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We saw a few Dartmoor Ponies as we travelled through the moor. I wondered why there were so many pinto-colored ones. I had always thought that Dartmoor Ponies would be bay, brown or black - at least, they are supposed to be. Most of the ponies we saw were pinto, we saw some greys and duns, too. Almost none of them had the "native pony" look, they were very clean-limbed.
Upon doing some research, I discovered that the Dartmoor Ponies are considered monetarily almost worthless by the farmers who breed them. The "native pony" types, the bays, browns and blacks with the hairy legs and chins just don't sell well. In fact, they were, in recent years, often sold at auction for "four for a guinea." That's about fifty or sixty cents apiece! Recently, the minimum auction price was set at 8 pounds per head, but this is still ridiculously low.
Over the past winter, the local government has found some severely malnourished ponies that had to be rescued from their owners and nursed back to care. Also recently, the local government has had permission to shoot excess free-roaming ponies because no homes can be found for them!
By all accounts, the Dartmoor Ponies are friendly and tractable, with excellent dispositions which make them suitable as a child's riding pony or a driving pony, or even just a best "pony friend!"
According to a website set up to promote the Dartmoor Ponies, many farmers have found that they can get better prices for the "coloured" (pinto) ponies than the solid-colored ones. Therefore, they are breeding their mares to pinto stallions. This is why we saw so many piebalds and skewbalds on our visit.
Visit the website www.dartmoorhillpony.com to find out more about how you can help the ponies of the moor.