Post by Caroline on Aug 22, 2008 12:47:10 GMT 1
The National Park has published a plan which will make recreational horse keeping very difficult, if not impossible in the New Forest. They say it is a blot on the landscape and poaches the forest tracks. (They don't seem to feel that way about thousands of caravans and cyclists and, in the same document, they actively seek to encourage tourism - which generates a lot of money for the Forestry Commission)
They are defining recreational horsekeeping as involving:
* sub division of agricultural land to make pony paddocks
* suplementary feeding
* use of rugs
* presence of training rings, menages, tacking up areas etc
All these things will need planning permission, which won't be granted, except in certain cases.
It looks like people like myself, who keep horses in fields rented from a farmer, will be out of a home for their horses. They are insisting that horses are kept on a hectare (about 2.4 acres) each, which cannot be subdivided or grass-managed. So, it seems we are expected to court laminitis in the warm months and are not allowed to rug or give hard feed in the winter months.
There is so much wrong with this! Horse owners are going to have an impossible and very expensive task just providing basic care for their horses. If it goes through, I will probably have to move out of the forest - as will many other horse owners who are not wealthy enough to afford their own paddock attached to their house. I don't think they have considered how this will affect house prices. They certainly don't seem to have appreciated the welfare implications to the horses and the right of the owner to care for their horse.
There is a meeting tonight (Friday 22nd August) at East Boldre Village Hall at 8pm. It is open to anyone and it is expected that lots of people affected by the proposals will attend to discuss the proposal and work out a strategy to effectively oppose it.
It is a very important issue for anyone keeping horses in the New Forest. It is worth watching for people further afield because it is possible that the policies will get implemented outside the forest later on.
They are defining recreational horsekeeping as involving:
* sub division of agricultural land to make pony paddocks
* suplementary feeding
* use of rugs
* presence of training rings, menages, tacking up areas etc
All these things will need planning permission, which won't be granted, except in certain cases.
It looks like people like myself, who keep horses in fields rented from a farmer, will be out of a home for their horses. They are insisting that horses are kept on a hectare (about 2.4 acres) each, which cannot be subdivided or grass-managed. So, it seems we are expected to court laminitis in the warm months and are not allowed to rug or give hard feed in the winter months.
There is so much wrong with this! Horse owners are going to have an impossible and very expensive task just providing basic care for their horses. If it goes through, I will probably have to move out of the forest - as will many other horse owners who are not wealthy enough to afford their own paddock attached to their house. I don't think they have considered how this will affect house prices. They certainly don't seem to have appreciated the welfare implications to the horses and the right of the owner to care for their horse.
There is a meeting tonight (Friday 22nd August) at East Boldre Village Hall at 8pm. It is open to anyone and it is expected that lots of people affected by the proposals will attend to discuss the proposal and work out a strategy to effectively oppose it.
It is a very important issue for anyone keeping horses in the New Forest. It is worth watching for people further afield because it is possible that the policies will get implemented outside the forest later on.