“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
― Henry Ford
The simple answer is you can’t. They are un-tameable un-trainable beings! Whilst this much is true in some respects, they are equally quirky, delightful and intriguing. I spent the majority of the day travelling through the New Forest with a colleague to various meetings and made the mistake of stopping off in the National Park for a quick email catch up.
Within minutes I was surrounded with ponies, and unable to drive off. It was amusing. And quite photogenic. I had already loaded the car with my camera equipment because I knew it was going to be a long day and I’d likely have to snap for the 365 project at the end of it.
So, I sat back and enjoyed the mayhem for a bit. Then I started to get a bit more worried as the time drew nearer to head off for the meeting! Luckily we made it though and it seems to be a given that the New Forest is difficult to travel through at the best of times.
After that mini adventure, we crossed the Forest to get to another area and in a small back lane stumbled across another herd. They were blocking the road completely – and since my experience with them is very limited, I had no idea what to do.
How many humans does it take to clear a road of a few ponies? Approximately seven actually, and even then it wasn’t perfect! But as I said before, it’s quirky and it’s the New Forest so you have to forgive it some things.
If you’re intrigued as to the History behind the Ponies here is a short excerpt from Wikipedia.. “All ponies grazing on the New Forest are owned by New Forest commoners – people who have “rights of common of pasture” over the Forest lands. An annual marking fee is paid for each animal turned out to graze. The population of ponies on the Forest has fluctuated in response to varying demand for youngstock. Numbers fell to fewer than six hundred in 1945 but have since risen steadily, and thousands now run loose in semi-feral conditions.”
Kathryn Dawson Photography 