A pony broke loose from Wadson’s Farm and apparently made its way on to a public highway in Southampton on Wednesday.

Tom Wadson, the animal’s owner, confirmed the pony, nicknamed Pokey, had escaped but he moved to down play the incident.

However, one woman posted social media that she was driving and nearly hit the animal.

She wrote: “If you are missing a brown horse it is making its way down Middle Road, Southampton past Greene’s Guest House. Drivers beware I almost hit it.”

Mr Wadson said his pony took a short stroll up the street to another nearby stable.

He said: “She wanted to have a fun evening. She went about 200 yards to the next stable – the whole incident only lasted about ten minutes.

“We are dealing with animals and they have a mood on their own. We are here the whole time. She was being pokey – that’s her nickname, Pokey.

“There was a flurry of phone calls – I got calls from a neighbour saying it might be a problem. She may have walked on the road – that is always a concern for me.

“Some of the fencing here is 20 years old, I can redo some of it and I may consider putting an [electrical] charge on it. I should have had them electrified before, but there are so many people who come here wanting to see the animals.”