It's often hard passing through, or staying temporarily, in another part of your country, to know about the local politics and the interaction of the authorities which have a say about the future of that area. Here we have the National Park Authority, The New Forest District Council, Forestry England, The Verderers of the New Forest, Natural England and so on, along with the police in this particular situation, all supposedly having a role in protecting the Forest and presumably the ponies and other stock that live on it.

This area now attracts well over 13.5 million visitor 'days' per annum - probably many more during the pandemic, all or most attracted to the area, spending money in it, because of the iconic animals, particularly the ponies. That's why it is really important that anyone should have say about how those ponies are protected and whether it is right that they should be merely collateral damage in the maintenance and enjoyment of the Forest. I wonder how those authorities and those businesses that are reliant upon visitors would feel if the Commoners simply took their ponies and other animals off for a season. The wanna-be speeders would no doubt rejoice and could kill one another instead in their haste to get across a country road - but the effect would be devastating for the tourist industry.

Whether through private investment, public money or purely through the police, these animals need to be protected properly so that only the true accidents remain. As it is, those incidents that are deemed to be 'accidents' only do so not but because of a lack of evidence but because of a lack of ability to collect and analyse that evidence. Rather than putting up an upsetting picture I thought I would share one of nice New Forest ponies.