Whitefield Moor

20 August 2025 - New Forest National Park, United Kingdom

One of the wonderful things about the New Forest is the ponies. There are about 5000 of them, and they are allowed to graze openly across the entire national park. This means that as you are driving around, you have to keep watch that they are not about to run in front of your car! After one such instance, I decided to pull over and just observe them for a bit which is what led me to Whitefield Moor. I watched them for an hour or so play, eat, drink and run around.

A black New Forest pony eating grass with pink flowers in front of it — Through the summer new forrest ponies eat primarily grass however in winter, when the grass grows back slower, they will eat holly, gorse, and even acorns (which are poisonous to them).

A brown New Forest pony drinking water out a pound — Since the ponies are semi-wild, they drink out of streams and ponds.

A white pony galloping across a moor — When they want to they can run pretty fast!