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Post by kunuma on Jan 21, 2009 16:47:34 GMT 1
As per instructions! I know it is not just in the SW, but places like Wales as well - so although I said Dartmoor ponies previously, that is only really because it is those I have been most involved with. So although I will talk about them - it is not happening just there! Basically the ponies you see running on the moors are not Dartmoor ponies, those are mostly all living in studs!! The ponies on the moor, known as hill ponies, are a mixed bunch - with (sadly) a great deal of Shetland blood in them. (Hence the patches!) They are basically a cash meat crop! Though not fed or cared for in the same way as the cattle are as they are not worth so much. There has been very little market for the foals as children's ponies for many, many years, but various excuses, usually involving tourists, are made for their continuing presence. Why on earth they cannot still have the ponies, but NOT RUN STALLIONS WITH THEM - hence solving the pony foal export for meat problem and the scenic one all in one fell swoop , I do not know! The better hill ponies, if time and trouble is spent on them, make fabulous ponies, I have reared and trained many of them - and they really are capable and fun ponies. Many more people seem to be supporting them nowadays, and trying to support them, but nothing they do can solve the basic problem, which is too many foals, too few owners! As a child I loved the sight of the ponies on the moor, even now, my heart first leaps when I see a new born foal - then sinks when I think of the sales I have attended, and the foals ultimate fate. Wish I could find the info, one of my rescues even made it into the Prince Philip team with his new owners - I saw the pic in H@H!!
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Post by snowfilly on Jan 22, 2009 19:57:43 GMT 1
Intresting - you can't be too far away from me if you've been getting the dartmoors. Me and Mum have taken many rescues over the years - techinically, we're meant to deal in riding ponies and the occasional horse, as well as breeding Arabs, but the rescues just appear - not that we're a soft touch.
With the Dartmoors, we go to one drift sale a year normally the last, just before Christmas and buy a dozen or so. Normally, we try and balance it out so we buy a few fantastically pretty normally coloured ones, and then fill the available field space with the plain colts that are going for meat. Last year, we got 2 blacks and a flaxen chestnut all for minimum bid.
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Post by snowfilly on Jan 22, 2009 20:03:01 GMT 1
Sorry, didn't mean to post that there.
We run them on and sell the coloureds normally as yearling driving ponies, broken to harness and long reins, walking out on road, showing in hand etc, then keep the plainer ones on and break them to ride. If they go before that, brilliant. If not, they go off as 4 year olds. Sounds harsh, but we only choose the flashiest ones to sell quickly because they cover the costs of the others, otherwise we couldn't do it at all.
I wish we could take them all, but we can't. Quite agree, they should run the stallions in.
We're pretty good at sending them on - only to approved hoes, we turned 3 people away this summer for various reasons, but a piebald colt two years ago has ended up staying though - he's so cute and wonderful that my brother's keeping him for any potential kids.
Congrats on the PPC team - don't think any of ours have quite reached those heights!
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Post by Claire on Jan 24, 2009 12:44:29 GMT 1
Aghh! My last post deleted itself...here goes again!
Thanks for the info kunuma. Last time I was on Dartmoor I was talking to one of the wardens (or whatever they are called) and she was telling me about how the Shetlands have got in to the breed. I was under the impression that they were trying to improve it again tho. It is such a shame that many of the hill ponies go for meat. Well done you for rescuing so many and a Prince Phlip Cup pony too! Wow! Are there any campaigns trying to stop the breeding of the hill ponies?
What do you see the way forward is for the dartmoors? Should they phase out the hill ponies by not running stallions and then re-introduce the pure breds or do you think they should keep them all in studs?
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Post by kunuma on Jan 24, 2009 15:52:38 GMT 1
Can someone update me on what happened up on Exmoor? I know at one stage they took off the crossbred ponies and returned the genuine Exmoors to the moor. Is that still the case? - I'm out of touch with what is going on there currently. On Bodmin moor they started running much bigger stallions - the last sale I went to there had an amazing amount of really big youngsters, but nearly all of them spotted and patchy! But in all honesty, with it being SO expensive to keep horses nowadays, and with what they look like and how much they cost seeming to be of supreme importance - how many people are ever going to want one of these, no matter how good it could be?. People like snow filly, who do all the HARD work by taking them straight off the moor and selling them to homes as riding ponies are really their only hope - but there are not that many out there doing it anymore! In my perfect world, full of compassionate human beings (I'm not holding my breath )I don't want to see ANY foals being reared as horsemeat - and especially not for live export!
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Post by exmoorfan on Jan 24, 2009 17:24:10 GMT 1
Kunuma.. The exmoors are all purebred..Any cross breeding is done in what they call in ground..Fields near the farms .Usually crossed with Thoroughbreds to make tough hunting ponies..As you know Exmoor is a very rough terrain and only the ponies or Thoroughbreds can cope with the ground when hunting.. And exmoor is all about hunting.They only have a break for about 2 months of the year..! The purebred ponies run in several herds on the moor .They are all DNA'd now so if any to stray out of their area they can check the stallion the foals are by.. Moorland Mousie takes some of the foals which are then found homes to tame them untill broken,,Lots of folks buy them privately too.They go down to the round up and branding to choose them.. I did hear that they re opened Bampton Fair to sell some of the surplus colts.. Not sure how successful it is.Can check with a friend down there..?
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Post by kunuma on Jan 24, 2009 19:28:39 GMT 1
Thanks Exmoorfan - yes the areas are all different and Exmoor is a much more 'farmed' area than Dartmoor, I have confused sightseeing friends before by telling them they could see Exmoors on Exmoor, but not Dartmoors on Dartmoor unless they knew where to look! The Bodmin Moor ponies have never pretended to be a breed - and then there are the Lundy ponies LOL;)of course! Slightly OT - but a first cross between a genuine native pony and a TB or an Arab does produce a real good 'un as they say! I'm biased I know - but I've had a New Forest/ TB cross who was the hottest ride going, but would never say die and would jump the moon - and a Dartmoor/ Arab who was the best pony I have ever known!
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Post by exmoorfan on Jan 24, 2009 21:58:51 GMT 1
Kunuma.. I bred a fantastic New Forest cross TB.. It is a really good cross.. He was fantastic at everything.. These first cross ponies are really good..
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