Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony

Dartmoor hill ponies today are direct descendants of wild hill ponies and grazed alongside cows and sheep in the Bronze Age. Now, with only 1200 hill ponies allowed to graze the moor they are truly rare, but vital to the ecology of Dartmoor. This is why moorland farmers continue their long tradition of maintaining pony herds, despite the economic uncertainty involved. Dartmoor hill ponies traditionally may be multicoloured (pied, red, roan dun, black white, brown) and do not all look the same, but they have evolved to survive on Dartmoor’s rough vegetation all year round. The Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony is a voluntary group whose fundraising efforts support all the hill ponies.

Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony works in partnership with a number of research scientists and there are currently a number of projects to investigate the unique adaptations that the Dartmoor hill pony has developed over centuries of evolution on the moor. We help these projects by fundraising and collecting data or samples under the guidance of the universities. A small herd of Dartmoor hill ponies fitted with GPS trackers will be helping scientists to clarify how a centuries-old method of managing heathland vegetation with grazing animals, enhances nature and wildlife habitats. The experiment has seen 25 Dartmoor hill ponies relocated from their hilly homeland to the East Devon Pebblebed Heaths (EDPH) - one of Europe's most important lowland heaths – where they are grazing alongside a herd of Devon Reds. Scientists will be monitoring where the ponies are grazing, sleeping and spending most of their time, as well as measuring the structure of the vegetation in over 60 permanent sample areas.

Using our website WildToWonderful.org, or our Foal Watch facebook page, we match ponies that must leave the moor to new owners. So far, we have found new homes for approximately 5,000. They are ideal for children, for driving, or as companion or conservation ponies. We also run a pony sponsorship scheme, where a sponsor will be able to name a foal for a donation of £100; the foal will then be cared for over the winter, halter-broken, castrated, wormed, micro-chipped and passported, and then the following spring has a much better chance of finding a home. The Tuesday Club is a friendly group of volunteers who get hands-on with the young foals, usually on a Tuesday morning or afternoon when we feed, groom and get them used to being handled with a view to finding homes for them.

Donations are always gratefully received – if you would like to help please go to www.wildtowonderful.org

If you would like to join us please contact Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony facebook page, or www.friendsofthedartmoorhillpony.co.uk