The New
Forest
Dominie in the New Forest, many years ago This ancient forest covers 140,000 acres of pasture, heath and forest in south-west Hampshire and
south-east Wiltshire in the south of England. William the Conqueror decreed it
a royal forest in 1079 for the purpose of hunting ‘the beasts of the
chase’ - that is, the two native deer,
the red and the roe, wild boar, and the fallow deer which were introduced by
the Normans after 1066.
The New
Forest was recorded in the Domesday Book, which was a survey and valuation of land
and property in England. It was commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1085
and completed in 1086. The Domesday Book is actually two works – the Great
Domesday, which was probably written on parchment by just one person and the
Little Domesday, which had at least six people working on it.
New Forest ponies
It is
home to the New Forest Commoners, who continue to exercise their ancient rights
of common pasture. Anyone living in the forest has the right to turn their
animals out to graze for pasture and is thus known as a Commoner. Their rights
are protected by verderers and agisters. The Court of Verderers are unpaid
officials who oversee commoner rights, such as the grazing of ponies, and
ensure the protection of land and wildlife.
From
Wikipedia:
The Court has the same status as a Magistrates Court, and acting under its authority the Verderers
are responsible for regulating commoning
within the Forest, for dealing with unlawful inclosures, and for a wide range of other matters
relating to development control and conservation such as proposals for new
roads, car parks, camping sites, recreational facilities, playing fields and so
on.
The agisters
are a small group of people who help the verderers in monitoring the
free-roaming animals which graze the Forest. They spend much of their time on
horseback, checking the land and the animals. There are several thousand semi-feral
ponies as well as many thousand cattle to oversee. Sheep and donkeys are also
turned out to graze, though in lesser numbers. In the autumn, pigs are turned
out for about 60 days to feed on acorns, beechmast and other nuts. This practice
is known as pannage.
Ponies have right of way
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Homeward bound Image courtesy of Wikimedia CommonsPony power versus horse power at Beaulieu garage
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Each agister has responsibility for a specific
area of the Forest and is on call every day to deal with emergencies, like
injured or trapped animals. Every year between August and November the agisters
organise ‘pony drifts’. The Commoners, who pay an annual fee, called the ‘marking
fee’ so that their ponies are allowed to graze, round up their ponies to be
checked and recorded.
The drift provides an opportunity to worm the ponies and
brand the new foals, each owner having a distinctive brand. This is the time
that ponies may be withdrawn for sale or taken in for the winter. The ponies
that are to be turned out for another year have their tails clipped in a style
that identifies them as belonging to a particular agister’s area of the forest.
Pony tail cutsCourtesy of New Forest Show, 2012
Someone once remarked that the ponies’ tails look as though they’ve had a bad
haircut, but they are clipped to prove that their owners have paid the marking
fee for the coming year.
Because the animals are free to roam, they often wander onto unfenced roads. There is a speed limit through the unfenced areas but accidents happen, because drivers do not adhere to the speed limit. Last year, 2022, 41 animals died, either killed outright, or destroyed because they were too badly injured to survive. The unfortunate animals were 34 ponies, 3 pigs, 2 cows and 2 donkeys. Nineteen more were injured but lived to tell the tale.
