Dartmoor

From the 1100s to the 1400s they were ridden, worked on farms, and used to pull skips in the coal and tin mines. When they were not needed they were turned out on the moor, which is where the breed really came from: generations of selection by rough ground and thin grazing rather than by anyone's plan.

They nearly went in the first half of the 1900s. Machines removed the work, and the purebreds that were left got crossed to make polo ponies and sport horses. The first registrations had come through the Polo Pony Society's studbook in 1898; the Dartmoor Pony Society formed in 1924 and set the standard, and numbers only started moving after the Second World War.

America got its Dartmoors in the 1930s, imported by Joan Dunning to her Farnley stud, The Dartmoor Pony Registry of America, which keeps the US studbook, gives its own founding year as 1956; the Conservancy dates it to 1936.

Small and strong: about 12 hands on average, 11.1 to 12.2 in practice, and 450 to 500 pounds. Bay and brown are the common colors, with black, chestnut, gray and roan allowed; piebald and skewbald are barred, and white markings are uncommon.

A small head on a strong neck, muscular hindquarters, dense flat bone and hard feet. The sloping shoulder gives a smooth ride, which matters in a pony bought for children.

The Conservancy's words are docile, calm, friendly and spirited, and the experience rating is novice. That combination, steady without being dull, is much of why they make good children's ponies.

The consistency is the other part. The breed is notably uniform in type, so a Dartmoor tends to be what you expected when you went looking for one.

Children's mounts first: showing, jumping, dressage, driving and trail. They were also foundation stock for the British Riding Pony.

The working niche now is conservation grazing. Dartmoors are used to graze down invasive plants, and the society is working to put purebred free-roaming herds back on the moor in place of the mixed-breed ponies there.

The moor did the selecting. Ponies were turned out on it whenever they were not needed, and the Conservancy says natural selection produced a breed that can thrive on rough terrain and poor forage, with dense, flat bone and durable hooves.

The Livestock Conservancy lists the Dartmoor as Critical, with a global population estimated at 2,000 to 3,000. Registered numbers fell from around 5,000 early in the 1900s to roughly 300.

Two schemes, the Dartmoor Pony Moorland Scheme from 1988 and the Preservation Scheme from 2004, work at keeping moor-bred ponies in the gene pool. Demand for the ponies currently exceeds supply.

A pony from Dartmoor is not automatically a Dartmoor Pony. The moor carries mixed-breed ponies; the breed is the registered population. In the US the book is the Dartmoor Pony Registry of America. Ask for papers, not provenance.

Expect a wait. The Conservancy notes demand exceeds supply, so a well-bred Dartmoor is found, not picked up.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.