Ponyhenge
I was having a beer at an off-brand Applebees in suburban Boston when it came up on Google Maps.
“Ponyhenge.”
A few days later, while wandering around, I went to see the 4.7 star “cultural landmark.”
Unlike its prehistoric, pseudo-namesake in England, there’s not much of a mystery to this Lincoln, MA monument. Atlas Obscura and RoadTrippers had theories, but a 2015 article in The Boston Globe summed things up succinctly: it all started with a Halloween display.
After the decorative “horse” from a “headless horseman” was left in the field, other equines just started arriving. Ever since, the property owners have been content to let more and more show up, occasionally culling down the herd which consists of both traditional rocking horses and the spring-loaded variety. Anonymous visitors will often decorate and rearrange the ponies to reflect specific themes or current events.
It’s a collection of rocking horses in a field—nothing really more or less—but it’s also an enjoyable work of ongoing, serendipitous folk art.
Writer and historian Megan Kate Nelson has a cool documentation of how the horses have changed over time.
Since 2007, the content of this website (and its former life as Queen City Discovery) has been a huge labor of love.
If you’ve enjoyed stories like The Ghost Ship, abandoned amusement parks, the Cincinnati Subway, Fading Ads, or others over the years—might you consider showing some support for future projects?
