Horse Shrine

It was years ago I first read Robert Holdstock's 'Mythago Wood', I've read it many times since and would honestly say it had, and continues to have, a powerful effect on how I experience the natural world, myth and legend. I know it's a work of fiction, though I found aspects of it resonate, and anyway, there's often truths to be found hidden in fiction. Reoccurring features throughout the books (there several books and short stories in the Mythago Wood series based on the mysterious Ryhope Wood), are the horse and horse shrines, the horse has always been a important and powerfully symbolic animal, important to human cultures all over the world, they have helped us so much, and in so many ways. From beasts of burden, wood and field labourers to revered, respected and feared war-machines, and everything in between. The horse has been our companion throughout our journey from way back when to now. The New Forest is famous, amongst other things, for its rugged ponies, 5000 of whom range free, living and dying almost wild as they have done for over 2000 years, and whose ancestors arrived here after the last ice age. As I say, they live and die wild in the forest, and I regularly find horse skulls and my mind wanders back into the mythological landscape of Mythago Wood. The horse shrines in the stories always feature skulls.

Pelvic bones

As I took a short cut through one of the younger blocks of conifer mosaic on my way to Mogshade Hill, I stumbled across a greening pony skull. If you walk off the tracks and through the woods enough it's not uncommon to come across disarticulated bones around the forest.  About 6m from the skull were the 2 pelvic bones, again, not uncommon for the bones of fallen animal to be scattered. Though these bones were weird, these had definitely been purposefully positioned, I'm certain this isn't how they were left via natural process. There was symmetry in their placing.   On closer inspection, the needle litter in area encompassed by the positioned bones had been notably compressed, something had sat/been placed there for some time, and recently. I wonder what the motivation for these acts was. Of course, the positioning of the bones, and the episode compression may represent different events. You 'll often come across something out of the ordinary out in the forest. Still, what's it all about.  Riddle me that?

The cannon bone's connected to the .....

The cannon bone's connected to the......., well, it should be the carpal bones, though in this case it appears to be the stream bed. I'm assuming that's a pony's cannon bone, it's been some years since I took bone analysis, and then it was only an archaeological module. What I mainly remember from the module was an occasion when one of the younger students, Joe, a nice lad, was caught by the lecturer making boner jokes, he had his back to the door as the lecturer walked in...classic, oh how we mocked him. I shouldn't imagine this bone was purposely deposited in some strange forest ritual, rather it probably washed into the stream from a the skeleton of a fallen pony after it's been scavenged and disarticulated by other forest dwellers. Rarely do things go to waste in nature.