Henry Harington chases “wild” ponies in his posh Hunter Wellingtons
Published: 14 January, 2010
Visitors to Dartmoor are often amazed by the ponies roaming at will over the Moor. “Are the ponies wild?” they ask. No, and if you get close enough to them, and it is possible to get close because some of the ponies have been tamed by tourists feeding them, you can often see a brand on the pony’s flank.
A brand on the rump. “H” for Hunter ? The brand signifies ownership, ownership by one of the hill farmers on the Moor who are Commoners so have grazing rights for sheep, cattle and ponies on the Common – rather in the manner people used to have rights to graze sheep and geese on the village Common.
The word “brand” comes from the German word to burn and, as with the cowboys on the prairies or the gauchos on the pampas, the ponies must be seared into the ponies skin with a red-hot iron with a distinctive design to mark them out as belonging to Jez, Sue or Lloyd, some of the farmers on the Moor who continue to raise ponies.
The reason I mention the brand is because Hunter, the make of Wellington boots I was testing for Footwear Today is a brand that is seared in the minds of country folk in the UK. Wearing green Hunter wellies (and a green Barbour) is the caricature of what the townie wears when trying to slip into the country set and be “one of us”. While Hunter Wellington boots now come in red, yellow, pink and purple, they remain a brand known as working boots or as robust footwear for sporting.
Ponies used to be bred on Dartmoor in their hundreds of thousands for the coal mines. They lived the first couple of years carefree, roaming the gorse and heather covered uplands, the very symbol and brand of what is today the Dartmoor National Park, with their long manes flowing in the wind on the high tors. In winter they eked out their lives turning their rears to the driving rain or stumbling through blizzards and snowdrifts to find patches of withered vegetation on which to survive.
But, there was a price to pay for the freedom. When their time came they were rounded up. They were herded to the ancient markets in Tavistock and Chagford and auctioned to the mining companies. From under the hammer they were driven to the pithead. Here, they unknowingly took their last ever glimpse of daylight. They would live for the rest of their lives in the blackness of the mines, haul trolleys, laden with coal from the pit face to the lift and empty trolleys from the lift to the pit face. They were stabled, fed and finally died underground.
Today, some of the more benign remnants of those traditions survive. The new use to which the ponies are put is something of a contrast from a life sentence in the Welsh pits. From the markets the ponies today head for the leafy suburbs and paddocks of comfortable houses where they become the love of the lives of countless pubescent girls. As in the times of the mining ponies the route to Farnham, Altringham or Seven Oaks begins with the rounding up of the ponies from their “wild” existence on the Moor. Locally this is known as “the Drift”.
When I am fit and able I normally ride in the Drift, hollering, yahoo-ing and charging back and forth to stop recalcitrant ponies breaking back and escaping to enjoy another year’s freedom. But, this year I went on foot to test a pair of Hunter Balmoral Bamboo Carbon Wellington boots. After one of the wettest summers on record, late September was dry a bone. Often the Drift can be postponed by driving rain or swirling mist.
The job of those helping the drift on foot involves walking the flanks of the column of ponies being rounded up by the riders to make sure the ponies head in the right direction to the pound where they corralled and sorted, by the information in their brand, to allow the owners to take them to market. Older mares and geldings are dispatched to market while the foals born in the late winter and spring are returned to the Moor after a couple of days of worming, gelding and the all-important branding.
Walking the Drift would be a tough test for even the best walking boot: it involved climbing amidst the gorse to the summit of Honeybag Tor to drive the ponies over Chinkwell and down to Bone Hill rocks. There is boggy ground to the south towards Great Tor that is strewn with rocks and boulders. You don’t want the ponies to founder in the bog, so the walkers squelch along its edge to “shoo” them back to the phalanx of cantering ponies that is being driven towards Pil Tor, and then down the steep hill to Chittleford.
The Hunter Balmoral Bamboo Carbon passed this ‘off-road’ test with flying colours. It is a supremely comfortable boot, tell your customers. It is certainly designed for those who will stand in wetlands for hours on end waiting for a duck or goose to come into their sights. The boot boasts a charcoal fleece lining, the thermal properties of which Hunter claim, “improve blood circulation thereby keeping the foot warm”.
Details:
The Hunter Balmoral Bamboo Carbon (RRP: £110) also has the benefits of the Balmoral Classic with the additional support of extra cushioned insoles and a highly innovative Bamboo Carbon lining. This technical fabric has a unique ability to wick moisture away from the foot and can acclimatise to temperature variations, making it a great all year round material for boot linings. The Balmoral Bamboo Carbon features the same insole/outsole as the Balmoral Neoprene. Available in dark olive.
