30th December, 2017 Send Me a Reminder!

Another lovely afternoon with Jayne Chapman, Reserves Officer for Butterfly Conservation and a useful reminder of just how sensitive semi-feral Exmoor ponies can be. These five, originally from Exmoor but via a home in Marlborough, are still pretty wild and very suspicious of people hiding with cameras or attempting, no matter how subtly, to herd them into a new field. They came through into a middle section and that's as far as their courage would take them. When your body resembles a little brick sh*ithouse, you can run through whoever is attempting to move you! So they've got the bronze age burial mounds for a short while before they are asked to move again.

30th December, 2017 Accidents will Happen, It's Only Hit and Run...

Another pony killed on the B3078 last night. I don't know whether the driver reported it and I don't know the circumstances of this particular event so won't comment on them - it's just another terrible illustration of what we are up against. I would like to see the law on "Failure to report" enforced properly so that the police and the agisters have the chance to analyse what happened and whether the driver was at fault before the evidence has disappeared and the driver has ...had time to concoct a good story. The law says that an accident must be reported as soon as REASONABLY PRACTICABLE and in any event within 24 hours. Most people read that as meaning that the driver has got 24 hours to tell the police. That is not true. The law was drafted as such to enable people to get to the nearest telephone box, to make sure that they and their car were in a safe position, to recover their vehicle and, if needed, to get in to hospital themselves. These days we have instant communication, so all that a driver needs to do is to reach a safe place to position themselves and then dial 999. Instead people are driving off, leaving fatally injured animals in agony in places that are difficult to locate after the event, and phoning (or getting their wife to phone up!!!) once they have reflected on what their story will be, how much damage there is to their vehicle, and whether or not anyone witnessed what happened and might have taken down their registration number, in other words, whether they are likely to be caught. This is cowardly and illegal. If the injured animal was a human no-one would think this was acceptable. "Oh, I thought I was going to be late for work so I got my wife to phone a couple of hours later. Not good enough!

29th December, 2017 The Breakfast Club

I have to confess to holding my breath when the ponies were nowhere to be found yesterday. Today they all turned up en masse asking for their breakfast although it appears that they had all been round to Roly's first. I shall drop some hay off at his to say thank you.

We're getting through a fair bit of hay at the moment plus hard feed.

27th December, 2017 Walkabout

Working on the basis that today was likely to be the quietest day of the year, I turned Peechay out with Juma and their Mum. Everything went to plan as they had an early feed and then hay on the Forest in order to try to do everything in slow motion. Peechay and Juma were soon off exploring and it was wonderful to see them both together, drinking the sweet Forest water, greeting other horses, and working their social skills. After about an hour they all disappeared at a flat out gallop and were nowhere to be seen. I shall go and check up on them later and hope that I can find them then.

26th December, 2017 Bubble and Squeak Day

There are some people who put so much time and effort into Christmas - weeks of preparation getting everything just right. These same people forsake all of the calories on Christmas Day itself, never over-indulge, and are more excited on Boxing Day than Christmas Eve. These are the (mad?) people who take part in the New Forest Point to Point. The three mile course (1 1/2 mile for children) is kept secret until the day of the races and riders can choose their own route to the finish. The overnight rain had rendered an already challenging course even more muddy.

Well known sires: Farriers Fingerprint and Sway Mister Blue Sky marshalling for the day

Inevitably the children of long established Commoners are starting to come through on their ponies, the Lovell brothers coming first and second in their class, no doubt heralding many years of fiercely contested races.

22nd December, 2017 Fun Break

The weather might be a bit dreary but the horses are in fine form. Pie has taken to coming home for lunch which saves me from worrying about him losing weight over the winter.

The British Horse Society always recommend putting out one additional pile of hay in order to avoid confrontation. This enabled Juma to have a comfortable morning while Peechay ate all around him

Time to get up and a nice stretch...

Henrietta thought I ought to spend my break keeping her entertained. She was keen to practise her cross-country jumping.

She was a little taken aback at the donkey braying across the road - she had never heard such an awful racket.

Juma catching up on his own hay intake...

...and has anyone seen Peechay?

21st December, 2017 Pluses and Minuses

Good news that since the clocks changed there have been half the number of collisions with animals than the same period the year before. Good news also that there have been less animal fatalities than the year before. However, the message is still not getting across as it should be and the overall figure for animals being HIT by VEHICLES is appalling. People come up with all sorts of impossibly expensive, and often impractical solutions (from fencing to speed bumps) given the sheer number of roads that wind their way between villages in the Forest. The most inexpensive one of all, the one that would cost nothing, would be for drivers to change their attitudes and drive with less speed and greater regard for the animals. The Forest is one of the few remaining truly wild places in England and without the animals it would need to be managed entirely mechanically and would lose its unique character. Surely everyone has a vested interest in keeping the Forest as it is?

I accept that there may be the occasional genuine accident but I don't buy the often used excuse, especially when there are no witnesses, that an animals suddenly shot across the road. Quite apart from anything else, drivers need to be aware that animals may suddenly shoot across the road, but I travel the B3078 every day and I rarely see animals shoot across the road. If the pony that was standing like a statue right next to the road suddenly wakes up and decides to cross the road then the driver should have been aware of that 'statue'. It's sad that drivers slow down more to stare at a dead pony than they do a live one.