{"id":4528,"date":"2019-12-28T21:13:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-29T02:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=4528"},"modified":"2019-12-28T21:24:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-29T02:24:08","slug":"the-new-forest-3000-wild-horses-ancient-trees-lovely-villages-fudge-dec-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=4528","title":{"rendered":"THE NEW FOREST, 3,000 WILD HORSES, ANCIENT TREES, LOVELY VILLAGES, FUDGE… DEC. 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cALAN, GET AWAY FROM THERE, SHE’S STAMPING HER HOOF\u2026A WARNING”<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Dec. 2019<\/div>\n

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\u201cDO NOT take another step!”<\/div>\n
\u201cJust a little loser\u2026better picture.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan, get away from her, she\u2019s stamping her foot\u2026a warning to you\u2026she could charge.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNonsense\u2026never saw her make a move.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cShe is a wild horse.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLooks  pretty docile to me.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThese horses  have lived  here in the New Forest for hundreds of years.<\/div>\n
Free\u2026to do whatever they want.  This is their turf not ours.  Get back here to the car, Alan.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe sign says  we are entering the New Forest National Park but the land looks like<\/div>\n
any other part of southern England.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cUse your eyes and  ears\u2026didn\u2019t you hear the rumble as  we crossed that cattle grid?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCattle grid?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cA  bunch of pipes  laid across  the road\u2026no animal can  cross without getting a broken leg\u2026the<\/div>\n
whole 219 square miles  of the new Forest has Cattle Grids.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTo keep  the wild horses from running completely free.  They have a huge area already.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201c Are they really free?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMostly free, yes, but they are owned  by residents who round them up<\/div>\n
each year for medical checks and stuff  like that.   And the stallions  have to<\/div>\n
be controlled a bit more.  If stallions had free rein in the New Forest they might<\/div>\n
give tourists a  run for the money.  So the stallions are penned up until April and<\/div>\n
then turned  loose to do what comes naturally.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow  many  New Forest ponies  live  here?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard  there are as many  as 3,000.  Why not start counting.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMust raise hell with private property.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot much private property here in the New Forest.  90% of  the land is  public land\u2026owned<\/div>\n
by the Crown.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThis is a giant managed forest\u2026Oaks dominated as property of the Royal Navy.  Many are<\/div>\n
still here today.  Cropped from time to time.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow can  oaks be  cropped>\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201c200 year old oaks\u2026the kind that were across sprouts  at time of Napoleon are now<\/div>\n
ready to be cropped.  Many generations of New Forest residents have come and gone<\/div>\n
before a single mighty oak is cropped.”<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe are lucky that it\u2019s pouring rain  today\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot many tourists.   In summer  the roads can be jammed  with<\/div>\n
rubber necks and vehicles.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAre horses ever hit by cars?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOften, especially at night.  The road sings  caution drivers but accidents <\/div>\n
do happen.”<\/div>\n
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\u201cThere once were enough snakes  in the New forest to keep this snake catcher busy.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cStiff have snakes\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAdders are all gone.”<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis is Lyndhurst, the largest town in the New Forest.  There are quite a few towns and<\/div>\n
villages\u2026rather quaint.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat so grand about Lyndhurst?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLike?”<\/div>\n
\u201cTwo things.  First is the  large Ferrari luxury car show room\u2026cars worth $100,000 and upwards\u2026Strange to see  <\/div>\n
such  luxury in the centre of a forest that is devoted to freedom of  animals.  But there it is.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cAnd the second thing?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFudge.  They make great fudge here\u2026all flavours maple of  course but whisky fudge as well and a whole<\/div>\n
slew of other fudges.  Good stuff.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cALAN, GET AWAY FROM THERE, SHE’S STAMPING HER HOOF\u2026A WARNING” alan skeoch Dec. 2019 \u201cDO NOT take another step!” \u201cJust a little loser\u2026better picture.\u201d \u201cAlan, get away from her, she\u2019s stamping her foot\u2026a warning to you\u2026she could charge.\u201d \u201cNonsense\u2026never saw her make a move.\u201d \u201cShe is a wild horse.\u201d \u201cLooks  pretty docile to me.\u201d \u201cThese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}