24 June, 2026 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A petition launched as part of a campaign to highlight the threat posed to England’s last remaining semi-wild ponies by changes to grazing legislation on Dartmoor, designed by Natural England, has reached over 200,000 signatories this week.
But the future of Dartmoor’s endangered Hill Ponies, currently numbering just under 1000, still hangs in the balance. Despite concerns being voiced by several political parties following unprecedented media coverage of the campaign last week, those heartfelt pledges to protect the ponies are yet to be translated into action.
Campaigners are calling on Keir Starmer to take immediate action before he leaves office, warning that the opportunity to secure protection for the ponies is slipping away.
No change has yet been made to Natural England’s new Countryside Stewardship agri-environment contracts. This means that as the current Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) schemes come to an end from this summer, Dartmoor’s commoners will have to reduce overall livestock grazing densities by up to 89%, to be eligible for Tier 3 funding. With ponies now pulled into those overall quotas, competing alongside more commercially viable cattle and sheep for a right to stand on Dartmoor, their future looks bleak.
Labour MP for Exeter, Steve Race and Labour MP for Plymouth, Luke Pollard, have lent invaluable support to the campaign to date, and they continue to fight hard to bring about the change that is needed.
Steve Race says, “It’s not good enough for Natural England to say ‘we’re not ordering a cull’, but on the other hand their policies would lead to that outcome. The problem here is the lack of clarity from Natural England.”
Natural England asserts that it values the vital role that ponies play in biodiversity recovery on Dartmoor, and has sought to reassure with promises of native breeds supplements available to farmers to incentivise keeping ponies. However, what it has omitted to mention is that these supplements would only be available AFTER the overall massive reductions in numbers have taken place.
New grazing contracts were not due to be negotiated until the Dartmoor Land Use Management Group reports in 2027 on how to implement the recommendations of the 2023 Defra-commissioned Dartmoor Review. Recommendation 27 of the Dartmoor Review specifically states that ponies and cattle/sheep should NOT be linked together in calculations for agri-environment scheme stocking limits. It also urges Natural England (NE) to avoid actions that would likely result in a decline in pony numbers on the moor.
The charity Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony, and the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association (DHPA), who launched the current campaign, are now calling for the well-intentioned words of ministers to be urgently translated into action to protect Dartmoor’s remaining semi-wild pony herds.
The campaigners are calling for the Defra Secretary of State to direct Natural England to implement recommendation 27 of the Dartmoor Review, and for a task force to be assembled with immediate effect to work out the detail of how this should be achieved in the long term.
Joss Hibbs, Secretary of the DHPA says, “The clock is ticking for Dartmoor’s remaining hill pony herds. With some existing (HLS) grazing contracts coming to an end in the coming weeks, farming families will soon be faced with the devastating prospect of irreversibly removing the vast majority of their pony herds that they have kept for generations.”
As the UK is plunged into a heatwave this week, the very real threat of wildfires on Dartmoor looms large, bringing into sharp focus another crucial role that Dartmoor Hill Ponies play in breaking up the molinia grass monoculture that dominates much of Dartmoor’s landscape. Bone-dry and highly flammable, extensive tracts of molinia monoculture are a massive wildfire risk. A wildfire on Dartmoor in May 2025 destroyed almost 500 hectares of moorland. With weather extremes becoming increasingly common, such events are likely to increase in frequency and severity. Grazing by ponies, in sufficient numbers, is an invaluable natural tool not only in in promoting biodiversity recovery, but also in improving Dartmoor’s resilience to wildfires.
When interviewed on Tuesday 23rd June by the EFRA Select Committee, Prof Sallie Bailey, Chief Scientist at Natural England, agreed that one of the effective controls of molinia on Dartmoor was its ponies. She said " Because they (Dartmoor's ponies) eat ... molinia - they are less selective than other species grazing on Dartmoor.... they are part of the solution" to reducing the molinia monoculture, which creates fuel to wildfires. When asked whether "having ponies is good for Dartmoor?" She agreed that "having grazing is good for reducing fuel load".
