A Lottery-funded website has been set up to allow Dartmoor ponies to be bought online and help boost the declining breed
A website has been set up using a Lottery grant to promote the Dartmoor pony and allow people to buy ponies online.
Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony (FDHP) are launching www.dartmoorhillpony.com in a bid to boost the breed’s popularity and encourage better market prices.
The FDHP was set up by a group of farmers in an attempt to devise a strategy to market the ponies by making them more profitable and appealing to buyers.
Pony numbers on the moor have dropped from 30,000 to just 3,000 in 50 years. Dartmoor ponies have struggled to attract buyers and low market prices made headlines when ponies were selling for less than a pint of milk.
The FDHP designed the website www.dartmoorhillpony.com using a £20,000 grant from the Lottery’s local heritage initiative. The aim of which is to encourage communities to tackle practical action to care for their local heritage
Chris Burke from the Local Heritage Initiative said: “The project’s aim is to investigate and raise awareness of the importance of the Dartmoor Pony in the National Park. Information will be made publicly accessible through a website, a printed publication, a newsletter, display boards and production ofa promotional video for which funds from the Nationwide are requested.
The Dartmoor National Park Committee and the Commoners Council are also supporting the website. As well as ponies for sale, it will also have details and history of herdson the moor.
Secretary of the FDHP Charlotte Faulkner told BBC Online: ” The website will provide a point of contact between breeders and people interested in buying them. It will save the ponies and create the market we need.”
For more information on the Local Heritage Initiative click here www.lhi.org.uk
Read more Dartmoor pony news:
