Local people making their corner of rural Britain unique
This week
Saturday 15th December
Matt Baker visits Dartmoor and investigates the plight of the ponies which roam free. Their numbers have dwindled rapidly in the past 100 years.
In the 1930s there were an estimated 30,000 Dartmoor Ponies roaming wild in Devon. Today there are fewer than 2,000 - and with just a few hundred breeding animals the pony is rarer than the Giant Panda. They have little or no economic value. The Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust has been set up to help the future of the breed. Matt Baker goes to Dartmoor and works with untouched colts and fillies brought in off the moor and weaned, learning the techniques for taming a foal; teaching it the five basic foundation skills that all the Trust's ponies are taught: wearing a halter, leading, loading, grooming all over and picking up feet.
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