Ponies that remain unsold at the end of the Dartmoor pony sales held each October are being looked after at a rescue centre in the shadow of the moor.
These ponies face a short and grim future. They are usually bay colts, unpopular because of their plain colouring and with a reputation for being lively and therefore harder to train. They fail to reach the reserve price of eight guineas at the sales. The Dartmoor Pony Rescue Centre takes these ponies, which have to be at least six months old, to be offered for sale, and works with them to accustom them to handling.
'Most of the ponies we take on will have been born this year, and will have spent their lives out on the moor with their herd,' said Kathryn Hullard, fundraising officer for the rescue centre. 'The drifts and sales can therefore be fairly traumatic for them as they will probably have been separated from their mothers and their herd.'
The centre currently has eight ponies – Socks, Star, Basil, Reggie, Pixie, Trixie, Merry and Pippin. They are kept in a field at Bickington, and trained using the positive reinforcement method – lots of treats and no negatives. 'It can take a lot of time to get the ponies to trust us and be halter broken,' said Kathryn: 'We are looking to re-home four of the ponies to loan homes by October.
We do not sell ponies as we want to keep a close eye on them to monitor their progress and achievements.' The Dartmoor Pony Rescue Centre is a not for profit organisation and all money raised goes directly to help the ponies. 'MDA readers have been very generous,' said Kathryn.
'We will now be writing a seasonal column in the paper, so people can get to know our ponies and read about their progress from sale rejects to healthy, happy and wanted animals.' If you would like to know more about or help the Dartmoor Pony Rescue Centre, phone Kathryn on 01392 667262, visit the website at http://www.dprc.org.uk">www.dprc.org.uk or email [email protected] o.uk.