The number of Dartmoor hill
ponies has plummeted from about 30,000 in the 1950s to about 850 now, according
to conservationists.
Ponies are sold every year as
pets and for grazing.
Friends of the Dartmoor Hill
Pony (FDLP) said the recession, high hay prices and tougher horse transport
regulation were putting off buyers.
As a result, farmers were
keeping far fewer mares than stallions and numbers on the moor were dropping.
Charlotte Faulkner of FDLP
said numbers had dropped from about 3,000 16 years ago to 1,500 five years ago.
"Hay prices are
astronomical and people just don't have the money to invest in what we're
producing," she said.
Posts
