New Forest Pony - History

History

Ponies have grazed in the area of the New Forest for many thousands of years, predating the last Ice Age. Spear damage on a horse shoulder bone discovered at Eartham Pit, Boxgrove (about 50 miles (80 km) from the heart of the modern New Forest), dated 500,000 BC, demonstrates that early humans were hunting horses in the area at that time, and the remains of a large Ice Age hunting camp have been found close to Ringwood (on the western border of the modern New Forest). Evidence from the skeletal remains of ponies from the Bronze Age suggests that they resembled the modern Exmoor pony. Horse bones excavated from Iron Age ritual burial sites at Danebury (about 25 miles (40 km) from the heart of the modern New Forest) indicate that the animals were about 12 hands (48 inches, 122 cm) – a height similar to that of some of the smaller New Forest ponies of today.

William the Conqueror, who claimed the New Forest as a royal hunting ground, shipped more than two thousand horses across the English Channel when he invaded England in 1066. The earliest written record of horses in the New Forest dates back to that time, when rights of common of pasture were granted to the area's inhabitants. A popular tradition linking the ancestry of the New Forest pony to Spanish horses said to have swum ashore from wrecked ships at the time of the Spanish Armada has, according to the New Forest National Park Authority, "long been accepted as a myth." However, the offspring of Forest mares, probably bred at the Royal Stud in Lyndhurst, were exported in 1507 for use in the Renaissance wars. A genetic study in 1998 suggested that the New Forest pony has ancient shared ancestry with two endangered Spanish Celtic-type pony breeds, the Asturcón and Pottok.

The most notable stallion in the early history of the breed was a Thoroughbred named Marske, the sire of Eclipse, and a great-grandson of the Darley Arabian. Marske was sold to a Ringwood farmer for 20 guineas on the death of Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, and was used to breed with "country mares" in the 1760s.

In the 1850s and 1860s, the quality of the ponies was noted to be declining, a result of poor choice of breeding stallions, and the introduction of Arab to improve the breed was recommended. The census of stock of 1875 reported just under three thousand ponies grazing the Forest, and by 1884 the number had dropped to 2,250. Profits from the sale of young ponies affected the number of mares that commoners bred in subsequent years. The drop in numbers on the Forest may have been a consequence of introducing Arab blood to the breed in the 1870s, resulting in fewer animals suitable for use as pit ponies, or to the increase in the profits from running dairy cattle instead of ponies. The Arab blood may have reduced the ponies' natural landrace hardiness to thrive on the open Forest over winter. Numbers of ponies on the Forest also declined due to the demand for more refined-looking ponies for riding and driving work prior to the introduction of motor vehicles. Later, the Second World War drove up the demand for, and thus the market value of, young animals for horse meat.

Founded in 1891, the Society for the improvement of New Forest Ponies organised a stallion show and offered financial incentives to encourage owners of good stallions to run them on the Forest. In 1905 the Burley and District NF Pony Breeding and Cattle Society was set up to start the stud book and organise the Breed Show; the two societies merged in 1937 to form the New Forest Pony Breeding and Cattle Society. Overall numbers of livestock grazing the Forest, including ponies, tended to decline in the early twentieth century; in 1945 there were just 571 ponies depastured. By 1956 the number of ponies of all breeds on the Forest had more than doubled to 1,341. Twenty years later pony numbers were up to 3,589, rising to 4,112 in 1994, before dipping back below four thousand until 2005. As of 2011, there were 4,604 ponies grazing on the New Forest.

For a variety of reasons, including normal trade in the area and attempts to improve the breed, Arabian, Thoroughbred, Welsh pony and Hackney blood had been added to ponies in the New Forest. Over time, however, the better-quality ponies were sold off, leaving the poorer-quality and less hardy animals as the Forest breeding stock. To address this situation, as well as to increase the stock's hardiness and restore native type, in the early 20th century animals from other British native mountain and moorland pony breeds such as the Fell, Dales, Highland, Dartmoor, and Exmoor were introduced to the Forest. This practice ended in 1930, and since that time, only purebred New Forest stallions may be turned out. The New Forest Pony Breeding and Cattle Society has been publishing the stud book since 1960. New Forest ponies have been exported to many parts of the world, including Canada, the US, Europe, and Australia, and many countries now have their own breed societies and stud books.