Mares on the moor are still breeding

Mrs Rolls is currently caring for 14 unwanted ponies.

Mrs Rolls said: "At the moment SWEP is using stables I rent for my own horses, and a lady allows us to use some land.

"But it is only a temporary arrangement, and if we were given notice to move out we would have a problem.

"If we suddenly had to stop working the ponies would have to be put down."

Mrs Rolls said she recently saved a number of ponies from becoming lion food when they were unsold at a sale.

"Staff from a local wildlife park were coming to pick them up to feed them to the lions, but I said I would take them."

The value of ponies has declined as supply exceeds demand - and at one recent sale they were being offered at three for �1.

Mrs Rolls is arranging new homes for ponies by putting people who telephone her in touch with farmers who breed them.

Mrs Rolls said the the pony problem on Dartmoor is "not going to go away".

"The mares on the moor are pregnant. It is not suddenly going to solve itself, unless they stop the breeding."