Ponies, Deer and the Dark: Riding the New Forest Through Autumn

The New Forest is the reason a lot of us live where we live. Five minutes out of Totton and you are on roads that people drive across three counties to ride. For about seven months of the year it is close to perfect.

Then October arrives and it turns into something else entirely.

This is not a piece about riding slowly. It is about the specific things that change in the Forest between roughly the middle of September and the end of November, why the accident figures climb every single year in that window, and what you are legally required to do if it goes wrong. Most riders know about the ponies. Fewer know that failing to report hitting one is an offence.

What actually changes in autumn

Four things happen at once, which is why the risk stacks up faster than people expect.

The clocks go back. The end of October pushes the commute home into darkness. Forest roads have no street lighting and no cat’s eyes across most of their length. A dark pony on dark tarmac at 40mph gives you very little.

The animals move differently. Autumn is when the ponies come down off the higher ground looking for the acorns, and the verges near the road are where a lot of them are. The deer rut runs through October and November, which means stags moving at speed, at dawn and dusk, with their minds elsewhere entirely. A deer will cross in front of you without ever having registered that you exist.

The surface changes. Under the tree cover on the Rhinefield and Bolderwood ornamental drives you get wet leaf mulch that behaves like diesel. It does not dry out, because the sun does not reach it. The same applies to the shaded stretch of the B3056 and plenty of the smaller lanes.

The traffic thins out. This one sounds like a benefit and it is the trap. Empty roads make everyone quicker, including you, and the animals have not read the memo.

The 40 limit is not advisory

Unfenced Forest roads carry a 40mph limit. That is not a guideline for tourists. It is there because the animals roam freely across land with no fences between them and the tarmac, and it is enforced. Hampshire Police run targeted operations through the autumn every year, and the New Forest National Park Authority runs a “pass wide and slow” campaign alongside it.

Where it catches people out is the transition. You come off a fenced road where 50 or 60 is fine, cross a cattle grid, and you are now on unfenced Forest land at 40 whether the sign registered or not. The cattle grid is your cue. If you have just rattled over one, you are in animal country.

Some of the ponies wear reflective collars, which helps a great deal at night. Do not build your riding around it. Plenty of them do not have one, the deer certainly do not, and a collar only reflects if your headlight is pointed at it.

Passing animals properly

The advice from the National Park is to pass wide and slow, and on a bike that needs a bit of translation.

Give them the whole of the other lane if it is clear. A pony that is standing still is not necessarily going to stay standing still, and they move sideways without warning or ceremony. Foals in particular will bolt across the road towards the mare rather than away from the noise, so if you see one animal on the verge, look for the second one on the other side before you commit.

Come off the throttle early and get the braking done before you are alongside. A bike that is still slowing next to a pony is a bike making noise and shifting weight at exactly the wrong moment.

Do not rev at them or sound the horn to move them along. It works about half the time and the other half you have launched a 400kg animal into the road in a direction neither of you chose.

And if there is a group of them standing in the road, which happens constantly around Lyndhurst and Beaulieu Road, just wait. They will move. Filtering through a herd of ponies on a bike is a genuinely bad idea.

If you hit one, here is what the law says

This is the part most riders have never been told, so it is worth being precise.

Under the Road Traffic Act you must stop and report a collision involving certain animals. The list covers horses, which includes the Forest ponies, plus cattle, donkeys, mules, sheep, pigs, goats and dogs. Report it to the police as soon as you reasonably can and in any case within 24 hours. Failing to do so is an offence.

Deer are not on that list, which surprises people. You are not legally obliged to report a deer collision, though if the animal is injured and still on or near the road it is worth calling anyway, both for the animal and for the rider coming along behind you.

The reason the 24 hour rule exists is not paperwork. An animal that has been hit and has wandered off into the trees will suffer for days if nobody knows to go and look for it. The agisters, who are the people responsible for the Forest stock, cannot find an injured pony they have not been told about.

Practically, on a bike, at the roadside:

• Get yourself and the bike off the carriageway if you physically can. You are now the hazard, in the dark, on a 40 limit road.
• Call 999 if anyone is hurt or an injured animal is blocking the road. Otherwise 101.
• Note where you are as precisely as you can manage. Forest roads are short on landmarks. A pin dropped in your phone’s map is worth more than a description.
• Do not approach an injured pony to try to help it. A frightened animal with a broken leg is dangerous and you are not equipped.
• Photograph the scene and the bike if you are able to, for the insurance claim.
• Tell your insurer promptly. An animal strike is usually a comprehensive claim rather than a third party one, since there is nobody else to recover from, so read your policy before you assume you are covered.

Riding the Forest well in autumn

None of this is an argument for staying at home. Autumn in the Forest is the best it looks all year and midweek in October the roads are as quiet as they ever get.

Go earlier in the day. The hour either side of dawn and the hour either side of dusk are when the animals move most and when your eyes are least use. A ride that starts at ten and finishes at three avoids both ends of it.

Ride the middle of your lane rather than the nearside. Most of the animals come from the verge and the extra metre and a half buys you time.

Assume every blind crest has something standing behind it. On the roads through Bolderwood and out towards Fritham, that assumption will be correct often enough to justify itself.

And use your headlight in daylight. Under heavy tree cover on a bright day the dappled shade genuinely hides a dark animal until you are close, and it makes you more visible to the driver coming the other way who is looking at the ponies rather than at you.

A last thought

The Forest is not a hazard to be got through. It is common land with animals living on it, and we are riding across their front garden. Most of the riders who come off in there are not being reckless. They are riding at a speed that would be completely reasonable anywhere else.

If you have picked up a bike from us and you are new to the area, ask when you collect it and we will tell you which roads are worth your time and which ones to leave until the spring. Our New Forest routes guide covers the good ones.

And if the worst does happen, we can help with the bit afterwards. Have a look at our after-accident support, or just call us. Recovery, assessment, and getting you back on the road without a fight.