Meeting the neighbours

[glenatron]

So the house where we're living now is at one end of the Devils Punchbowl, a large nature reserve encompassing a big valley and the surrounding heath. The ponies live at the other end of the valley, so it's not an arduous walk between them. Particularly for me as the heathland is currently being managed by a herd of Exmoor Ponies...


It was quite dark and dull, being a rainy bank holiday kind of a day, so most of my pictures are a bit camera-shakey or the ponies were blurred in movement, but this came out ok.


The guy on the left was a tiny bit itchy I think. There were seven ponies in the little herd I spent a while watching and then I met a second group of five heading down to rendezvous with them a little further on.


I like these little guys, Exmoors always seem to me as though they should be very primitive horses, not so different from the ones you see in pictures from Lascaux


This little inquisitive little guy came up to about ten feet away from me- I think he was so unaccustomed to humans who just stay still and don't do anything that he was intrigued. Then he went off to demand grooming off one of the other ponies, who wasn't really interested so he chased them off instead. Because it's public land the herd is all geldings, so you don't get the interactions you would from a mixed herd, but there is clearly a lot of conversation going on, in between the grazing.

Comments

[skiesfirepaved.livejournal.com]

Thank you for making me hate where I live all the more. :P

I am so so soooo going to have to move South. Gorgeous photos; the second one is my favourite!

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Nice commute!

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Well if you're passing, come and visit- you are welcome here any time.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It's not so bad, even in the rain.

[http://users.livejournal.com/blitzen_/]

o my.

how AMAZING. fcuk! you walk thru here every day???? that is just so incredibly awesome and amazing. i love the 2nd photo the best. it just looks gorgeous.

*would like a lot more scenery/pony pics plz*

[penella22.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

I'd love to live near a herd of wild ponies.

I think sage might like to live *in* a herd of wild ponies, at least part-time...

Must be nice to have a herd to observe with your free time...and it certainly makes for a nice view out your window.

[spirithorse21.livejournal.com]

Are these ponies wild? Very lovely snapshots.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I don't walk through there every day, but I'm trying to do it when I can while it's the bank holiday or there is daylight. We're pretty lucky in our location here, I freely admit.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Sage would get by great with these guys- they're small and cute and they live out on heathland so they are living very naturally, foraging on trees, shrubs, heather and what bits of grass they can find, which is exactly what a horse with metabolic issues needs- wide ranging and low-nutritional-value food that needs work to find it...

Sadly they're a little far from the window, I think you need to be in the New Forest for that. Now check this out, something great about the New Forest: The ponies roam free and in autumn so do pigs, according to forresters' rights that go back a very long way indeed. Now pigs go crazy for acorns and eat them all, which stops the ponies from eating them. Ponies love them but they are toxic to horses. I love that little bit of balance.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Not wild wild, but they have the freedom of the common and their whole job is to maintain the heathland ( which is an artificial terrain created by centuries of grazing ) from returning to forest or getting overgrown by gorse and bracken. I don't know what the extent of their handling is, if they have any. They don't really mind being in an area with lots of walkers, cyclists, riders and families with dogs, they just give people a bit of a wide berth and regard them quite sceptically.

At other parts of the year they go and live in some fields in the valley and the heath is grazed by highland cows.

[sleepsy-mouse.livejournal.com]

Does that mean we can have a pig please?

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Only for a limited period, after which we can have bacon.