A NEW Forest pony has been decapitated in one of the worst accidents in the area for many years.

The two-year-old filly was hit by a car on a narrow country road between Burley and Picket Post. The carcass was removed by the local hunt but the animal’s head has not been found.

Peter Rix, one of the agisters employed by the New Forest Verderers, said: “I got there to find a headless horse in the road. I’ve been an agister for 11 years but it was the first time I’d had to deal with something like that.”

A Hampshire Police spokesman said: “We had a call from Dorset police who said there was a dead pony in the middle of the road. The council were called out to clean up the carriageway.”

The spokesman said the accident involved a VW Golf that was badly damaged in the impact.

It was being driven by a Bournemouth man in his 20s who telephoned the police shortly after the accident to report the collision.

A Verderers’ spokesman said 67 animals were killed or injured between January and October, compared with 93 in the same period last year.