Pony decapitated in New Forest road accident
A New Forest pony has been decapitated and two more have been gutted in three separate road accidents in Hampshire in a week.
A 2-year-old filly was hit by a VW Golf on a narrow country road between Burley and Picket Post at 7am on Wednesday, 26 November.
The car was badly damaged but the driver was unhurt.
The horse’s body was removed by the local hunt but its head has not yet been found.
Peter Rix, the agister of the area where the accident occurred told H&H: “As an agister I have 24-hour call out for when an accident happens. But in 11 years as an agister I’ve never come across anything like this. It was pretty nasty.
“The driver had not stopped at the scene but gone on to a local garage. The head was not along the roadside — as we expected it to be — so we thought it must be in the car, but on investigation it wasn’t there either.”
The other two accidents occurred within 2 days of each other — both were also in Peter’s area.
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The first happened on Monday 1 December, at 7am and the other on Wednesday 3 December, at 8.30pm.
Peter added: “I’ve had a spate recently — and 3 really nasty ones. Two of the horses were basically gutted, their insides were all over the road. It was horrific.
“Drivers need to slow down. The horses have the right of way and they don’t have much road sense. They are moving around a lot at this time of year – looking for food and so speed must be cut — especially when it’s dark.
“At the end of the day the ponies belong to someone — and while not a pet, they are still someone’s horse and the owner will have to deal with the loss.”
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A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.