20 Bodmin Moor ponies die of neglect! again

I wish they'd get on with a major cull of all things sub standard, lame, ill, starving, stallions, anything that does not have a right to be there, the lot and get Dartmoor and the commons back to pure natives only which are the only things able to exist on those places and it would then leave enough keep for them to manage better rather than them all scrabbling for the last blade of grass. It would also help if all commoners were given a limit of how many ponies they can keep, what type and sex too. Desperate times needs desperate measures and these people have brought it on themselves without a thought for the sustainability of either the ponies or the habitat; you can't keep breeding and sticking on more ponies when the land can't possibly cope with those numbers. Something drastic has to happen and a mass cull would help a lot.
 
Very doubtful as people take more care of their Exmoor ponies and Bodmin's a long way from Exmoor. If you read this, the Exmoor is far better regulated (as it should be) for the environment. The majority of the ponies on Bodmin and many on Dartmoor are just scrub ponies, mongrels if you like, neither one thing or the other and are taking resources away from the indigenous ponies. They are the ones that should be cleared from the commons not the pure breds.
http://www.exmoorponysociety.org.uk/the-conservation-of-the-exmoor-pony.html
 
peteralfred said:
what type of ponies are they? why wouldn't they be Exmoors?
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Exmoors tend to look like Exmoors, this lot don't look anything like for the most part. And Bodmin moor isn't Exmoor so there isn't the same control.

The grazings definitely need to be managed properly and that means limiting numbers and controlling what stallions are allowed on and when.
 
sorry, my answer wasn't clear-I have two Exmoor ponies :) I just wondered why people would be keeping anything other than Exmoors on Bodmin as Exmoors would be ideal for that environment? And of course are a rare breed and our oldest native breed of pony.
I live in Scotland so by distances up here, Bodmin is just down the road from Exmoor, besides there are free living herds of Exmoors elsewhere in the country (Cumbria, Scotland) and of course they are being used more and more for conservation grazing.
 
I've seen some of the Bodmin ponies and IME, they are a load of scrags to put it bluntly and neither one thing or the other, just turned out rubbish which only their mother would love if she was looking with one eye shut and coloured glasses; coloureds, Welsh crosses, all sorts nothing like a proper Dartmoor (which is nearer than Exmoor) or Exmoor.

They're turned out there because it's cheap keep for people who think they might make a bob or two - which they might if they had used decent, proper registered stock in the first place. They used to be seen as a cash crop which is fair enough but they don't help themselves by turning out the most awful conformationed ponies you're likely to see.
 
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Maesfen said:
I've seen some of the Bodmin ponies and IME, they are a load of scrags to put it bluntly and neither one thing or the other, just turned out rubbish which only their mother would love if she was looking with one eye shut and coloured glasses; coloureds, Welsh crosses, all sorts nothing like a proper Dartmoor (which is nearer than Exmoor) or Exmoor.
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i have a bodmin moor pony, hes not a scrag or rubbish.. what part of bodmin moor? i know the one's near minions are very poor in bred things...
 
TBH, I haven't a clue which part of the moor it was; I was driven around there for the day five years ago mid July I think and saw several in different places; all of them were very scrawny, weedy things, not what you would expect in summer even on that scrub grazing; certainly nothing you'd want to take home with you even if you felt sorry for it, sorry. You can drive through the New Forest and Exmoor and see several which could be on your wish list, shame I can't say the same about the Bodmin ponies I saw.
 
Maesfen said:
TBH, I haven't a clue which part of the moor it was; I was driven around there for the day five years ago mid July I think and saw several in different places; all of them were very scrawny, weedy things, not what you would expect in summer even on that scrub grazing; certainly nothing you'd want to take home with you even if you felt sorry for it, sorry. You can drive through the New Forest and Exmoor and see several which could be on your wish list, shame I can't say the same about the Bodmin ponies I saw.
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i must say, over the 18 yrs i have been around here they have got worse..short backed coudnt put a saddle on one.. when i first moved to the area there was a nice sec d stallion up there, but now they are just inbred things, my boy came from st breward 20 odd yrs ago... hes welsh cross.i know the farmer breeds them then sells on to meat markets.. if your lucky to find a nice looking one you can offer him £10 for it...the moor is over grazed...
 
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