I challenge you to find a holly tree within the New Forest that isn't scarred from pony teeth?
This time of year, the ponies start to change their grazing habits. They grazed the grasslands during summer and foraged the herbs and flowers, and you would see them 'up to their hocks' in bogs, finding the first and the last of the nutritional goodness in early spring and late autumn. But as the weather changes and their coats get thicker, the ponies move into the woodlands. Scratching itchy bottoms on low branches as their coats change from sleek summer shiny to woolly, hairy fur coats. They start to browse the trees, not just the bark but the leaves, too. They have the ability to roll back their lips to be able to gently remove holly leaves and nip off the tops of gorse, and some ponies grow a moustache this time of year (known as the furze) for extra protection.
Standing in our ancient woodlands are pollarded holly stands. This was an old commoning winter tradition. The tops of the holly trees were cut off and left on the ground for ponies to strip, giving them extra food during the harder months. These pollarded hollies are ancient trees, as this tradition is no longer carried out. If you observe the ponies in your local woodland, you will get to recognise them as they never stray far from their haunt and watch their foraging habits through the year. Bogs and mires, heathland herbs and flowers, tree bark and leaves, even Ivy and some blackberry picking!
Although keeping domestic horses, you would be told all these things are poisonous to them. How wrong we have it!! A pony in its natural habitat will utilise all of Mother Natures bounty and you rarely see a New Forest pony suffering colic, mud fever or laminitis (without human interaction) as they sharpen their teeth and chew the bark of the Holly King, who symbolises protection and eternal life as they renew the scars made in these gnarly trees by their grandparents and reawaken that ancient knowing.
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