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. 

Summer Heat

 

At the moment my own horses are divided between three fields on the basis of the Hansel and Gretal test. Blue and Jack were the lightest so they are the field which has the most grass. 

Theoden (just a dark shadow in the back of the shelter), Dave, Patsy and Pie (busy reflecting the sun off his white coat in the middle of the field) are grazing down the middle field. They all look ten men, whoever ten men might be.

Nelly and Henry are in the smaller barn paddocks, losing weight and in Henry's case abrading her hooves.

We are still feeding over fifty deer so it is to be hoped that we have some rain soon to keep the grass growing. 

Life is somewhat routine now for the horses but they seem to be very settled just eating and taking their medications where required. Both Jack and Theoden are both on Prascend and Theoden is on a Bute a day until we get him to the veterinary hospital in just over a week for a second injection of Osphos in his knee (equivalent to the human wrist in fact). The last time he had this was four years ago and it has kept him sound on that leg until very recently. Let's hope it can do it again. 

We have at last got over a horrible disaster that started in the spring. White Blue - Nelly's old boyfriend on the Forest - got strangles, a horrendous horse disease, and managed to pass it on to one of my neighbour's ponies. My neighbour went through hell and back trying to keep her ponies alive but sadly one of them succumbed to the after effects of either the disease or the medicine. We're waiting to find out if her other pony has fully recovered even now. It's fortunate that she has accepted being at home on her own so readily, with other horses, distanced by a stand of trees, in the field next door. It's meant I have stayed away from everyone else's horses for months now. I was dreading one of mine getting it and passing it through the entire herd and at the same time I could feel my neighbour's emotional pain. White Blue of course recovered! As yet, strangles is not a notifiable disease but it really should be. 

We can handle it!

Snippet and Mulibwanji continuing to make good progress. What I liked about Melanie's 'application' to have the ponies was that she asked me what I needed to know about her rather than just wanting to know about the ponies. 

Knowing Which Side Your Bread is Buttered

I mourned the loss of my ponies' freedom when Juma was killed and I brought the rest of them in off the Forest. That's why I was so overjoyed to be offered the seventy-five acres of conservation grazing at Hook. Looking back, it was a fabulous adventure for them but subconsciously I worried about the fences, the public gates, and the fast fast roads surrounding it. Nowadays they are living a quiet, but possibly boring life, at least as a herd and rotating around different fields. 

No-one has taken to domestic life quite like Snippet. At twenty-two and with an eighteen-month old colt still at foot, she had been struggling for a while, especially through the winter. Despite her owner giving her feed whenever she saw her, she didn't look good. Her owner struggled to decide whether she should be put down or whether to let her go to this completly alien life as a domesticated pony with Melanie who was taking on Snippet's son Mulibwanji. It was only at the last second that her owner decided to let her go.

If anyone else is struggling with this romantic notion that an old wild Forest Pony should not be taken away from its natural environment then Snippet gives pause for thought! 

Just after winter with a yearling foal at foot

In her natural state

After some pampering!

I have just been contacted by a lady in the United States who has bought a pony from what is known, all too honestly, as a kill pen. There are discarded and unwanted horses, often at the end of their working lives and injured in some way, that are transported across America either to Canada or worse, Mexico, for slaughter via various yards and auctions where people can buy them. There are many groups dedicated to rescuing, treating and sometimes having to put to sleep, these horses whose owners should have taken responsibility for putting them down at home. Many arrive with their new owners sight unseen and with a completely mysterious background. I hope to find out more about this pony who appears to be completely unhandled and her new owner now has a copy of No Fear No Force in the post. 

My Friend Tom has Twenty-One Rhino - and they all have names!

 

Following the successful relocation of twenty-one rhino to Loisaba Conservancy there have been promising signs that there will be calves on their way. The strong rains which have sadly caused flooding in some areas, have provided plenty of green grass and water for the wild animals at Loisaba. This morning Elewana Collection reported that:

"The rhinos have settled well into their new environment, with territories established and couples observed mating. Notably, these pairings have contributed to genetic diversity, with individuals from different conservancies forming bonds. Bingwa from OPC has been seen with both Naomi from NNP and Akitam from Lewa, Margaret from NNP has partnered with Muturi from Lewa, and Bruno from OPC has bonded with Safiya from Lewa."

Beaulieu Road Sales

The Beaulieu Road Sale is due to take place on Thursday 30th May. There won't be any foals there but there may well be some (relatively) unhandled ponies there. My book enables people to train their ponies without forcing a headcollar on to them at any time, leaving a headcollar on with a tag, or tying them to something solid to teach them how to tie up or lead. The book is available from sarahweston.co.uk and has helped thousands of foals, older ponies, and the odd camel and calf to be halter-trained.