Chagford Pony Sale

Our Welfare Team attended the annual Chagford pony sale, this market is a little nicer than the others as it is outside and the pens are on grass with wooden fencing. There is none of the clanging and clattering of metal gates, which causes great fear in many a young pony. The ponies were appropriately penned before the auction took place but there was no water provided. When our Welfare Officer asked if water could be provided she was told that the ponies would not be there long enough to warrant it.

There were around 220 ponies of various ages present, most were moorland ponies fresh from the drifts but there were a few halter broken and ridden ponies. There was a good attendance, but not half as many people as in previous years and not many ponies sold. It was a sorry sight seeing pony after pony being run through the ring and not being bid on, a lot of the ponies that did sell were bought by a meat man.

Watching behind the scenes as the ponies were being moved and prepared to go through the ring was slightly shocking. One drover was seen kicking and slapping ponies, hitting them with his cap and wrestling with frightened young ponies to try and separate them. He was seen at one point with a can of beer in hand sorting ponies and looking very red in the face. We do not think that this is acceptable behaviour, the market is a traumatic enough time for these ponies without being man handled by a potentially intoxicated drover. When the auction was over this same man walked passed our Welfare staff and the smell of alcohol was very strong. Another drover was seen wrestling ponies which caused them to panic, it wasn't all bad though as many of the other drovers were quiet and calm and moved the ponies around with minimal fuss.

The reasons why SWEP are apposed to rough handling, wrestling, hitting and kicking as a way of moving ponies around is because it makes the fearful of humans and can cause them to be difficult to handle and bring round in their new homes, if they are lucky enough to be bought. We have many ponies who have come to our rehabilitation yard that have been so traumatised by the market experience that they have taken months to come round and trust humans. Rough handling can cause them to be head shy, bite and kick as well as show avoidance behaviour. Some ponies never get over the experience and never trust humans. Many of these ponies have the potential to make children's ponies, however if they have a traumatic start in life they often end up in rescue centres because their behaviour is deemed difficult.



Once the auction was over the ponies were again separated and loaded into the waiting lorries and trailers, this was done in a much calmer manner and there were not issues. We were a little worried about a very small spotty pony (see above picture) who was in a pen with some much larger ponies, however he was soon ushered out by his owner and loaded onto a trailer with a small group of ponies the same size as him.

Staff from another organisation and SWEP staff asked for a stallion to be removed from a pen of mares and foals as he was covering them, he was bought by the same person as the mares but we felt he needed to be removed and kept away from them as they were in an enclosed area and getting stressed, this was eventually done and the stallion was put in a pen well away from the mares.