dying pony on dartmoor

[1rocky1]

anyone seen the mail on line , about the dartmoor pony that was dying leading its foal to safety !!

 

[tallyho!]

Is there a link? Sounds very sad.

 

[rhino]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-pony-walks-days-lead-young-foal-safety.html

 

[lurcher98]

Finally worked out how to do links on my phone. Hope it works
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-pony-walks-days-lead-young-foal-safety.html

 

[tallyho!]

Good headline. I can't see my screen now, I've welled up. Stories like this always makes me blub...

 

[Dizzydancer]

Oh how sad. But what a clever little mare showing true mothers instinct. Hope the foal thrives.

 

[ester]

owner obviously keeping an excellent eye on their breeding stock then

 

[skint1]

Bless her, I am a bit misty eyed hope the foal lives a long and happy life

 

[MochaDun]

owner obviously keeping an excellent eye on their breeding stock then

That's what I thought Look at the bones sticking out on the mare and what nobody noticed? .... She may have had something wrong with her (ie, teeth bad and couldn't eat) but I'm amazed neither tourists or walkers or anybody spotted her in that state in the last few weeks - or for that matter rangers from the DNPA out and about. The mother must have been suffering.

 

[paddi22]

owner obviously keeping an excellent eye on their breeding stock then

That's the first thing I thought when i read it to. Shame on the owner for letting the mare get that bad. What if the mare hadn't led it down? The poor foal could be starving somewhere instead.

 

[MochaDun]

And whilst I think of it, how come all the pics have been taken off them ambling in or was this not on the day she appeared at the owner's farm? I mean why would you pause and take pics of the mare and foal when she's in that state which you then or someone else passes to a national newpaper for publication? Taking pics of my horse in that state would be the last thing on my mind.

 

[mandwhy]

Poor pony but hooray for mothers instinct! I wonder how old she was?

 

[meandmyself]

Ugh, I bloody despair. Poor mare should never have been allowed to get into that state. Owner should be prosecuted.

 

[Epona78]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but the article says she walked for 5 days - how do they know she walked for 5 days? Who was watching her for 5 days without lifting a finger to help her? Am I missing something..?

 

[Epona78]

And she has an owner? If she has an owner why was she in such a state? I don't really understand this story...

 

[ester]

my guess is that .. in order to get some publicity/funds the dartmoor hill pony society lady contacted the DM about the mare turning up at home.. I suspect the 5 days is journo allowance.

The fact that the owner has either a) seen the state of the mare and not brought her off the hill b) not actually bothered to check her stock on the hill is You're not allowed to do that to a sheep so how come its ok to do it to a horse

 

[Spiritedly]

The ponies live wild and many have learnt the sound of the quads that round them up and hide in various ditches and gullys that are all over Dartmoor. The photo was taken by a holiday maker who then reported it to HOPE Dartmoor rescue, they then passed the details to Charlotte Faulkner as she deals with that area of Dartmoor, I believe that although they went looking round the area she had been seen she wasn't spotted again until she turned up at the farmers yard.

 

[Epona78]

The ponies live wild and many have learnt the sound of the quads that round them up and hide in various ditches and gullys that are all over Dartmoor. The photo was taken by a holiday maker who then reported it to HOPE Dartmoor rescue, they then passed the details to Charlotte Faulkner as she deals with that area of Dartmoor, I believe that although they went looking round the area she had been seen she wasn't spotted again until she turned up at the farmers yard.

Oh right, I didn't know any of the that. The stupid article doesn't explain any of that! Thanks.

 

[Spiritedly]

Oh right, I didn't know any of the that. The stupid article doesn't explain any of that! Thanks.

That's ok, I know because I took the photos on the moor

 

[Tiffany]

How can a caring owner let a pony get in this state - so sad

 

[Dry Rot]

How can a caring owner let a pony get in this state - so sad

Spirited has said that the ponies sometimes hide. That makes complete sense to me as they will have retained their wild instincts. I once saw a deer chased by a dog. The deer went over the brow of a hill, turned abruptly to one side when it was out of sight, and promptly lay down -- and escaped the attentions of the annoying dog.

How do they know it was walking for five days? Well, it could be that they become hefted like sheep to a particular area. They will stick to the area of the moor they know. Owners will know this and know how long it takes a normal pony to walk the distance home, so an estimated "five days" is not unreasonable.

Most of what you read in the newspapers about animals is hyped up rubbish, but not necessarily all of it!

The unpleasant aspect of the story is that letting Nature take it's course is what has made these ponies what they are -- tough, hardy, savvy, etc. It is not pleasant and has a name - Natural Selection. Better that than selection by the show ring. (Dons asbestos suit, runs and hides).

 

[AmyMay]

Would love to know how Lorraine Chambers actually monitors her stock. And at what age she stops allowing her mares to keep knocking out foals. Mare looks elderly, foal on her looked cracking and was obviously taking everything out of the mare, which clearly needed supporting.

Disgraceful.

 

[ester]

I'm sorry but although I think evolution is a great thing normally I don't think that privately owned animals should be subject to natural selection... these are not a breed of pony that has evolved over many years to cope with the hills.. that would be proper dartmoors not random whatever breds

If the owner knows where their ponies normally hang out (which they should) they should be checking on them periodically given that the mare has likely not been looking so great for some time. It is not acceptable that you can chuck them on the hill and forgo all responsibility just because they are semi-feral/you have free grazing..

