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The New Forest Pony - "England’s Gem"
  Lying along the English coast between Southampton and
Bournemouth in southwest Hampshire is one of the largest
areas of unenclosed land in southern England today, The
New Forest. Spreading out over 90,000 acres, this region
is not only a popular recreational destination, but is
home to approximately 3,000 New Forest ponies who still
today roam its heaths, woodlands and bogs just as they
have for centuries. Visitors and tourists can expect to
see wandering herds of ponies moving across country
roads, parking lots and foraging in backyards.
 The New Forest Pony is among the nine recognized breeds
of Mountain and Moorland ponies of the British Isles.
The other breeds being the Connemara, the Dartmoor, the
Exmoor, the Welsh, the Fells, the Dales, the Shetland
and the Highland.
 The Ponies of the New Forest in England, affectionately
called “Foresters”, are bred and raised in the “wild”,
however they are not wild in the sense of ownership.
Each pony is owned by a “commoner” who has the right to
allow them to graze in the forest. This right is known
as “The Right of Pasture”. In England and Wales, a
common is a piece of land that people, usually
neighbouring landowners, could exercise a number of
traditional rights, such as the Right of Pasture,
whereas they can use the land for the grazing of their
livestock. The fact that land is common land does not
mean it has no owner—all land in England and Wales is
owned by someone. The welfare of the ponies and looking
after the rights of the commoners is the responsibility
of the “verderers”. Five elected and five appointed,
making up the Court of Verderers. The verderers in turn
appoint four “agisters” who keep an eye on the ponies,
alerting owners if veterinary attention or other needs
are required. Agisters are each responsible for their
area of the Forest. Each agister requires two ponies and
a truck for which he is paid an allowance. They ride
through the Forest daily checking on ponies and
responding to any calls received. Day or night, the
agisters are ready to deal with any calls they may
receive such as road accidents which involve the ponies,
or ponies stuck in bogs and even to remove ponies who
have ventured into private yards. Their busiest time of
year is during the winter when extra vigilance is
required to identify ponies that are losing too much
condition and whose owners need to be contacted in order
to remove these ponies from the forest and during drift
season (August through October) which is when all ponies
are rounded up and inspected, wormed, branded or marked
and if possible given reflective collars so they are
easily seen by motorists at night.
 With ponies all grazing
and roaming together, who knows what pony belongs to
whom? Well, each pony in the New Forest bear’s the
owner’s brand mark, which is registered with the
verderers. Owner’s also pay for the services of the
agisters. Ponies’ tails are cut to prove payment and
identify which of the four forest areas they come from.
Not to be confused with docking, which is cutting the
tail short, the agisters cut recognized patterns by
removing hairs from either one or both sides of the
tail.
The Forester went through several changes during the 700
years of “The Right to Pasture”. Often the best ponies
were taken from the Forest and sold to private
individuals, leaving the least desirable ponies to pass
on their genes. In 1765 the first undisputed attempt at
improving the breed occurred when a local farmer bought
the thoroughbred stallion, “Markse “, thought too small
to race, from Tattersall’s sales. For the price of 1
guinea – equivalent of $1.70, local New Forest mares
could be bred to this stallion. Markse was the sire of
Eclipse, one of the greatest horses ever in English
Thoroughbred racing.
 By the mid 1800s a finer type of pony started to be more
evident due to this infusion of new blood. Then in 1889,
Queen Victoria sent Arab and Barb stallions to the
Forest, while lesser nobles sent well bred Dales, Fells,
Welsh, Dartmoors and Exmoors to further improve the
breed.
 In 1891 the Society for the Improvement of New Forest
Ponies was founded. In 1906, the Burley and District New
Forest Pony and Cattle Breeding Society started to
register mares and young stock, and the first studbook
was published in 1910. At that time stallions from other
native breeds were used to further improve the breed and
the early studbooks show quite a curious assortment of
sires.
Today the New Forest Pony is not only bred in the U.K.,
but throughout Europe, North America and Australia. The
breeding goals are to develop a perfect riding pony for
children. Most recently higher standards of breeding
have been achieved to accommodate the increase
performance required by the sports of dressage, jumping
and driving. The result is a versatile luxury sport pony
extraordinaire.
Foresters range in size from 12 hands to 14.3 hands. The
allowed colours for registration are; Bay, Brown, Grey,
Chestnut, Roans, Buckskin and Black. Limited white
markings are allowed on the head and legs unless caused
by scarring. Blue eyed crèmes, piebald and skewbald are
not allowed. After 1990, dark eyed palominos with white
mane and tail became permitted for registration as mares
and geldings only. A well bred New Forest Pony displays
a free, well balanced, straight movement. The trot is
free from the shoulder and covers a lot of ground. The
canter is round and forward. Their athleticism enables
them to compete in a wide variety of disciplines such as
dressage, hunter jumping, driving, polo, gymkhana,
western pleasure, trail and endurance often to the
highest levels of these disciplines. They are also
easily trained to carry handicapped riders.
  The demand for excellent sport ponies is growing
worldwide. With the promotion of dressage as a Junior’s
sport, the demand for dressage ponies is increasing
significantly. The New Forest Pony is a proven athlete
and is capable of performing at the highest levels. In
Europe many young riders are competing at the FEI level
and in Z jumping. Olympic riders such as the Individual
Silver Medal winner in jumping, Albert Voorm from
Holland and US dressage rider, Landon Grey started their
careers on the backs of well bred New Forest Ponies. In
1993, the New Forest Pony, Calypso, won the USDF Bronze
Medal in 3rd level dressage ridden by a 9 year old girl.
 These Ponies are generous, talented, hardy and a
complete joy to train and ride. They are as delightful
as the people who own them for you will always see a
smile on the face of anyone who is around them!
To learn more about the New Forest Pony, visit the
following Featured Breeders and Breed Associations.
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