Keep Your Distance

Don't feed or pet New Forest ponies and other forest animals

Concern over the safety of the public and Forest animals, following injuries to the public and animal fatalities resulting from being fed human food, created the need to better manage public interactions with these wild animals. Since July a PSPO relating to this activity bans feeding or petting ponies and donkeys on the Forest.  Where necessary the new PSPO orders can be enforced by issuing fixed penalty notices of £100, a sum which can rise to £1,000 following a successful prosecution. You can find out more information about the Public Space Protection Orders.

Teams from Forestry England, the New Forest National Park Authority and the Verderers of the New Forest will be patrolling and engaging with the public to explain more about the new rules. 

Most New Forest ponies and donkeys are even-tempered animals and often come close to visitors, but they are not used to being handled and should be left alone. They can react very suddenly if they feel threatened, so give them space.

The animals may look friendly but can bite or kick, especially when they have young with them, so please keep your distance!

Treating the animals as tame encourages them to pester people and hang around busy roads and car parks putting them at risk of road accidents. Feeding and petting of Forest animal is not allowed, there's no need to feed the New Forest ponies as they are well adapted to thrive all year round in the wild.

The grazing of ponies, donkeys and cattle throughout the open areas of the New Forest maintains the unique habitats that make the area internationally important for nature conservation.

What do I do if I see someone petting or feeding animals?

We routinely patrol to target this type of activity and inform the public on how to help care for the Forest and the livestock who help to shape it.

To report incidents of feeding or petting of ponies and donkeys please contact 0300 067 4600 (24 hrs). This information will help us build up a picture of priority locations for patrols. Please note this is not a call out service and it will not necessarily be possible to attend every incident.

New Forest Drift

Between August and November ponies are rounded up and given a health check. For safety we close nearby car parks for the day and advise people to avoid these areas while the drifts take place. A list of these can be found on our car park closures page.