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.
