Ponies from 'the Wild' can do amazing things with your help
They need YOUR help now. This is an urgent call to action.
Dartmoor stands to lose up to 90% of its iconic semi-wild pony herds thanks to new grazing contracts drawn up by Natural England, which could come into force as early as the end of 2026.
In the newly negotiated contracts, with drastic reductions in recommended numbers of grazing animals, ponies are included alongside cattle and sheep in total numbers of livestock permitted. This means that ponies will end up competing with cattle and sheep for limited grazing “space” under the new scheme. Commoners will be forced to remove ponies to maximise the number of more commercially viable animals that they will be allowed to graze.
Ponies are NOT the problem: they are the solution that can help halt and reverse the decline of biodiversity on Dartmoor.
Natural England’s proposals are intended to protect Dartmoor’s natural habitats and biodiversity. But removing ponies threatens the very biodiversity Natural England are seeking to protect.
In vast areas of Dartmoor, invasive Molinia grass is taking over, choking out native plants and creating a barren monoculture. Ponies eat Molinia grass. The unique way that they graze clear spaces to allow native plant species to recover and thrive, bringing a wealth of invertebrate species with them.
More ponies, not fewer, are needed on Dartmoor!
Rare and endangered
Dartmoor’s semi-wild hill ponies are recognised as rare and endangered, and should be protected as such.
In the past 20 years, thousands of ponies have been lost from Dartmoor.
The current population of fewer than 1000 breeding mares is barely enough to maintain their rare and ancient gene pool, which is of value to the global equine species.
Reducing pony numbers further means that the population will no longer be genetically viable and will effectively become extinct.
Natural England is failing Dartmoor
Until now, Dartmoor’s remaining Hill Ponies have been afforded some protection by being excluded from recommended livestock grazing quotas on Dartmoor.
Now, the very body that exists to protect and enhance England’s wild spaces and the nature that they support is making decisions that go against scientific evidence and will be devastating for the Dartmoor Hill Pony AND Dartmoor’s ecology.
Once the ponies are gone from the moor, they will be lost forever. We must not let that happen.
Dartmoor Hill Ponies urgently need your help.
Why Dartmoor Hill Ponies Need You
Dartmoor needs its ponies to graze the moor effectively and traditional herds, running with a stallion will breed – it’s nature! Though stallions are controlled and quality inspected there is a surplus of foals every year and part of our aim is to work out ways of lessening and dealing with the surplus.
What You Can Do
There are many ways to help the ponies from giving them a home, make a donation towards the work we do for the ponies, conservation grazing or attending one of our events. Thank you for visiting our website....
Dartmoor Hill Ponies are so important to the moor’s nature and hill-farming culture; a valued part of our history for millennia.
Today there are 1,000 Dartmoor Hill Ponies left roaming free on Dartmoor; twenty years ago it was 7,000. We are at a critical point where it is possible that they will disappear completely. Please support our work to ensure that the Dartmoor Hill Ponies are not lost. With your help Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony charity can help us keep Dartmoor as we know and love it. Make your donation via the Charity Checkout button here. If you are a taxpayer please complete the Gift Aid details.
Buying a Pony
If you are interested in buying one or more of these wonderful ponies, please register your interest and complete the Support Enquiry Form and we will be in touch.
Dedicated to supporting and promoting the ponies when they leave Dartmoor to give them a future
Raising funds to:
- Pay for transport to allow ponies to find good new homes, inevitably hundreds of miles away from the moors.
- Promoting the benefits of hill ponies in every way possible and at every opportunity!
As summer turns to autumn and the nights start to draw in – several hundred Dartmoor Hill ponies are herded off the Moor and onto the local farms.
This is called a Drift. It’s spectacular to watch. The ponies are brought in, sorted and then taken back to their home farm where they are checked. The mothers are then returned to the moors and those not being kept as replacements are sent to pony sales to find homes off the moor.
How does the Friends of The Dartmoor Hill Pony initiative work?
Before the sale, we advertise as much as we can and those interested in buying a pony, pay a deposit and then at the pony drift sale, agents bid on their behalf. The pony of choice once successfully purchased is delivered to the closest “collection station” (so cost of transport can be shared) where pony can be collected and taken to its new home.
Each pony has a passport in the new owners name and is micro chipped. So invest in the future, the cost - £150 for a colt and £200 for a filly foal 6 month old, and with patience and T.L.C which costs nothing but pleasurable time, the investment will only grow and get better.
It is mainly colt foals who don’t sell at the sale. The friends of the Dartmoor hill pony have come up with a pony sponsorship scheme under which a foal will be cared for, halter broken, castrated, wormed, micro-chipped and passported. This gives the foals a much better chance of finding a permanent home.
Join the Dartmoor Warriors
The survival of the ponies on Dartmoor, living and thriving in their ancestral home, hangs in the balance.
Please become a Dartmoor Warrior so that we can contact you to help fight for the ponies' future by lobbying those who can stop these ponies from becoming extinct.