How can they just drive off.

unfortunately there are plenty of folk that would drive off leaving you injured or dead in the road if they thought that they could get away with it - this type of person resent the animals being in the way. Look at the small animal road kill - some of them are hit in positions way off the driving line so it appears to me that they were deliberately targetted!

I'd also bet that these drivers vote against hunting.
 
The locals pretty much hate the horses down there - we have been staying in b&b's round there for years... and stopped going eventually because i used to get so upset listening to the locals wishing the mares and foals dead - they treat them like vermin.

Very cruel horrid folks
 
most of the people who speed are townies that have moved to the forest and are late for work or want to get home quick.
they have no respect for the forest but first to complain when forest doesnt ahear to their needs
 
Because hitting a horse is a reportable accident - and I guess the type of person who hit it will not want to get the police involved :(

We have several Exmoors killed on the road round here each year. I've lived here for over 20 yrs, I don't hang around when I am driving but have never come close to hitting one - its simply a case of consideration to the road you are driving on.

The trouble is Exmoors are very well camoflaged (sp?), if you are driving across an open moorland road when its foggy (and that is often) they don't show up in your headlights like a sheep will.

Just on the point of that article though about the ponies suffering with broken legs.... I have attended an accident where a ponies leg was almost clean cut off, being held on by a bit of skin and tissue - the adrenalin kicks in and the pony was calmly eating on the side of the road and not showing any signs of distress before it was shot (it didn't have a foal at foot though) - its quite amazing how mother nature takes over in such circumstances. Small comfort I know :(
 
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We were coming home from the yard the other night and turned into the road just before ours and in the road just sat there was a crow, I told my other half to stop and he did, I got out to see what was wrong with the poor thing, where he was sitting was just a few yards from where people were in there front garden, they could see him!!!!! he was in front of there garden in the road!!!!! I picked him up and turned and looked at them and they were watching me! so I just looked at them disgusted and walked to the car with the poor chap, we cleaned his little legs up that were scuffed and bleeding and he had a drink, he wouldn't eat anything, we were going to drop him in at the vets the next morning but unfortunately he died over night, but these people knew he was there!!!! they could see him!!! if they did'nt want to pick him up themselves why did they phone one of the organizations, just makes me sick!
 
They drive off because they dont want the police involved, as Ravenwood says. They dont want to be breathalysed either at odd hours of the night. And they crtainly dont care. Over the last few years I can think of three incidents (two with people/horses I know) who have been riding or driving and their horses have been struck by vehicles who have not stopped. Unfortunately if it happens to you and there are no witnesses it is difficult to get vehicle ID.
 
I just hate some people. I was down in the Forest about 10 days ago, and some of the foals I saw were only a matters of days old, if that. One or two were really not steady on their legs. I was somewhere near Fritham and a small group of mares and foals were grazing by the verge. One foal was standing in the middle of one lane near the road junction. I'd stopped to let the foal move out of the way and had my window down, and this TW*T came steaming down the road towards me, in a red car, and just kept gaining speed. I was half out of the car and waving frantically to get him to slow down, and all he did was swerve between me and the foal and blast off up the road, waving back at me. The foal was fine and totally untouched but it was vivid illustration of the type of moron that gets behind a wheel and resents everything that slows him down.

I do wish they'd fence in all the roads through the Forest.
 
I was cycling to work once & could see the traffic ahead was slowing down & could see something in the middle of the road, when I got there I saw a black cat with it's jaw hanging off lying in a pool of blood in the road. Drivers were slowing down to have a look but they all kept going!

I stopped my bike & stood at the side of the road to try to get to it but still nobody would stop their car to let me get to it, I did eventually manage to get to the cat, a lady coming in the oppsite direction stopped to help me, so now we were both in the middle of the road with cars driving either side of us.

The only car to stop was a car with a couple of young guys in it, they picked the cat up & took it to the vet, they were so kind & gentle with it, lots of much more respectable looking people just ignored it. Yet 2 laddish looking guys were the only people willing to help.
 
I live in the heart of the New Forest and it isn't the locals who hate the ponies at all! What we hate is the idiot tourists that come and make out lives difficult by stopping dead in the middle of the road to take a picture and let their idiot child run up to the ponies and scare them into the middle of the road or separate a mare and foal by trying to touch the foal - or worst still, trying to put their children on said mare and foal! Yes, I mean on the back of a wild, unbroken mare AND the foal! And there is a massive fine for hitting livestock so that is why people drive off! Yes, some of the "townie" locals that have moved down from London etc dislike the ponies because they "mess on the pavements outside their drive" but most of us live in the forest because we love the animals and the countryside!
 
I've been visiting and enjoying the forest for almost 20 years, it sickens me the attitudes I see some (almost all tourists) having towards the horses. I echo what's been said already, I've seen countless people stop their car in the road to talk to them, hang out their car windows to feed them whatever they happen to have, chase them, small kids threaten to kick them..... this kinda thing is appalling and makes me so angry and upset. On those long, flat open roads that cut through the heart of the forest (especially around Beaulieu/Brockenhurst) you often see small herds of ponies gathered on either side of the road, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I've seen people consider the fact that a foal or horse may cross the road in front of them to join the others

that ^ ^ is just awful :(
 
Gingerwitch said:
The locals pretty much hate the horses down there - we have been staying in b&b's round there for years... and stopped going eventually because i used to get so upset listening to the locals wishing the mares and foals dead - they treat them like vermin.

Very cruel horrid folks
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Only just found this thread as bored at work, but I would just like ot tell you you're a ****ing idiot quite frankly :thumbup:

I have lived in the forest all my life and not once heard anyone talk like that about them. In fact for most people there, they are not only a way of life, but also their livelihood.

TBH, the forest is a richer place for not having the likes of yourself visiting, so please feel free to stick to your crusade and stay away :cool:
 
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