All the Ponies have now left the site as of Thursday 31st Oct. They have gone just up the road to Wellington where they will now be trained for riding. This lot will be missed.

Thanks all for your help throughout the year. We will let you all know when new animals come on next year.

 

Ponies seen today at 12:35 near the quarry track fence. All fine.

The Countryside Rangers.

Elusive as they were all ponies eventually found grazing near to hobby gate  (sunday 27/10/13), sometimes i swear they are following me around deliberateley trying to give me the slip. 

Dont they look cute with their winter coats dont you just want to cuddle them!

All the ponies were down in the woods near the bridge yesterday (22nd Oct) afternooon.  I broke a couple of low branches off of a beech tree for them as they do love tree leaves at this time of year. 

Ian (Senior ranger)

Ponies seen on track near to quarry gate at 12:15pm. All fine.

The Countryside Rangers.

Yesterday (Sunday 13 Oct) all ponies were in the short turved area near to the corral.  They were all soaking wet and a little flighty but soon settled down after a minute or so of being with them.  Blondie seemed a little fed up and bedraggled, i dont think he like the weather.  Apart from that they all seem in in good health though.

Ian
Senior Ranger

All ponies seen grazing near the wooden vehicle bridge at 12:10pm. All fine.

The Countryside Rangers

All ponies seen at the bottom of the boardwalk near the meandering stream. All fine.

The Countryside Rangers.

Ponies seen next to quarry track near main entrance gate. All fine.

The Countryside Rangers

All ponies seen at airfield gate. All fine.

The Countryside Rangers.

All ponies seen grazing happily near the corral at noon.

The Countryside Rangers.

Sunday 22/09/13

All the ponies were seen today grazing near to the corral, all seem happy and content.  If you look closely you can see that they are starting to get their winter coats now.

Ian Stoneman
Senior Ranger

All ponies seen at the top of the boardwalk yesterday (19/09/13). All fine.

The Countryside Rangers.

Ponies seen today at 11:30 near corral. All in great condition.

The Countryside Rangers.

All ponies seen grazing contently next to quarry track fence at 14:20.

The Countryside Rangers.

All ponies seen yesterday near the quarry gate. All ok.

The Countryside Rangers.

All ponies seen near corral grazing happily on 08/09/13 at 13:30hrs. All fine.

The Countryside Rangers.

All ponies seen on 27/08/13 at 12.30. near corral standing in the shade. All looking fine.

The Countryside Rangers.

All ponies seen today near the top of the board-walk. All looking fine and healthy.

Countryside Rangers.

All ponies seen contently grazing near the top the boardwalk yesterday (sunday) at 3.15pm, all looking fine.

Phil Hayes..Ranger.

Six New Forest ponies now grazing Castle Bottom!

Castle Bottoms newest residents are 6 New Forest ponies, which arrived on-site on Saturday afternoon.  They seem very healthy and good-natured, and we are all looking forward to getting to know them better in the coming months.  More details about the looking programme and the initial training session will be sent in an email soon, so if you are interested in helping out again this year, please do get in touch! 
All the best,
The Rangers

Just ponies to graze the Reserve in 2013!

Hope you have all been keeping warm in this stubborn wintry weather! 

New and stricter TB regulations came into force in January this year, and we are still in discussions with the relevant organisations as to how exactly this will affect the grazing on Castle Bottom.  It has therefore been decided that, since the site was grazed by a fairly large herd last year, we will relax the grazing this year and only have ponies on the reserve, from May-November (with exact dates depending on weather and conditions).

Additionally, due to the prevailing cold, and the subsequent lack of vegetative growth, the grazing season will be slightly delayed this year.  At the moment we are looking to start at the beginning of May, but we will be keeping an eye on vegetation growth up until then, and will be in contact with the grazier as soon as it looks like there will be plenty of food on site for them to eat. 

We will still be running the Lookering programme, so please do get in touch if you are interested in helping us to check on the ponies once they're on site!  At the moment, we are hoping for the same ponies as last year, since they were such good-natured animals.  More will be confirmed on this as soon as we have any more information.

Until then, if you have any questions, you can either comment on this post, or email us directly at:  northern.sites@hants.gov.uk

All the best,

The Rangers

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