Dartmoor Hill Ponies and the Pony Drift
“We know from our history, they all go hand in hand: sheep, ponies, cattle.”
Keeping up with the fastest ponies
When horses move fast their power is palpable - manes flying and hoof-thuds seeming to shake the ground. They’re fast, they’re focused. As they rush past us, I’m glad we’re not too close. Then, in a blur, they’re gone, and very soon are silhouettes alongside a tor where the moor rises to meet the pale sky.
Around ten farmers, on horseback, trailbikes, quads, and Land Rovers, work together to bring the ponies in from a vast area of land. A few women on foot, waving flags and yelling whoops into the air, run towards the ponies when they approach, and successfully get them to turn. This is a Dartmoor pony drift: a collective task to gather in the ponies. Notwithstanding the introduction of walkie talkies, mobile phones and motor vehicles, the business of finding the ponies and moving them down off the moor has changed little: the same routes, the same speed, the same energy and focus. It’s a central part of the heritage of Dartmoor commoning.
While gathering sheep off a fell can be fast, it is possible to do it on foot, and Rob and I have joined many a gather. Not so with a pony drift: this is definitely not something for the inexperienced. We’ve joined as part of a group invited to watch thanks to the commoners, and the Friends of Dartmoor Hill Pony Charity, 'Wild to Wonderful’, and the Dartmoor National Park Authority. We don’t take part, although from time to time our presence is useful: we form a human wall so the ponies turn and stay on course (when they’d rather stay out on the top of the moor). Apart from the occasional - brief - close encounter, watching the action as ponies are urged across the moor is mostly a case of looking at them in the distance. And for much of the time, we’re waiting, as messages are passed via walkie-talkies.
We spend most of the day high on the moor, while the ponies are driven in across Halsanger and Buckland, and other commons. In these unfenced uplands, commons can abut one another and while ponies, like sheep, tend to stick to preferred areas (referred to as lears or hefts) they can wander further afield. After several hours of commoners urging ponies on, and checking in with one another to ensure they’ve got as many as they expect to, around 70 ponies are brought down to the walled-in newtakes. From there, they’re brought into the yard of a farm in Widecombe-in-the-Moor.
In the yard: sorting and checking
Farmers and pony specialists check the ponies’ health and identify which are connected with which farm. Sorting the ponies relies on cajoling, urging them to go through one gate, or another … it takes patience, bravery and time. One of the women is clearly very accomplished. I find out that it’s her job to work with ponies born on the moor, and tame them so they can be ridden. Selling Dartmoor Hill Ponies as riding ponies is an important part of the system – not all foals go back to the moor, and onward sales, for riding or for conservation grazing elsewhere, are part of a farming business.
Ponies as an integral part of Dartmoor
While Charlotte Faulkner from the Friends of Dartmoor Hill Pony Charity talks with the group of visitors, I join three farmers - Peter and John Mann, and Peter Mortimor – who are tucking into pieces of cake and cups of tea with their families. I’m curious to find out more about the drift, and what the current situation is regarding hill ponies as part of the farm business.
‘These ponies are down to be managed,’ I’m told. ‘We will take away any colt {male} foals that we don't want, any fillies {females} that we're not going to keep, and do a health check as well.’
I ask them how many years they’ve been doing pony drifts. The short answer is ‘forever’; then they expand, ‘reckon we've been doing it 25 years - as soon as we could ride a bike. And our parents and grandparents would have done the same.’ In this time, though, the numbers of ponies have gone down dramatically, to as little as 10% of what they used to be. One of the men says that the grazing is not as good as it used to be - partly because of an increase in gorse that makes grassy patches smaller, and therefore susceptible to becoming overgrazed.
‘The state of the commons means that at the moment, there's not enough feed up there for cattle and sheep, let alone ponies. And there’s a lack of biodiversity out there as well now, because there's so much gorse, and there hasn’t been any swaling*. We found that in other areas that have been managed, the curlew have really liked it. It’s not overgrown, it's not over grazed, there's a balance.’
Although the ponies aren’t a major part of the farm business - and in some years ponies have been worth nothing at market or have made a loss - they are an important part of Dartmoor culture. And they’re a valuable conservation grazing tool: ‘probably one of the only reasons that they're kept,’ says John, ‘bar the tradition.’
Ponies, policies and the future
It doesn’t take long for the conversation to drift towards current policies and finances. Since Brexit, new environmental policies and schemes have been in design. Under the umbrella of ELMs (or Environmental Land Management schemes) these offer payment for the delivery of ‘Public Goods’ including habitat management, biodiversity, water, and access. But at the time of writing (Nov 2023), there’s still a lack of clarity about the way these schemes will work in the uplands. Farmers are also facing a reduction in BPS (Basic Payment Scheme), which is being phased out. When I ask the men what they think the future holds, they say they’re taking it day by day.
Peter Mortimor explains, with a dose of exasperation, ‘Over the last four years, we have been farming in limbo. We haven't known which way to pull, especially with the hill stock. You don't know whether you should be keeping a hardier breed or softer breed – we’re not sure what we're allowed and what we're not allowed to do. Once there's clarity it’ll be a lot better. With the ponies, there's talk of us having to take them off the moor in the wintertime. If that’s the case, well that's not feasible. We haven't got enough space for the cows and sheep - we just wouldn't be able to keep the ponies. That would be the end of the Dartmoor pony.’
“What would Dartmoor be without Dartmoor Hill Ponies on it? ”
John carries on. ‘What would Dartmoor be without Dartmoor Hill Ponies on it? It'd be a real shame and if they had to come off, even for a short period of time: that would be the nail in the coffin. But it would never be the farmers’ decision to do that - it would be because of enforcement put on us.’ This isn’t a situation the farmers want, either for their culture, or for the moors and the maintenance of mosaic of habitats. ‘We know from our history, they all go hand in hand - sheep, ponies, cattle. They all have their benefits and their necessities to be out there, to keep what we created in the first place.’
Notes
* swaling is the term used for the practice of burning on the moors; burning sections of vegetation to reduce fire risk and open up areas for access. The Dartmoor National Park explanation of the practice can be found here: https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/living-and-working/farming/swaling
The Friends of Dartmoor Hillpony Trust is founded on a commitment to keep Dartmoor Hill Ponies on Dartmoor, and keep the bloodlines strong. Their work includes managing the sale of ponies that may be bought as riding ponies, or to be introduced for conservation grazing in other parts of the country. You can find out more about their work here: https://wildtowonderful.org/
