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.[2]: 465 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.[1]
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,[3] and an estimated population world-wide of 330.[4] Its conservation status is listed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust as 'priority', the highest level of concern of the trust.[5]
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The ExmoorPony 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...
2024. "ExmoorPonies". Everything Exmoor. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2012. "ExmoorPony Society". Everything Exmoor. Archived...
Pony Society The Eriskay Pony Society ExmoorPony Society Fell Pony Society Highland Pony Society The New Forest Pony Breeding Society Shetland Pony Stud...
Eriskay Pony Society was formed in 1986. Both societies are recognised as holding a studbook of origin for the breed. and resembles the exmoorpony and are...
July 2020. Hovens, Hans; Rijkers, Toon (2013). "On the origins of the Exmoorpony: did the wild horse survive in Britain?" (PDF). Lutra. 56 (2): 134. Retrieved...
heath at the nature reserve began. As part of this project, 19 wild Exmoorponies have roamed and grazed the land, helping other species to thrive. The...
Evidence from the skeletal remains of ponies from the Bronze Age suggests that they resembled the modern Exmoorpony. Horse bones excavated from Iron Age...
moors, could not be registered with the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association. Although ExmoorPonies live fairly close geographically and their markings are...
ponies live in apparently wild conditions in various areas, notably Dartmoor, Exmoor, Cumbria (Fell Pony), and the New Forest. Similar horse and pony...
plants that threaten the native flora. A grazing programme involving Exmoorponies has been established to help to clear faster-growing invasive plants...
influence from the Welsh Mountain Pony, Hackney pony, Arabian, Shetland Pony, Highland Pony, Connemara Pony, ExmoorPony, and from small Thoroughbreds. Stallions...
northern Celtic horses were thought to have ancestry related to the Exmoorpony of the British Isles, but subsequent Mitochondrial DNA studies revealed...
sometimes alleged to be surviving wild horses include the Exmoorpony and the Dülmen pony. However, genetic studies do not set any of these breeds apart...
It is somewhat similar in appearance to the Hucul, the Konik and the ExmoorPony.: 70 It weighs approximately 250 kg, and usually stands between 117 cm...
An example of this is the ExmoorPony, a rare horse breed which has adapted to the harsh conditions in England's Exmoor. In Europe, the associated fauna...
with reviving the Exmoorpony population after World War II. She and her husband, James Grant Speed (1906-1980) co-founded the ExmoorPony Trekking Society...
of the Blackdown Hills, which are also national landscapes, and most of Exmoor, a national park. The major rivers of the county are the Avon, which flows...
important flora such as sundew and bog asphodel. Small populations of Exmoorpony and Shetland cattle help to maintain the area. Bournemouth is directly...
the Shetland pony and Icelandic horse. A 2012 study found relationships between the Kerry Bog Pony and the Dartmoor Pony and ExmoorPony breeds, and a...
named species. They were: Pony Type 1, in northwestern Europe, resistant to cold and wet, similar to the modern ExmoorponyPony Type 2, in northern Eurasia...
working with neighbouring private landowners on measures to cull them. Exmoorponies graze on the Ashdown Forest to help tackle a variety of fast-growing...
estate. He used free-roaming herds of old English Longhorn cattle, Exmoorponies and Tamworth pigs as proxies for the aurochs, tarpan and wild boar that...
Exmoorponies to Hawkes Bay (not likely purebred Exmoors). They were later crossed with local horses to produce the Carlyon Pony. The Carlyon Ponies were...
red Devon cattle are to be found roaming the Purbeck Heaths, while Exmoorponies are stand-ins for the tarpan horses and curly coated Mangalitsa pigs...
races including Konik, Heck horse, Dülmener, Norwegian Fjord Horse, Exmoorpony, Pottoka, Losino horse, Sorraia, Marismeño, as a proxy for the tarpan...
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