New Forest Ponies

[Jack Wes]

When is the best time to visit the New Forest and see the foals.

[lankeela]

Most of the foals are born in April/May, and they hold a show for them in September, followed by a sale.

[woofgang]

If you are going then please behave sensibly.
Don't try to pet the foals or the adults because
1 they may kick or bite you
2 They shouldn't learn to be tame around people while loose on the forest, that's way they get run over
3 They carry ticks and other parasites that you do not want.
Don't feed them for reasons above also because they are used to a free roaming diet and what you give then may make them ill, especially the foals.
Please use the carparks provided and DON'T just stop your car anywhere, leap out and start taking photos. This is dangerous to the animals and to yourself especially if you do it while I am around and trying to get somewhere. you may laugh or think I am being snotty but my goodness this happens.

A good time to see the New Forest pony breed including mare and foal at foot is at the New Forest show in July, there are loads of ridden and in hand classes and lots of other stuff too.

[David Black]

I had an uncle who lived in a a vil;age called Nomansland in the 1960s.

Ponies used to come right up to the garden wall and nimble the plants.

Very shy and utterly charming. A picure of an older England of warm beer and cricket matches.

[lankeela]

We go to a big dog show every August in the New Forest at Brockenhurst, and the ponies wander round the campsite/car parks, rubbing themselves on the tents and caravans, and scavenging through people's belongings. They are quite tame but I would not go anywhere near their back ends, particularly mares with foals.

I was suprised to learn that the majority of them belong to people, and they are allowed to graze them in the forest. I always thought they were just wild ponies, but there are organisations that have shows and sales, and arrange the rounding up of them every year.

[woofgang]

The owners pay to graze them. You can also put donkeys and cows on the forest, pigs only at a certain time of the year to eat the acorns which are poisonous to horses (and DON'T try and pet a pig, quite a few years ago now a jogger got betwen the sow and her litter and she chased him and bit a chunk out of his leg. Pigs dont bite like dogs, they can chop out a chunk of meat with one bite!) Not so long ago the ponies used to be shipped to france alive and then butchered for horsemeat but since breeding has been limited I think that trade has diminished if not stopped..

[Jack Wes]

Thanks everyone for the informative answers, it will be a great help.