DARTMOOR 10/10/2024 PONY SALE UPDATE - video https://www.facebook.com/People4ponies/videos/531178866186374

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone for sharing our previous post and signing the petition to keep the pressure up on these sales. There are now 22,085 of you who have signed the petition calling for an end to the pony sales, so thank you for your support for the ponies!

Sadly since the last post I've discovered that there are 2 more pony sales planned - so that is 3 sales on Dartmoor in total for autumn 2024. One of those will be at Chagford again.

This is a lot of unhandled, and potentially traumatised ponies coming onto the market at one time. This is into an already overwhelmed market - one of the national welfare groups has already declared a rehoming crisis as "animal intake" doubles that of those finding new homes. In the first half of 2024 they reported taking in 32% more equines compared to the number rescued in the first half of 2023. That rehoming will be of equines already having had health assessments, handling, gelding, and being potentially ready to go riding equines too...and going to properly assessed and experienced and checked homes.

For Thursday's sale - you can tell the pressure was on because the "pro-market" press releases and sale video from the early morning were already published in the local media by the mid afternoon whilst the sale was still ongoing!!

There isn't as much detail posted in these videos as I would like - there is footage of a pony being neck grabbed/wrestled but I can't zoom in on my editing suite so it's not included here atm.

Only 2 pens were reported as having water and 6 pens had hay. This is a long standing battle as it is a legal requirement that "the duty of the person in charge of the horse to ensure that the horse is provided with an adequate quantity of wholesome water as often as is necessary to prevent it from suffering from thirst"...But I've had battles with Trading Standards on the phone with this before - being told it would be difficult for them to tell if a foal or pony was thirsty unless it was offered a bucket of water to see if it drank!

2 ponies were seen to have wounds - the one in the video is probably the more concerning, being on the joint area and treatment likely necessary for a period of time (with veterinary supervision).

You can see in the footage just how young some of the foals are.

There are already ponies from the sale listed for sale again on the internet. Some were listed by the evening of the sale day and still with their rump stickers on. Others have appeared this weekend with descriptions such as being sold because they are not settling in.

There was a time when there were at least 7 rescues covering the moorland ponies on Dartmoor. One of the of the biggest that kept things accountable on the moorland area and covered the markets, folded and merged with a larger organisation. Another had to close because of illness. Let's just say that's a lot of coverage over a long time for an area where all the ponies apparently get "rehomed".

Rescues will now start getting calls from buyers asking for help. It happens every year. They didn't realise the mare they bought was also pregnant and they can't afford or don't have room for more ponies. The pony is too difficult to handle. They went to buy one pony but felt sorry for them and came away with 8 to rescue them - and will the rescue take the extra 7! They didn't realise how much it costs to geld a pony. They bought 2 ponies at the sale yesterday but one got colic overnight and the vet treated it but sadly it had to be pts. And in the long term more heartbreaking stories such as the buyer has suffered a stroke and can't care for them, or has passed away.