New Forest Pony - Ponies On The New Forest

Ponies On The New Forest

The ponies grazing the New Forest are considered to be iconic. They, together with the cattle, donkeys, pigs and sheep owned by commoners' (local people with common grazing rights), are called "the architects of the Forest": it is the grazing and browsing of the commoners' animals over a thousand years which created the New Forest ecosystem as it is today.

The cattle and ponies living on the New Forest are not completely feral, but are owned by commoners, who pay an annual fee for each animal turned out. The animals are looked after by their owners and by the Agisters employed by the Verderers of the New Forest. The Verderers are a statutory body with ancient roots, who share management of the forest with the Forestry Commission and National park authority. About 80 per cent of the animals depastured on the New Forest are owned by just 10 per cent of the commoning families.

Ponies living full-time on the New Forest are almost all mares, though there are also a few geldings. For much of the year the ponies live in small groups, usually consisting of an older mare, her daughters, and their foals, all keeping to a discrete area of the Forest called a "haunt." Under New Forest regulations, mares and geldings may be of any breed. Although the ponies are predominantly New Foresters, other breeds such as Shetlands and their crossbred descendants can be found in some areas.

Stallions must be registered New Foresters, and are not allowed to run free on the Forest all year round. They are normally turned out only for a limited period in the spring and summer, when they gather several groups of mares and youngstock into larger herds and defend them against other stallions. A small number (usually less than 50) are turned out, generally between May and August. This ensures that foals are born neither too early (before the spring grass is coming through) nor too late (as the colder weather is setting in and the grazing and browsing on the Forest is dying back) in the following year.

Drifts to gather the animals are carried out in autumn. Most colts and some fillies are removed, along with any animals considered too "poor" to remain on the Forest over the winter. The remaining fillies are each branded with their owner's mark, and many animals are wormed. Ponies are also fitted with reflective collars to reduce traffic fatalities. Despite this, many ponies, along with commoners' cattle, pigs and donkeys, are killed or injured in road traffic accidents every year. Many owners choose to remove a number of animals from the Forest for the winter, turning them out again the following spring. Animals surplus to their owner's requirements are often sold at the Beaulieu Road Pony Sales, run by the New Forest Livestock Society. Ponies' tail hair is trimmed, and cut into a recognisable pattern to show that the pony's grazing fees have been paid for the year. Each Agister has his own "tail-mark", indicating the area of the Forest where the owner lives. The Agisters keep a constant watch over the condition of the Forest-running stock, and an animal can be "ordered off" the Forest at any time during the year. The rest of the year, the lives of the ponies are relatively unhindered by humans unless they need veterinary attention or additional feeding, when they are usually taken off the Forest.

Colts are assessed in their two-year-old year by the New Forest Pony Breeding and Cattle Society for suitability to be kept as stallions; any animal failing the assessment must be gelded. Once approved, every spring (usually in March), the stallions have to pass the Verderers' assessment before they are permitted onto the Forest to breed. The stallion scheme resulted in a reduction of genetic diversity in the ponies running out on the New Forest, and in order to counteract this and preserve the hardiness of Forest-run ponies, the Verderers introduced the Bloodline Diversity Project, which will use hardy Forest-run mares, mostly over 11 years old, bred to stallions which have not been run out on the Forest nor are closely related to those which have.

New Forest ponies are raced in an annual point to point meeting in the Forest, usually on Boxing Day, finishing at a different place each year. The races do not have a fixed course but are instead run across the open Forest, so competitors choose their own routes around obstructions such as inclosures (forestry plantations), fenced paddocks, and bogs. Riders with a detailed knowledge of the Forest are thus at an advantage. The location of the meeting place is given to competitors on the previous evening, and the actual starting point of the race is revealed once riders have arrived at the meeting point.