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?

@Obviouspretzel would you not want the person brought to justice if they left one of your animals to die in a ditch with horrific injuries rather than call the relevant people to put it out of its misery?

It is a crime to hit a pony/cow/donkey/pig and not report it to the agisters or police. Not to mention morally wrong to leave an animal to suffer.

Whilst I've never heard of pitch fork wielding commoners going after people, quite rightly details of the car and driver are shared on social media in an attempt to find them. And not just by the commoners and local equestrian community, but also by the verderers and the police.

Just a comment about feet trimming - I have a Welsh pony as a companion and in the last twelve months his feet have not been trimmed once, only rasped occasionally to keep their shape. He is a greedy beggar and so has been either on a cobbled yard or concreted area which has rough grass on it throughout the summer and in the winter he’s out on restricted grazing during the day and in the yard at night (he does get suitably fed). Keeping him on these hard surfaces means his feet haven’t needed trimming once, every time I ask the farrier (he’s here every six weeks for the others) if they need doing, he takes a look and say no. I never thought he’d go for this long untrimmed!

@MushroomTree

Someone said what happens if you hit one. Then two people replied saying that a)your car is ruined and b) the owner will come after you. They didn't say that's what happened if it was a hit and run. They said that's what happens if you hit one.

@Obviouspretzel it's an emotive subject and an owners reaction would probably depend on the circumstances. If it was a genuine accident, the person stopped, reported it, and owned up the owner would be understandably upset but that would be it.

On the other hand if an animal has been hit because someone was driving too fast, not paying attention, and they then fled the scene leaving the animal to spend hours in a ditch before it was found then the owner probably would be looking for them. As would the police because a crime has been committed.

Well that's fair enough. That isn't what was said though.

I’m not sure how you’d get an accurate and honest answer to that question though, unless there were witnesses.

@Obviouspretzel the other poster might have insider knowledge that I don't. Yes drivers who hit and run are "hunted" in the sense that every attempt is made to find them. But as far as I know that's so that the police can deal with the matter and they face legal consequences. I've never seen a Commoners lynch mob!

@FieldOfFlameAndHeather witnesses, dash cam footage, and often there's debris on the side of/in the road that reveals make and colour of the car. Local garages are also asked to keep an eye out for vehicles coming in with damage likely caused by a collision.

But unfortunately the majority of hit and run drivers are never found.

I can only answer about Exmoor ponies, they are all owned by various families and bloodlines are recorded in the herds. They are branded with the mark if the blood lines. As a child I remember family friends walking miles carrying hay for the ponies through heavy snow to keep them fed and healthy.