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Hill Ponies Breeding Programme
by James Paxman
 Wednesday 30 April 2008Recovering prices for Dartmoor hill ponies are an indicator of the success of the breeding management programme carried out by the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association under the auspices of the Dartmoor Commoners Council.
A little over 5 years ago breeders were dismayed to see ponies changing hands for a few pence at the annual pony sales. In response, a management programme was set up to regulating the production of hill ponies from the Dartmoor Commons in order to produce a better quality animal. The key objective of this programme is to produce the right amount of tough, attractive stock to meet the market demand which is largely for ponies suitable as children's riding and also for carriage driving.
Only a limited number of the best stallions can be used in order to get the high quality stock required by the market, and therefore, before a stallion can be turned out on the Commons it must pass an inspection to ensure that it conforms to the required standards. These include a maximum height of 12.2 hh, good teeth and feet and sound conformation.
The stallions are initially selected from the young colts rounded up on the Moor in the annual pony drift. Rather than being returned to the Commons they are kept in the farmer's inbye land for their first two years and presented for inspection in their third year. The young stallions are temporarily immobilised in a specially designed crush to enable easier examination and handling. Provided the animal is of the required standard it is then branded before being released to run with the mares.
Prices at last year's pony sales have shown a reasonable increase with animals now fetching from £12 to £50 each. The coloured ponies tend to be very much more in demand than the traditional bay.
There are about 1500 ponies on the Dartmoor Commons at present. Although this number is low when compared with the 5 or 6 thousand on the commons in the 1970's, or the twenty thousand in the early years of the 20th century, it is felt that this is the most that the market can currently support.
Charlotte Faulkner, secretary of the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association said, "The only thing that will save Dartmoor's ponies for the future is having a market for them, and that means breeding what people want. Any stallion that is not up to the job has to be removed from the Moor".
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