Pannage Pigs & Party-Pace Riding
I’m very proud to have been involved with the New Forest Off Road Club (NFORC). for much of this year, but I am ashamed to say I hadn’t made it on to a ride until last weekend.
If you haven’t come across it NFORC is a welcoming, inclusive and safe space for riders of all genders to get together and enjoy exploring the gravel and lanes of the New Forest. Focusing on building confidence and community, they are one of my favourite groups of cyclists.
A Rainbow of Riders (L-R: Meredith, Emily, Me, Laura, Sue, Pat, Alice, Helen, Gila)
As a ‘new’ forest, created for Henry VIII to hunt, the New Forest is governed by rites and lores. The people who live in particular properties in the Forest have Commoners’ rights - where they are allowed to graze ponies and cattle on the land, but for 60 days every autumn the pigs are also allowed out for Pannage.
Why? Because pigs love acorns and ponies don’t. Acorns make ponies sick, so for 60 days every autumn, a beautiful symbiotic relationship occurs where the pigs are released and pootle round the forest, hoovering up poisonous acorns.
Acorns, ponies and pigs - symbiosis at its finest
Sue Barrett is one of the NFORC ride leaders (aka @adventurequeenmother), an OS Maps ambassador and a former-primary school teacher. With a love of the Forest and a passion for sharing stories with others, Sue’s Pannage Pigs ride at Party-Pace had an attraction all of it’s own.
Knowing the ride was ‘party-pace’ I decided to ride out from Lymington. I am learning that I love group rides to be ‘party-paced’ - full of people, curiosity and chatter - but I also love to feel the physical benefits of a faster ride. So a solo 20km blast inland from my family home in Lymington, was a perfect way to expend some energy before joining Sue and the others.
We pedaled out from Bolderwood and headed over towards Burley in search of our porcine pals.
At the top of the Ornamental Drive, Bolderwood feels like the heart of the Forest to me. It’s one of the higher points in the Forest too and I loved the way that Sue, Pat and Emily (the three ride leaders) took care to encourage riders about going downhill as well as up.
None of the NFORC rides are officially ‘guided’ - all participants are responsible for themselves, their riding and their bikes - but the inclusive atmosphere and the ride leaders means that no one is left out. As I was there I helped a couple of riders with their gears but the kindness and experience of the group meant they would not have been alone in an emergency.
Over the year I’ve been running regular mechanics classes for the club. Focusing primarily on trailside problems and basic maintenance, there’s now a growing band of resilient riders who are confident with fixing issues that arise while they’re out.
We might have been out looking for pigs but we found mushrooms first!
L-R: Sue, Meredith, Pat and Laura
Almost more exciting than the mushrooms was discovering that Meredith (centre above) is a font of knowledge about mushrooms (and knitting, etymology and folklore).
Did you know that mushrooms are going to save the planet?! There are mushrooms that can breakdown and consume plastic as well as oil spills. I had no idea either, but I feel much happier for knowing it.
Helen and mushrooms - I loved the combination of colours here
Roaming pigs are surprisingly hard to find in a forest. Especially when they can go anywhere and, as cyclists, we are (rightly) confined to the official tracks. We had resigned ourselves to not seeing any in this first part of the ride and Sue was briefing us on the next leg, when a yell went up. There behind us were a group of pigs! It felt like we were part of a comedy sketch where the pigs had been following behind us all along and we simply hadn’t noticed them!
Sue sharing the story of Pannage (L-R: Gila, Meredith, Helen, Alice, Sue, Laura, Emily, Pat)
Our quest complete it was time to head over to Burley for coffee and sustenance! Even the carnivores in the group found it hard to stomach pork sarnies though. We didn’t seem to have any problems with the Noohn Herbivore pulled mushroom sarnies though!
Helen won the picnic prize! Sarnie from Noohn, carrier model’s own
Heading back to Bolderwood my heart, soul and stomach full, it was so clear to me why the New Forest Off Road Club has become so popular. I loved every minute with these kind and interesting people. I can’t wait to join my next ride with you all.
Thank you Sue for the time and care you took in preparing the ride for us - even bringing chocolate pigs in case we couldn’t find the real ones. Thanks as well to Pat and Emily for sharing the ride leader roles and making sure the group was together.
Piggy chocolate accessories for the Mason!
