What are stallions like to keep?

[Ladyinred]

Really love those Highlands.. makes me remember why I always wanted one as a kid. Somehow we ended up with Sec D's ! Not that I would swap any of them.

 

[Queenbee]

No offence taken at all, I completely understand, and agree with your points. I lived in Wales, my field was on the edge of the mountain and it saddened me greatly year after year to see bedraggled, bony little mares with yet another badly put together foal.

I lived on dartmoor too and saw the same thing. A lot of farmers, and I know plenty of them, saw ponies as a cash crop and put spotted or coloured stallions out on the moors/mountains, to improve their prices, not the ponies, I rarely, if ever, saw anything approaching a true native pony, all these were just feral foal factories. I think the NF have more rules and regulations than Wales or Devon, but I know very little about NFs on the forest. Thankfully their are committed native breeders who do produce purebreds to keep the breeds going.

The trouble with saying "Geld the lot of them" (and I agree) is who is going to bear the cost, the people who breed willy nilly don't care and certainly won't shell out for an operation.

God, where I lived in wales, there wasnt a horse for miles, well there was a small yard that my sister rode at but they did a moonlight flit with all the ponies they had on loan but that was it and after they went there was nothing other than one traveller who passed through with his cobs once a yr!

I know what you mean about dartmoor, what gets me is that the ponies that I value highest are the jet black proper dartmoor ponies, I had one bred by diana coaker... that was pure class.

I suppose its like the NHS, preventative measures cost less in the long run but no one wants to pay our for the prevention so they end up paying the price later on