New Forest Ponies

Wednesday, 16 March 2011 09:47

As you may or may not know, there is a growing number of New Forest Ponies being involved in road accidents in the New Forest. On a daily basis, there are a significant amount of ponies injured and killed which could easily be prevented by drivers slowing down and also if the ponies were more visible.

The Verderers of the New Forest are trying to get all the commoners (who own the ponies) to get the ponies to wear reflective collars, with the hope that they will be more visible to the cars in the crucial hours at dawn and dusk when most accidents happen, which will without doubt reduce the number of accidents and injuries to the ponies. These collars cost £7 each, which significantly dips into the ‘welfare fund’, assigned to help the ponies as much as possible.

After Elaine Fairfax, founder and owner of Animal Friends, spoke to Sue Woodward who works at The Verderers of the New Forest office, she agreed to send them a cheque from Animal Friends for £4,900 which will pay for 700 more collars. This will be a massive increase in road safety for the ponies, and hopefully once the numbers of injured ponies drops the commoners will see the measures are a necessary step in reducing accidents involving the ponies.

It is great that Animal Friends can help such a worthy cause, which will undoubtedly save the lives of many New Forest Ponies.

You can visit the Verderers website here, and for an informative article on road safety in the new forest, you can visit the new forest national park page here.