Living the good life

Turning natives away for part of the year not only benefits their mental wellbeing but also their overall health, discovers Stephanie Bateman

- Stephanie Bateman

THE idea of turning a beloved pony out with no rug and no feed through the winter months after a busy season being ridden fills most owners with dread, but some say it’s one of the best things you can do for them.

New Forest pony breeder Erika Dovey has seen first-hand from watching her father and grandfather the benefits of allowing ponies to live in their natural habitat.

“One of the many skills I was taught as a commoner was how to use the forest to your advantage, so if we have a pony that is doing too well, we turn it out on the forest and it naturally loses weight,” says Erika, who runs Carterstone Stud.

Most of Erika’s ponies are born on the forest, so learn where and what to eat and drink from their mothers. They spend the first few months running with their dams before being brought into Erika’s holding in the autumn to be weaned and handled through the winter. They are then turned back out the following spring when the grass starts growing and left alone until December when they return for more handling.

Erika shows many of them in-hand as youngsters before breaking them in at four and competing them in working hunter classes as well as hunting them.

“They get thin in winter and that’s what native ponies should do” GINA PARKER

“By grazing them that way, you are keeping them in really good shape and not allowing them to get overweight,” she says. “They maintain muscle tone because they are foraging and walking, wading through bogs and stretching to eat leaves and bark.”

The forest also gives the younger ponies a great education.