Tues. What a cracking day – well at least weather wise! We spent the morning in ‘hunt the missing Lullington ponies!’ I ended up walking from the SD Way above Jevington to just above Friston pumping station. Eventually all seven appeared from out of Friston Forest half way along the gallops. Once located, we drove them back – they knew towards the end of which, where home was and how to get there!
The local farm is having a major security drive at the moment with a number of vehicle barriers being erected on access points in the Litlington area. Joy riders have become apparently an almost nightly occurrence up on the Downs. These pests had left both gates open where the ponies are and elsewhere, literally driven through some gates in the forest!
In the afternoon at Chailey, we managed to only gather 15 ponies for the night.
Weds. Come the morning, the ponies were still contained within the temporary fenced-off area. Luckily, just outside of which, were standing the missing five ponies. While I made the trip with the first load of ponies to Ashdown Forest, where I became temporarily stuck on the greasy clay created by the overnight rain and had to un-hitch and extract the trailer. Meanwhile back at Chailey, the other five were coaxed in and eventually corralled. By the end of the day, we had five ponies on site on the new grazing area on Ashdown Forest near Nutley, eight ponies on Red House Common and seven ponies awaiting to go to another new site just outside of Brighton.