Report of Neglected Dartmoor Hill Ponies

Dartmoor Hill pony foal in poor condition

We were called out to a herd of neglected Dartmoor Hill ponies being grazed near Princetown, Dartmoor.  The ponies are owned by well known breeder and have been a concern to a member of the public for a couple of weeks.  After a catalogue of events, ending in the informant having to pull an exhausted pony that was near to drowning out of the leat, they contacted SWEP and asked us to visit the site.  The ponies were on private land, not on open moorland. 

The owner was contacted by SWEP - initially the breeder denied ownership of the ponies, despite them being on his land...then he told us that the ponies were waiting to be slaughtered by Andrew Goatman, so no action needed to be taken. 

We reported the following evidence taken by ourselves, and provided by the informant, to Defra.  They did visit the site but the details of the exact location of the ponies, and the identity of the particular ponies of concern were never requested from us...so we are not sure that the correct ponies were even seen by them.  Defra decided there was no case to answer by the breeder.

- For 2 weeks during the snowy weather over Christmas, the unfed ponies escaped from their fields in search of food and roamed through Princetown, along the main road and through people's gardens.  Equine charities, including the RSPCA, were contacted by the public.  Eventually they were returned to the private land.

- On 2nd January 2011, a member of the public had to call out the Fire Brigade to a pony that was trapped upside down between a wall and a fence.  

- On 18th January, a pony fell into the deep Devonport Leat and was weak after struggling to try to escape from its predicament.  It was unable to escape from the leat and was cold after being in the water so long.  We were told that despite efforts to get him to help, the farmer showed no interest in rescuing the pony - the 2 passers-by entered the leat and rescued the pony, putting themselves at risk by entering the deep water.

- A group of 11 ponies in particular have been kept in unacceptable conditions alongside the Devonport Leat, with no food or supplementary feeding.  Photographs of the site are included above.  There was nothing on the site for the ponies to eat.  Rusty barbed wire fencing is strewn across an old, unmaintained, boundary line on the site and presents a risk of injury any livestock.

- One pony was visibly lame.  When the farmer was contacted about this, he reportedly claimed that the pony was alright because it is able to run off.  We were unable to access the location of the ponies on the Duchy estate to assess their condition.  We were able to see from a distance that one pony looked in poor condition (as shown in the photo above) and we were concerned for its welfare.

- A large numbers of white worms (roundworms) were visible throughout the manure of a group of 3 ponies in particular - tests showed a high worm burden, particularly for redworms.  The lab stated that the presence of 3 different kinds of worms in the samples was quite unusual. 

A few weeks later, the ponies disappeared and we believe that they were shot by Andrew Goatman as part of the Hill Pony Association's scheme.