Wild to Wonderful
Not all the ponies go through the sale. Since 1999, volunteers at Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony charity have helped by moving wild ponies on to a future as domesticated pets for riding and carriage driving, or as conservation grazers, in other parts of the country. We are very proud to say we have managed to home over 8000 ponies since the charity started.
So how do we do it?
We have barn volunteers who provide time and love:
- Teaching ponies that a bucket contains water – and that you don’t tip it up with your feet! It’s surprising how many buckets get destroyed before ponies learn what they are for.
- Teaching ponies that new food – cereal in a scoop and carrots – is as tasty as grass.
- Taking time to earn the ponies’ trust, as mothers have told their offspring to take flight in order to survive.
- De-sensitising ponies and getting them used to being handled, wearing a headcollar, being brushed, being led about and to enjoy human company. We put ponies through this tender loving care process throughout the year, and the ponies we tame find good homes and go on to lead fulfilling lives.
We have office volunteers; our admin team supports the work in the barn by dealing with never-ending paperwork, such as:
- Applying for around 300 equine passports a year. Every pony homed or moved off the moor requires identification and traceability.
- Responding to buyer enquiries and communicating with people wishing to become a hill pony owner or wanting to sponsor a pony, or just learn more about our work.
- Lobbying officials to ensure our hill ponies are included in policy decisions made by Government.
- Running the websites and social media pages.
- Fund raising, to cover our costs.
- We have a partnership with Moorgate Veterinary Group which enables:
Gelding colts. If this isn’t done they will develop stallion traits, making them difficult to manage and hard to home. The cost of this operation means buyers prefer to buy fillies and often the colts are left behind. To give the boys a chance, Friends, in partnership with Moorgate Veterinary Group, hold subsidised clinics, enabling more than seventy ponies to have this operation each year.