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Concept
Exmoor pony
Summary
The Exmoor Pony is a British breed of pony or small horse. It is one of the mountain and moorland pony breeds native to the British Isles, and so falls within the larger Celtic group of European ponies. It originates on, and is named for, the Exmoor area of moorland in north-eastern Devon and western Somerset, in south-west England, and is well adapted to the climate conditions and poor grazing of the moor. Some still live there in a near-feral state, but most are in private ownership.
Written records of ponies on Exmoor start with the Domesday Book in 1086. After centuries of being a “Royal Forest” (not an area of trees but a hunting ground), most of Exmoor was sold in 1818. Thirty ponies, identified as the original old type, were moved to neighbouring moorland; these were the foundation stock of the present-day breed. A breed society, the Exmoor Pony Society, was formed in 1921; the first stud-book was published in 1963.
The ponies came close to extinction during the Second World War, when some were stolen for food. After the war a small group of breeders worked to preserve the remaining stock; during the 1950s small numbers were exported, to continental Europe and to Canada. In 1981 the vulnerability of the breeding population received publicity, and numbers recovered somewhat. In the twenty-first century it is a gravely endangered breed, with a total of 95 head reported in the United Kingdom for 2021, and an estimated population world-wide of 330. Its conservation status is listed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust as 'priority', the highest level of concern of the trust.
Ponies were first recorded in the Exmoor area in the Domesday Book in 1086, but no count of the ponies roaming the Royal Forest of Exmoor is included as, being owned by the King, they were not to be taxed. Over the centuries, a series of Wardens managed the Royal Forest, charging fees for the grazing of livestock including ponies. The change of Warden was often accompanied by the sale of ponies they personally owned, as for example in 1748 at the end of the Hill and Darch wardenship.
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