Charlotte Faulkner, founder of the Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony charity concludes:
“All we want is the right animal to stand in the place it has adapted to over 1000s of years. Dartmoor’s semi-wild hill ponies are already endangered and further reductions in their numbers will lead to their genetic collapse. They are an iconic part of a traditional farming culture, but they are also a vital tool in overcoming the modern challenges that we face: biodiversity decline and climate change. The ponies, in sufficient numbers are a crucial part of the solution to these challenges, and must be recognised and protected as such.”
For more information, interviews and images, contact: Jo-Anne Lovemore: 07981 682871
Notes to editors
Campaign petition: Dartmoor’s Hill Ponies face extinction. They need YOUR help now
https://c.org/wd6DBSyhhc
Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony (registered charity number 1141045) was set up in 2000 and became a charity in 2011. It was established to support and promote the only semi-wild herds of ponies in England, with their distinct and rare genetic make-up. To date, the "Friends" have successfully homed over 5,000 ponies, discovered their rare genetics and made them internationally recognised by top equine scientists as an archetypal British native pony. https://www.wildtowonderful.org/
The Dartmoor Hill Pony Association (DHPA) is a fully constituted membership organisation of the minority of Dartmoor commoners who continue to graze a herd of semi-wild Dartmoor Hill Ponies on the upland commons of Dartmoor. The DHPA is the recognised Breeders’ Association for the Semi-wild Dartmoor Hill Pony herds on the commons of Dartmoor. Its members are active commoners: they keep herds of cattle and flocks of sheep alongside their pony herds. https://dartmoorhillpony.com/
What is a Dartmoor Hill Pony?
The Semi-wild Dartmoor Hill Pony Population is the last remaining semi-wild equine population in England. A Semi-wild Population, as defined by Defra, must remain outside of human control for their survival and reproduction. Semi-wild equines may be owned/distantly managed to ensure satisfactory animal welfare, but live in natural herds where mares decide their mate (rather than a human decision at a stud), and the herds sustain themselves without intervention by man (no feed is given except in very exceptional circumstances).
A Dartmoor Hill Pony, as defined by the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association, is: ‘..a pony bred on the commons of Dartmoor, by a registered commoner who has commoner’s rights to keep ponies on their registered commons. The sire and dam must run all year on the commons. The sire must be approved by the Dartmoor Commoners Council Appointee and a Vet. A pony cannot be called thus if it is bred off the commons of Dartmoor, even if both parents are hill ponies: this is because the main purpose for these ponies’ existence is as a conservation tool on Dartmoor. Semi-wild Dartmoor Hill Ponies are only found on the upland commons of Dartmoor.
Conservation status
Any action by Natural England, Defra, or the UK government that will decrease the population size of the semi-wild Dartmoor Hill Pony herds contravene the UK’s commitment to COP15 Goals and Targets to address biodiversity decline. A further cull will make the Population genetically unviable: this contravenes the UK’s commitment to COP15 Goals and Targets to address biodiversity decline. See Goal A and Target 4:-
Goal A included: “The genetic diversity within populations of wild and domesticated species, is maintained,
safeguarding their adaptive potential.”
Target 4 included to “maintain and restore the genetic diversity within and between populations of native, wild, and domesticated species to maintain their adaptive potential, including through in situ and ex situ conservation.”
Role in maintaining biodiversity
Research shows that the ability, thanks to its rare genetics, of the semi-wild Dartmoor Hill Pony to survive and thrive year-round in Dartmoor’s harsh environment makes them an ideal grazing tool for enhancing biodiversity on upland ecosystems.
Scientific studies published on pony grazing impacts on biodiversity
"Using Dartmoor ponies in conservation grazing to reduce Molinia caerul" by Paul H. Lunt, Jakob L. Leigh et al. https://share.google/hZjKzezWQQffgiV6K