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Camping

Our UK Camping forum has all the information you need on finding the right equipment for your tent or caravan.

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Original poster

New Forest ponies trampling your pitch and scrounging for food

40 replies

PaisleyLeaf · 28/06/2011 21:36

On behalf of my 6 year old DD..... which site is good for this?
Ponies wandering around your pitch and maybe some deer.

OP posts:

thisisyesterday · 28/06/2011 23:20

the one that kicked me had a bloody shoe on!

well, 4 shoes i would presume. but i only really saw the back 2

Moodykat · 28/06/2011 23:28

Sorry yesterday, didn't mean you were lying, just that normal forest ponies don't wear shoes! You must've been extra unlucky! Always makes me cringe to see people letting their kids stroke foals and feed the ponies! Also, if people do camp that way, please don't ever let kids swim or paddle in hatchet pond, it's properly dangerous!

SeaShellsAndTheInlawInvasion · 29/06/2011 08:35

Round hill is great BUT we had to call the wardens as there was one mare and foal earlier this year that were real pests. They trashed one families tent (literally tore a huge hole in it) and would plough through peoples tents at lunch etc. They ran across the park when we arrived and stole bags of shopping from the car when I was trying to get the tent out, then charged and were bucking/ kicking out. I couldnt get near the car (which had dd2 in). Pretty scary when all the windows were open with a baby and toddler! I'm used to horses but that was the first time I actually felt scared. The warden recommended having big sticks to hand.

That said the rest were lovely and they had the cutest donkeys there. It's a great site but that foal will need moving on as it was fearless and aggressive.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 29/06/2011 08:38

Hollands Wood is ace for raiding ponies. Last time one nicked our marshmallows off our blanket while we were on it (they are fast!!!) Fortunately it was happy to swap them for a banana.

The cows though are a bugger - one stood on our tent and narrowly missed dds head We knew it was a cow because of all the mooing and the cow pats left about the place. sleep your kids away from the edges of the tent.

mummynoseynora · 29/06/2011 08:50

went camping at ashurst once and woke up to see some pony's getting jiggy by the tent door in the morning have you SEEN the size of them?!?!?!
I decided to close the tent back up and give them some privacy

All the other recommendations are good ones, bolderwood is ace if your DD wants to see deer.

thisisyesterday · 29/06/2011 09:31

oh it's ok, i didn't think you thought i was lying, was just saying that the one i saw did have shoes but was maybe the exception rather than the rule

worst thing about t'internet... can't hear how people are saying things! lol

seashells.... that's how I ended up getting kicked! very similar situation

Lovecat · 29/06/2011 13:01

We stayed across the road from Hollands Wood, at a place called Long Meadow, which was lovely and I heartily recommend it. It had a cattle grid across the entrance so that the ponies couldn't get into the field, but there were little stiles at one end of the field that the deer could go through, so if you were awake late/early and were very still/quiet you got to see the deer roaming past the tents... loads of ponies around to coo over on the walk through the forest to Brockenhurst without the associated hassle.

Most had foals at foot when we went (end of May bank hol) so we didn't approach them, but as all ponies are evil (it's true, the evil must get concentrated the smaller they go as Shetlands are the pure spawn of satan) we wouldn't have done anyway. The deer were all around that area, we saw loads of them.

sittinghippo · 29/06/2011 16:33

I'm heading down to Hollands Wood tomorrow, we went last summer and it was lovely. The ponies hung out by the toilet block en masse.
One managed to pinch a bag of Kettle Chips while we were unloadind but they left us alone for the rest of the time.

I would recommend Hollands Wood as it was such a lovey experience, but am now off to Google Bolderwood as that sounds fab too.

VivaLeBeaver · 29/06/2011 16:43

Definetly Hollands Wood but its not just the ponies, flipping squirrels as well. We've got a tent without a SIG and the bloody squirrels were in and out our tent all fucking night. Raiding the food crate. We had to keep the food in the car in the end.

SeaShellsAndTheInlawInvasion · 29/06/2011 17:57

Definitely keep food in the car- I saw someone's kitchen tent get trashed at Hollands wood

(disclaimer, despite my posts here I love camping in the new forest!!)

Pixel · 29/06/2011 19:03

When we went to Holland's wood a lady in the tent next to us was complaining she'd been robbed. At first I thought she meant her purse or something but then she showed me a chocolate birthday cake she'd left out on a table. The squirrels had chewed through the box and nibbled the cake but you could see little squirrely footprints right across the cake. I thought it was quite cute, but then it wasn't my cake.

Original poster

PaisleyLeaf · 30/06/2011 18:59

Is Hollands Wood good for cycle paths too? - near ones that DD can play on while we're by the tent?

OP posts:

SeaShellsAndTheInlawInvasion · 30/06/2011 19:11

Yes, it was very good but near a busy road, round hill was better IMO for losing sight of them.

sittinghippo · 01/07/2011 08:48

Sat in roundhills now and kids cycling about safely. Compared to h wood I think this wins.

serin · 01/07/2011 21:07

All my kids ride well but those ponies are evil little bastards, one chased me in a car par and bit me so badly on the shoulder that I was left with blood dripping down my back.

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