Get an Exmoor pony !!

 

Shy Exmoor pony

What is the future like for these wonderful British native ponies that are classed as a rare breed?  Hopefully, they have a positive future, along with all other British native breeds of ponies and other animals.  We need people to realise how wonderful these little ponies are.

 

Exmoor pony in sepia

They make lovely children's ponies, but can also be ridden by small adults as they are very strong.   They are very hardy and can live out all year round, so they are easy to care for. They are very intelligent and fun to ride.  Exmoor ponies are also very adaptable to most disciplines, ridden and non ridden.

One thing these ponies are excelling at is horse agility, which is a very fun thing to do with your pony.  Last year Bear - a most gorgeous Exmoor stallion won the horse agility world championship.  Take a look at this amazing video of him at play, with his owner Dawn Westcott.

Bear at liberty agility

Exmoor pony

Thankfully people are realising their worth for another job, which hopefully will help secure their future too.  They are being used for conservation grazing.  What is conservation grazing?  Whole herds of varying numbers are used for managing interesting landscapes in a low intensive way to encourage the wildlife and plants that these areas support. Sites need grazing to remove the scrub and rough grasses.  More info here from the Moorland Mousie trust that have ponies available for this job.

Conservation grazing

There are quite a few sites around Britain that are using Exmoors for this as they are an excellent choice for the job.  Read about one of the sites in the South Downs where they are using Exmoor ponies for conservation grazing.

Conservation grazing on the South Downs

If you are loving the Exmoor ponies and would like to read more about them there is a really good blog you can follow:

Exmoor pony blog

And there is a particularly heartwarming story about the rescue of an orphaned foal on Exmoor here:

Monsieur Chapeau

Please click on the photos to see them larger.

Next blog will be about the lovely little Dartmoor ponies !

Camo ponies

 When we first arrived at the Exmoor National park we drove through some pretty villages, and then we went over a cattle grid, so we knew we were into the open part of the park and that the Exmoor ponies would be somewhere - but it's a huge area and there are only small numbers of ponies, so we had to drive really slowly and look very carefully.  The Exmoor ponies are very camouflaged amongst the colours of the moor.

Thankfully, due to my well tuned 'pony radar' I spotted something moving in the bracken.  We slowed down and spotted a few more dotted around.  It was a herd of ponies.  I was so pleased as we had come a long way for these ponies !

 Exmoor ponies

As you can see from the photos the Exmoor pony is well fitting for their environment.  Their colouring falls within a limited range of bay, brown or dun, with black points (with no white markings) and as such they blend in very well against their native background of heather, grass and bracken.  They should have mealy markings on the muzzle and around the eyes.

Exmoor pony

It's not just their colouring that is suited to the environment - they are very well adapted to survive out on the open and sometimes very bleak moors.  The ponies are very stocky and strong, with deep chests and large girths, the large capacity of the digestive system is important in winter as they consume large quantities of rough material which provides them with internal warmth.

The prominent flesh around the eye provides a defence system against harsh weather, and is known as a "toad eye" .

The ponies have neat, hard feet, and their legs are short.   They have well laid back shoulders and a deep chest. The ribs should be long, deep, well-sprung and wide apart, with a broad back and level across the loins.

In summer their coat is close, hard and bright, but in winter they grow a coat in two layers - the hairs next to the skin are quite fine in texture and form a layer of insulation; the outer hairs are coarser and greasy giving waterproof protection.

The tail is neatly set in and the fan of short hairs near the root of the tail is called a snow chute . The mane, forelock and tail are thick and full, and also shed water efficiently.

Exmoor pony

It's sad to think that these amazing British native ponies, who are so adapted to our environment, are so rare and are on the rare breeds list as endangered.  And what's even more tragic, is that many of the foals born on Exmoor are unwanted - no one wants to buy them and many end up as zoo food !  Thank fully many of the breeders and a charity called moorland mousie trust are working hard to change this.  More about that in my next blog, so be sure to check back soon.

Please click on the photos to see them larger.

An ancient breed

Last month we took a really long drive down to the South of England, to the county of Devon. In Devon are the large areas of wild and bleak moors called Exmoor and Dartmoor.  Both of these areas are home to large numbers of wild roaming ponies - the Dartmoor pony and the Exmoor pony - both completely separate breeds.

First I will write about the Exmoor ponies, as they are the oldest of the two breeds.  They are actually a very ancient breed - they have descended from the indigenous British Hill type pony, without too much inter breeding with other breeds.  You can see they have a very ancient look about them:

 Exmoor pony

They were first domesticated by the Celts when they came to Britain, and they trained them to pull their chariots. The first written records of ponies on Exmoor are in the Doomsday book, when Exmoor was designated a royal forest.  From the Doomsday Book onwards there is little written evidence of the Exmoor Pony but records from the 1500s onwards reveal that the equine population of the moor varied in numbers rising to as many as a thousand at times. The moors, as part of the Royal Forest, were controlled by wardens who ran native stallions there but it is known that non-Exmoor mares were sometimes allowed to roam with these herds.

Wild Exmoor pony

In 1818 the forest was sold and one of the wardens, Sir Thomas Acland took 30 ponies and founded the Acland herd (now known as the Anchor herd running on Winsford hill - which is where I spent the day photographing).  A few other farmers also took a few ponies and founded herds, some of which also still exist.

In 1921 the Exmoor pony society was founded to keep the breed pure and promote them.  For a while the ponies did really well, and were used as children's ponies, helping with shepherding, ploughing and grazing the commons, but during and after the war years the ponies had a rough time due to absent owners, moorland gates left open, trigger happy troops and butchers using them for a meat source during rationing.  In 1946 only about 50 ponies remained and only 6 pure-bred filly foals were registered for the whole of Exmoor.

Exmoor pony society website 

Exmoor mum and baby

Thankfully Mary Etherington, a keen supporter of the breed, and a few other dedicated breeders saved the breed - cattle grids gradually replaced the gates and the boundaries to the commons were secured and the numbers gradually grew.  The numbers are still increasing,  now stand at around 3000 ponies worldwide.  This might sound a lot, but they are still on the Rare breeds survival trust's watch list as 'endangered' - only one up from 'critical'.  

RBST watch list

Shy Exmoor yearling

Please click on any of the photos to see them larger.

And please go here to see prints for sale:

My shop with lots of lovely pony prints for sale