Horsey people - What happens to wild ponies?

[FieldOfFlameAndHeather]

I’ve just seen a distressing Facebook post about a person who kept many animals in unsuitable and neglectful conditions, including horses with overgrown hooves that appeared to be rotting and curling horribly..

It made me wonder what happens to New Forest and Exmoor and Camargue ponies and horses who don’t get anyone regularly tending to their hooves or shoeing them. How do they not get overgrown hooves?

Thanks LQ - new knowledge! Do you know where the stallions came from that refreshed the stock?

ginger
I'm not a commoner so will defer if one of them turns up
but from my knowledge they brought in 4 arabs, 4 morgans and 4 berbers who between them rather shook up the system
The Arabs are the most prolific but the Berbers keep the tightest herds
so its worked out really well

@Fizzypoo it's better that they're not really. Owned ponies can be managed to ensure the breed is kept healthy and fed.

There was a big issue with the lack of management of the ponies on Dartmoor a few years back resulting in unhealthy, very poor quality ponies who no one wanted to claim as theirs and with no monetary value.

This meant they were culled and/or sent for meat because there was literally nothing else to do with them. Inbreeding and no control meant they weren't pure bred Dartmoors, but rather "Dartmoor Hill ponies" who are essentially mongrels, which is why in financial terms they weren't worth anything.

I met Mary King a few years back who told me she'd recently had Dartmoor Hill pony sausages! Using them for meat meant they had a value, so people were keeping them and looking after them, as opposed to them being abandoned and neglected on the moors.

Yeah, the vast majority of ponies on Dartmoor aren't Dartmoor ponies (for starters, coloured ponies aren't allowed to be registered). There have been historic welfare issues due to their lack of value, and the ponies sometimes selling for as little as £1.

Things are starting to improve and there are now charities which help with taking what are essentially abandoned ponies from the moor, giving the basic training and finding homes for them. Giving them value for meat has also meant that more owners are actually looking after their ponies as well. Some are also used by zoos for feeding big cats as the lean meat is healthier for them than commercial beef.

But yes, regardless of their welfare status, they all belong to someone, and the owner is still responsible for their welfare. There's a Dartmoor pony drift every autumn, when the commoners round up their stock and sold at markets. The best stock are turned back out on the moor for breeding.

To answer the original question, moorland ponies have a very different life to ponies that are stabled, even neglectfully. Their hooves will usually self trim as they walk across many different surfaces. Their low calorie diet, and not having to stand in dirty stables or in very muddy conditions also help their hoof health.

BTW, if you are every driving across Dartmoor at night, it's very important to keep a look out for ponies on the roads. In the summer, some of the ponies will sleep on the roads as they have got warm in the sun, and then get hit by cars.

Oh god, Dartmoor hill ponies were a bit of a nightmare when I worked for an equine charity. There were so many of the poor little things, and they were so poorly bred that they didn’t really have a use - and they were definitely being dumped up there to die Absolute nightmare.

Glad to hear things are gradually improving (I’ve been out of the sector for a number of years now).

Thanks @SansaSnark. You've explained it more fully than I did.

The same goes for driving across the New Forest, particularly in low light or the dark. #addthreeminutes is the current campaign to get drivers to slow down rather than speed to their destination.

We droVE THROUGH PART OF THE new Forest recently and I must admit although it was lovely to see the ponies roaming freely I was a bit freaked out by how close they were to the forward with no fencing. I remarked to my DH that I couldn’t cope with living there - I’d find it too stressful driving anywhere, especially at night.

Oh for gods sake, so many mistakes🤦🏻‍♀️

How close they were to the road

You get used to it
as its the normal

This thread is making me listen to Wild Horses

Another interesting point is that the Beaulieu Road Horse Sales (the New Forest Pony sales) are held in Guineas which is equivalent to £1.05. I bought a pony for 52 Guineas, but then actually paid in £, so £54.60. She was an utter sweetie.

Its a brilliant day out if anyone is on holiday or driving distance! www.salisburyauctioncentre.co.uk/southern-counties-auctioneers/sales/beaulieu-pony-sale.html

@Spudlet I remember it as being something of a nightmare too. There were stories of animal rights activists "rescuing" the ponies due to be PTS and putting them in their back gardens, only for them to die anyway because they had no idea how to treat starvation, lice and massive worm burdens.

Or small herds being taken on and then immediately given to people for a "donation". People were guilt tripped into taking them to "save their lives".

Gosh, what happens if you hit a pony and it dies? Do you have to pay for it?

Ginger
(a) your car is toast
(b) the owner will come after you

@GingerBeverage what @ListeningQuietly said. Although that's if they know who it is. More often than not it's a hit and run so they get away with it and the poor pony is left to suffer until it's found and put out of its misery.

Once a horse is exported out of Iceland it can never come back in to prevent it transmitting diseases they don't have there.

It's also about the purity of the breed isn't it?

More often than not it's a hit and run so they get away with it and the poor pony is left to suffer until it's found and put out of its misery.

if I hit one in my car it wouldn't be running anywhere but if you have a 4x4 you'd be able to keep going wouldn't you

@singandwing I think that's also part of it. They're an amazing breed. The annual show was a great day out.

You'd think people would stop but they don't. Just leave the pony and chunks of their car on the road and bugger off.

Bastards.

MushroomTree Yep, all of that. Combined with the wider fly-grazing problem, it was a real headache (it’s one of the reasons we were all so pleased with the Control of Horses Act, which took a lot of work and collaboration between charities but was a big step in the right direction).

I’m really, really glad to hear things are a bit better, I hope it carries on that way.

It's also about the purity of the breed isn't it?

It’s the same with culling grey squirrels to save the red ones. I can’t pretend I don’t find it slightly bizarre that we interfere and basically practice ethnic cleansing in the animal kingdom in the name of ecology and conservation but any suggestion that we should ever do anything metaphorically similar (not literally similar, not actual culling 😱) in the human world is met with utter horror and indignation.

Well no wonder people drive away if the owner will come after them.

@Spudlet it does seem to have improved. My mum lives in the Welsh mountains and they have a similar problem there. They don't seem to manage the mountain like we do in the forest so they have all sorts chucked out on the mountains. In mum's area it's mostly coloured cobs but a few people put their rugged up Thoroughbreds out and bring them back in at night!

The farmers seem to run it amongst themselves but because no one oversees it ponies are dumped all the time.

@FieldOfFlameAndHeather Iceland's rules are mostly to protect their native horses from diseases that they don't have, rather than breed purity.

However the Dartmoor/Dartmoor Hill situation was a lot about breed purity because unfortunately the Dartmoor Hill ponies were any old mish mash of breeding/in bred which meant they had poor health, no use, and were of no monetary value, therefore meaning they were dumped and neglected.

In comparison pure bred Dartmoor ponies have had generations of breeders developing the breed, are very much sought after, and worth a fair bit of money.

I'm not saying people don't ever abuse pure bred animals but surely it's better to have an animal which is healthy, has a use, and a value/there is a market for them?

It's the same with dogs. People want pure bred kennel club breeds or "designer mongrels". The Heinz 57s get left in rescue centres.