Surveyor

 

Queen of all she surveys. One of Eponas' own takes stock of her roam.

A Thelwell pony?

 

This little beauty put me in mind of the Thelwell ponies. Do you know of cartoonist and illustrator Norman Thelwell? Thelwell was a famous cartoonist and illustrator of the British countryside and contributor to the the magazine Punch. One of my early girlfriends was a horsey girl and introduced me to Thelwells' enchanting cartoons having several volumes of them. If you know them, you'll instantly see what I mean. Made me smile.

Itchy

The pony purposefully first bent over and then straddled the sapling conifer in pursuit of relief; moving in ways familiar to everyone who's suffered an itch, there were points where she clearly hit the spot, the expression was unmistakable. This went on for several minutes until with itch satisfied she rejoined her waiting companions and disappeared into the stands; as for the tree, it was still regaining it's composure when we left it. I bet the tree wasn't expecting that.

Foal

 New life in the forest.

Camouflage

I asked around, and they call her camouflage.

I can see for miles

There are two pairs of Bronze Age round barrows on the plateau of Spy Holms, the largest one is positioned squarely in the centre of the open grass and heather expanse. Although now much reduced in height by time and the elements this low profile barrow affords clear views in all directions, what with Spy Holms being rather flat and all. You'll often see one of the forest's ponies taking advantage of the elevation to survey strings of ponies scattered around the holms.

Blimey, what a difference a day makes. Today we've got 45 degree driving rains and gusts of chill wind, juxtaposed with short bursts of warm sunshine. I'm only walking for a few minutes before I'm soaked, and the bursts of sun are far from hot enough nor long enough to dry me out. Moments after this picture was taken the clouds opened letting the sun shine through and these sheltering ponies all dashed on mass out on to the nearby open lawn. Their joy was to be short lived, as moments later the rains were back with a vengeance.  Walking today was a shock to the system, and a timely reminder that autumn is rapidly approaching and with it the possibility of more unsettled times (once it would have been certainty, though climate change means nothing is certain when it comes to weather and the seasons). 

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?