PONYHENGE
DATE(S) VISITED: APRIL 29, 2023
LOCATION: LINCOLN, MA
It was a rainy weekend and we were going stir crazy in the house and needed to get out for some air and a leg stretch. So, what better place to head for than Ponyhenge. This quirky location is only a short distance away from Team H HQ which made it an ideal place to head too and escape for a couple of hours. On arrival we were amazed how close it was to the road, you certainly can't miss it! We were both expecting to have to trek through muddy pathways and fields to get to the location.
Ponyhenge is cute and all, but for all the hype over this location we were honestly expecting more. But it was a good place to visit on a cold rainy day because it is small. Watching the rocking horses move on their own in the breeze was cool, and rather eerie. We played on a few, got silly and wet in the rain and felt like kids for a minute. Weird little location, but we like weird.
It was sometime in 2010 that the first horse appeared and nobody really knew how it got there. One story is that it got left behind from a child's lemonade stand, some say it was left over from a Christmas display. But, the real story is that it was started by the land owners, James Pingeon and his wife Elizabeth Graver after a Halloween celebration. In an interview with the Boston Globe they stated, “It started out where we had a little Halloween show, and they had a Headless Horseman in the field, and we didn’t know what to do with the horse afterward. “So we thought, ‘Oh, let’s just leave it in the field."
Over time more and more horses joined the herd, from rocking horses, hobby horses, and plastic horses in which a doll had once probably rode. Happy to not be discarded and left to roam the pasture together, these equine friends will periodically rearrange into different positions. They have been known to have been set in a line, as if they are about to start a race. Left in rows as if in class or having a lecture from one of the older horses. But more often than not, they can be found laid out in a circle, like their ancient namesake describes.
"Nearer and nearer by changing horses, Still so far away. People fighting for their places just get in my way. Soon you'll leave and then I'll lose you, Still we're going 'round" ~ The Hollies – On a Carousel
For more photo's of our visit to Ponyhenge, check out the Team H Facebook page. Or watch our YouTube video.