 

[pip6]

Do you appreciate how remote some areas of Dartmoor are? It's not like going to check a field a couple of times a day. There is no way all the areas of the moor can be checked. Even going out each day the animals move about, so you may be where you checked the previous day (not a chance of doing moor in a single day). That's why they have to make the big effort to collect them down for the winter, it takes a lot of hands to accomplish this (mainly on quads & horses).

I don't like the state of the mare, but this is a wild area, do not be so judgemental of owner. That the mare was 5 days walk away will tell you how remote she was. Efforts are being made to curb breeding. I live here & hate seeing poor quality stock bred for meat (providing it isn't shot as a foal as it would cost morse to keep than meat man would pay). However, I appreciate it is a difficult situation, with few easy answers. You can't just take all the ponies off the moor into barns, it would have a huge impact on the ecology of the moor. I'd love to see quality standards, with true bred ponies not the hill ponies which have proliferated. This is, however, a very large wild area, so access is difficult to say the least, in bad weather impossible.

 

[ester]

yup... I've only just moved from somerset so spent plenty of time in the area and can appreciate the difference

I'm not suggesting an owner should be checking them twice daily.. or even once a week but a mare in such a state that she dies when she gets home seems to imply that checking isn't really being done at all.. or at the very least several weeks apart

 

[Queenbee]

It raises a lot of issues. Yes natural selection is one of the things that has made this breed what it is, along with allowing and protecting its semi feral state. But it is still a privately owned animal. Even if I owned acres of my own moorland and ran a herd in such a way, if a horse of mine was left like this and subsequently died I would expect to be accountable. Horses die, I also know that horses can waste away before your eyes due to untreatable terminal conditions but I battled for 6 weeks with ebony knowing she was ill, I just can't agree with the argument that horses hide and that's a get out clause! It's a duty of care, if I'd done nothing in six weeks to try and help my mare I'd be hung drawn and quartered. It's not too much to expect that should and could have seen this mare during this time at least once. Yes it's a heart warming story and possibly this mare was just going to die no matter what, but it sits very badly with me that she so obviously struggled for so long. With any other owner this would not have been a heartwarming story with neglect glossed over and ignored as natural selection because of natural selection. And actually, purely from a commercial side do we want tourists to see ponies in such a state, is that what we want to portray as an attraction on our moorland? These animals are in the public eye not that that should make them more cared for but it should damn well be an incentive! What a brave brave beautiful mare and very luck foal. And yes, I understand that media coverage
must be taken at every opportunity, it's good to get the horses into the media and promote them, but that woman is neglectful and she deserves no good press. She is unfit to be
linked with such a brave little
mare. And yes, there are lots of
places for ponies to hide, as a result keeping track of them is
hard, but it's not impossible and they have no problem finding
them for the drift and sales. Horses also leave hoof prints...
These can be tracked and if they hear a bloody quad, get your lazy neglectful bones into a bloody saddle and ride the moors! These are ponies we are supposed to be protecting and cherishing as 'special' not neglecting.
Now I know why I resisted reading this thread till now. I'm so bloody mad that poor mare may well have not been able to be saved but shouldnt have had to struggle she had

 

[happyhacking:)]

Its not as simple as that though QB you cannot get close to them they are wild they did go out looking for the mare but had no joy Dartmoor is extreemly remote and finding one pony in amongst the hundreds of others is virtually impossible people don't have days on end to go out looking for one pony. Harsh yes but that's life for these ponies. I know Charlote I bought a weanling from her last year and I'm sure she would have done all she could to find the mare. But then comes another point what could she have done if they had found them? Getting one pony in off the moors is damn near impossible and the stress to both the mare and foal would probably have finished off the mare from the look of her. as it was the mare took her baby home to somewhere she knew was safe for the foal. We don't actually have any info on what caused the death of the mare do we? So it's impossible to say if the mares death was preventable or not. Remember though that what may be easily treated in a domestic horse is made infinitively times harder as these are wild animals (and must remain so)

 

[Dry Rot]

Its not as simple as that though QB you cannot get close to them they are wild they did go out looking for the mare but had no joy Dartmoor is extreemly remote and finding one pony in amongst the hundreds of others is virtually impossible people don't have days on end to go out looking for one pony. Harsh yes but that's life for these ponies. I know Charlote I bought a weanling from her last year and I'm sure she would have done all she could to find the mare. But then comes another point what could she have done if they had found them? Getting one pony in off the moors is damn near impossible and the stress to both the mare and foal would probably have finished off the mare from the look of her. as it was the mare took her baby home to somewhere she knew was safe for the foal. We don't actually have any info on what caused the death of the mare do we? So it's impossible to say if the mares death was preventable or not. Remember though that what may be easily treated in a domestic horse is made infinitively times harder as these are wild animals (and must remain so)

Absolutely agree the above and you've put it a lot more tactfully than I would be able to do it. Farming is a tough life and hill farming even tougher.

Sorry, but to suggest that someone might actually be able to track a sick animal, let alone select it out of a herd and drive it home (five days walk?), is simply not being realistic.

Have a look at the YouTube video of the WHW roundup of only 90 ponies on a mere 2,000 acres near Dallas, Morayshire, and how many helpers were needed. Dartmoor is far far rougher and huge in comparison with a lot more animals.

 

[AmyMay]

So essentially, these ponies are wandering around with absolutely no monitoring, or welfare checks?

 

[ester]

Remember though that what may be easily treated in a domestic horse is made infinitively times harder as these are wild animals (and must remain so)

I do struggle to consider these ponies wild animals tbh, hence my disagreement with the concept of natural selection for them.