New Forest weather diary
|
|
|
|
| New Forest foal with a rain soaked coat eating some hay to try to keep warm after a night of heavy rain. | New Forest foal - look how slim she is - every mouthful counts in keeping up her strength to get through the winter. | New Forest pony - look at her wet coat. The lighter coloured, fluffy coat means she is well insulated against the cold. After a heavy night of rain she is soaked through and so the cold could get to her. |
The New Forest ponies have a great way of dealing with rain, sleet and snow. They turn their backs to the oncoming weather and with a bit of luck it hits their rumps, curves round along their tummies and past their ears and away without too much ill effect.
When you look at them on a sunny winters day their coats are really quite fluffy. This provides them with insulation.
However, heavy rain means the fluffiness goes and the coat flattens. The wet penetrates and the insulation goes. If the rain is combined with a very cold night they may have trouble keeping warm enough and will lose their level of fitness and their survival chances may reduce, especially if they become weak.
February Diary
It's early February 2009 and conditions are
very harsh.
Heavy snow has fallen off and on over the last few days.
The poor New Forest ponies are having a struggle to keep warm and well fed. Everything is frozen and it's hard to find anything to eat.
The good Commoners (as they should!) supplement the grazing the ponies can find with hay during the harsh winter weather in the New Forest.
Most of the mares are pregnant and will be producing this
years foals in the next months, up to May probably.
This takes the condition out of the ponies and they need the
help of the Commoners feed.
You can see the contrast in New Forest weather through the year, from these two similar location scenes.
The heather is a glorious purple in this beautiful New Forest valley scene and yet today it is a rather bleak valley full of winter snow.
New Forest weather is never dull!
If you need more updates, not necessarily for this area
BBC weather
can give you all the updates you may need - but not predict a hurricane - oops sorry Micheal Fish!
If you would like to see what the New Forest was like last April before Easter, you can see the photos I took at the time.
This is a time of the year when the New Forest foals will be all over the forest and suddenly the poor little things have to deal with such extreme weather as April snow 2008 they really do have to be hardy, which the New Forest pony is known for, but sometimes a few foals are lost when they succumb to pneumonia or chills and just aren't old enough to fight back.
Nature can be very hard at times.
Do you need to search for further information?.....here's how
Welcome to New Forest Life SiteSearch. I really hope you find this Google tool helpful in finding your way around my site.
Are you wondering where you saw the Sandy Balls Holiday Centre? Perhaps you found some information, or a really lovely photo of a New Forest pony, and wanted to find it again?
SiteSearch has the answer.
In the search box below, simply enter New Forest followed by whatever you are searching for
For example: put Sandy Balls if you are looking to find information on the Sandy Balls Holiday Centre and hit the Search button.
Happy Searching!
Back to Home Page
