn't catch it.

Strangles is endemic to the Forest and we know that one in ten ponies that get it become carriers/occasional shedders, so it is bound to happen again. Rumours and confirmations of strangles absolutely batter the prices of ponies at the live sales and in one particularly bad year, foals were selling at 2 for £10. Until the Government decide that strangles is a notifiable disease, it is hard for organisations to know whether they should issue warnings or not - for the odd case, for every case, over five cases in a set area? The standard advice is not to let your horse go nose to nose with any semi-feral pony and not to share Forest troughs and other water sources. Clearly it's a good idea to back fence domesticated horses that live adjacent to the Forest - something we have now done as best as we can.  

Spanish Lines

A good few years back, a former client of mine, who by then lived in Spain, asked if I could run a course on handling the wild pony for two young women who were involved with Pottokas ponies which are native to the Pyrenees and Basque regions of France and Spain. These are similar in stature to the New Forest pony and live semi-feral, and are gathered and handled very roughly at the reza or rapas de bestas. For example the ponies are put to the ground for branding.

Vicky, Julia and Nora came to the New Forest to work with an unhandled 22 year old New Forest Pony called Vino. Working with feather dusters and scarves and the techniques in No Fear, No Force, they tamed and headcollared Vino in just a few short sessions.

Recently Vicky contacted me again and asked permission to release her translation into Spanish of the book - just the methodology parts. I was happy to agree, and sent off a copy to my friend Xanthe in Mallorca to give it an extra proof read. She was delighted with it. As a previous graduate of the Handling Wild Pony course held in Dartmoor that I ran for a few years, she had been working with a little chestnut filly and was able to give the translation to the filly's owner for reference.

The filly when younger

Xanthe used a dressing gown belt!

The owner called Xanthe a witch! A good one, I know. 

Previous 'graduates' of my courses are working with ponies all over the place, for example, Horseworld, in the New Forest, The Exmoor Pony Centre, and as IH Trainers and the book has made it's way all over the Europe and as far as The U.S., East Africa, Australia and New Zealand. 

I only have a couple of boxes left of them and they are available from my website: sarahweston.co.uk along with my three more autobiographical books. These too describe the attitude and approach that I take to horses and ponies as well as some of the horses and people I have encountered.