A PONY for the price of a pint and a sandwich It was no joke at the New Forest Pony Sales at Beaulieu Road yesterday. At least, none of the Commoners were laughing as they gloomily watched this year's prime crop of foals going under the hammer - many for a fiver or less.

A roan colt went for 12 guineas . . . a bay colt for seven . . . a chestnut for just four guineas. Fillies fared better - £28 for a chest-nut, £17 for a bay.

More than 500 shaggy, gangly four-month old foals were rounded-up from the Forest last weekend to be sold at this year's first auction of the new season's stock.

But buyers were thin on the ground. Many round the arena were only lookers-on, lapping up the atmosphere of bygone England. And many locals fear their way of life may soon, literally, be a thing of the past.

Verderer and lifelong Boldre commoner Tony Gerrelli said: "Economics will decide it in the end.

"The sums just don't add up. How long can commoners carry on making so little money on their animals

"It has become a very expensive hobby, and many of the younger generation of commoning families are giving up.

"When the older ones go, who will be there to run animals on the Forest Someone will have to step in or the whole ecology of the New Forest will be lost," he said.

Tony hoped to sell a couple of pretty fillies at the sales, but he was prepared to take them home again if they didn't make a £35 reserve.

His son Jonathan, from Tiptoe, can't take that option. His colts come from young mares who need a rest, so they must be sold.

"They go from a wonderful life in the Forest, to who knows what Some people keep them in back gardens. A quick, clean death would be better, but the bottom has dropped out of the meat market too," said Jonathan.

Lyndhurst commoner Pat Mabbutt is also forced to sell her foals. "You just can't keep them all. They drag the mothers down and make it harder for them to get through the winter," she said.

"You have to take what you can get. The only hope of a good price is if a buyer takes a fancy to a foal."

Ironically, this year's youngsters are the healthiest for several seasons.

Official sale vet Jack Broughton said: " We have not had to turn one pony away yet for poor condition, not one with a cough. They are very good.

"But where are the buyers to come from It's the law of supply and demand. There are just too many foals."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.