Dartmoor Myths & Legends - No 11 Postbridge Ponies Mystery Cache
Dartmoor Myths & Legends - No 11 Postbridge Ponies
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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The Postbridge Ponies Mystery
As a sequel to Cantor Clan's excellent series of Dartmoor Myths & Legends, I have added a 20th century mystery which has caused a great deal of comment and debate, but no satisfactory explanation.
On a bank holiday Monday in April 1977, Alan Hicks, a Tavistock petshop owner, made a bizarre discover whilst out walking near Postbridge with his wife and children. They came across between 10 and 20 dead Dartmoor ponies within an area of about 100 yards. There was no obvious cause for these deaths and several early theories, including lightning strike, poison, ritual killings, stampede by land-rovers, etc. were soon eliminated. What was very clear is that these ponies had met their death by some immense and violent force as though they had been dropped or thrown to where they were found. There were injuries of broken necks and backs and the bodies were reported to have decomposed very rapidly.
There was no explanation for these deaths, which would probably have soon been forgotten, but 3 months later the story reappeared when it made headline news across the world. This was because the scene of the pony deaths had been visited by the Torbay UFO group, who arrived with Geiger counters, metal and UFO detectors. The theory was that a UFO flew low over the area creating a vortex that hurled the ponies to their deaths.
Whatever the reason for these deaths, no satisfactory explanation has ever been put forward and for some, the UFO theory seems to be the most plausible!
I have created this latest cache not only as a mystery cache with an interesting story, but also to regenerate interest in Cantor Clans original series of excellent caches which I adopted earlier in the year. You will need to do a little research, but also to find or re-visit the Dartmoor Myths & Legends Bonus cache, which I have now restored to what I assume, was similar to its original state.
This cache may be found at N 50° ab.cde' W 003° fg.hij' close to where the dead ponies were found.
ab = the date in April the ponies were found + 24
fg = the number of ponies found + 41
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)