Great success for feral foal workshop!!

Well we are now all thoroughly exhausted but very happy after a wonderful feral foal handling course with fabulous Sarah Weston!!! Last week really flew by and everyone involved really enjoyed themselves, the atmosphere was so lovely and peaceful, the real world has been a bit of a shock ha ha. I have taken on one foal myself and the DPTC has taken on another, they are called Suki and Bella and are both a real credit to the breed, can't wait to see how they turn out. Suki was def. the head of the class and graduated to leading around the barn and having her feet picked up. The ponies were all very different and gave everyone a chance to see all sorts of reactions and different techniques for dealing with them. Can't say enough thank you's to Sarah and all the tutors who give up their time for free and refused to even take petrol money from us, gorgeous people. We do still have 3 adorable foals from the same herd as Suki and Bella looking for homes, who will otherwise sadly become lion food!! DO get in touch if you think you could offer a home to any of these amazing ponies. We are now all really fired up for trying to run the course again next year but we will need to raise a chunk of funds for insurance and we are hoping buy the mesh panels which are so vital for making pens for the course and will be looking for corporate sponsors for the panels (see photos) so also get in touch if you own or work for a company who might consider this. Very exciting, futures looking bright!

Urgent Appeal, homes for Colts!!!

URGENT APPEAL- these little Dartmoor hill pony colts are destined for zoo meat unless we find them a home in the next week or so. He is from a farmer who is very supportive of our work and who is trying to work with on schemes to produce less stock each year, but with the poor economic climate he cannot afford to take colts to market, where they almost def. won't sell. If you think you could give these gorgeous chaps a home, please contact us. We know we can't make a difference to them all, but we can make a difference to some. And you could be the difference between life and death!! There may also be fillies available if they don't sell at market.

Don't forget the pony market this Thursday, the 13th of Oct. at Chagford as well, we will be there with training advice as well. Around 400 ponies will be going through the ring. Charlotte Faulkner of the Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony can bid, buy and hold ponies for buyers who cannot attend themselves as well! So you've got no excuse lol x

Open day Thanks and rehoming push!

Here's a picture of Alfie and friends at the open day, waiting for their adoring fans!! Well we had our little open day on the 1st of October and would just like to thank everyone who came along for making it a success. We had the most amazing weather, a good turn out, the ponies behaved beyond brilliantly and we all had a wonderful time. We have also hopefully re-homed another pony yay. Our lovely volunteer Ro's clicker demo was very popular and Mikey and Leo both performed perfectly. I'd like to try some more of this myself after seeing the lovely positive atmosphere it created for the ponies. Our Alfie was a super star and escorted lots of small children around the horse agility course without batting a horsey eyelid lol.

Well we are feeling much more relaxed about the coming winter, now that it looks as though it might finally be arriving ha ha, and we have re-homed a fair few ponies over the summer. Just as well after our less than bountiful hay harvest eek!

We do however still have a few really lovely ponies looking for homes, particularly Brambles, Courage, Mikey and Milo. So do go take a look at the re-homing blog (dptcrehoming.blogspot.com) if you think you could help? We also have two or three rather wild little mares from rescue backgrounds who might make a nice little conservation grazing herd for someone or for an organization like the wildlife trust, any suggestions or contacts gratefully recieved ??? Well the log burner and choccy are calling my name, wrap up pony pals xx

Pony market correction!

Sorry about that peeps lol, I blame the boss, the Tavistock market is this Friday, the 3oth of Sept. We will hopefully be attending handing out training info. and support for anyone taking on ponies. Sadly we can't take on any more ponies so we have promised to leave the trailer at lol!!!
Above the poster from Charlotte Faulkner about the sales, hopefully see some of you there?

Pony markets coming up, open day and training event!

Busy busy busy lol!!!!

Well we have had a great summer at the DPTC, we have managed to re-home several ponies though we still have quite a few more waiting for forever homes! Autumn is definitely upon us and our only real worry now is that we got very little hay from our fields this year and did not cut enough to get us through the winter!!!! If anyone would like to donate hay or haylage and your in the west country PLEASE do let us know, the ponies would be very grateful!!!!

Plenty of positives though, with ponies waiting to go to their new homes, the open day still on for the 1st of October and the semi feral foal handling course on the 24th-28th of Oct which we still have spectator spaces for, so come see us or get in touch........or both ha ha!

This is also the time of year for the annual pony markets;

Sat 1st Oct - Tavistock

Thurs 13th Oct - Chagford

For more information please contact Charlottte Faulkner at the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association. info@dartmoorhillpony.com / 07734 785644.

For help with training your pony after you take it on from sale please contact us - dartmoorponytrainingcentre@yahoo.co.uk / 07802 218169. Or come to our open day on sat 1st October to see what we do and how wonderfully these ponies can become given the chance.

Open Day!!!

On 1st October 2011 between 10am and 2pm the Dartmoor Pony Training Centre will be hosting their annual Open Day at Moretonhampstead Riding Club’s arena next to the George V Sports Hall, the event will include clicker training demonstrations with the ponies and horse agility.

At the event will be the DPTC’s sponsor ponies Trixie and Leo ready to meet their sponsors as well as a selection of ponies currently available for re-homing. The Centre is currently overrun with ponies and so if you are thinking of homing a pony the Open Day is an excellent event to attend enabling you to meet prospective ponies and see them in action through demonstrations and workshops. At the event you can find out about the DPTC and how to re-home a pony from them as well as learn about the Dartmoor Hill Pony as a breed; there will be lots of people to answer any questions and offer advice on training.

The clicker training demonstrations will be 11am and 11.30am and this will be followed by a horse agility course where the DPTC ponies will have a go, people will be invited to try for themselves with a DPTC pony, the horse agility will start at 12.30pm.

The Open Day is being run separately from the very popular annual 5 day Semi-Feral Foal Handling course this year. Although fully booked for participants there are still a number of spaces available on this course for spectators which will run from 24th to 28th October in Widdecombe.

For more information on the Open Day, Handling Workshop or if you’d like to offer a pony a home please contact Natalie Torr on 07802 218169 or e-mail dartmoorponytrainingcentre@yahoo.co.uk

Read more: http://ihdg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=swe&action=display&thread=117436#ixzz1XebHrcuH

Great training session, Mikey and Star!

Well school term started Tuesday (hooray) so I've had a bit more time to help Nat with pony training. They should be coming on leaps and bounds now lol!!!

We took Mikey and Star down to the riding club arena, so that hopefully when our open day roles around (Oct. the 1st) they should be used to hanging out down there. They were very good boys, not worried by buses and cars on the way down, not even the crazy old lady in the 4x4 who flat refused to slow down!

We go out the scarey dangly shower curtain and the tarp and cones, they were total stars, it is quite hard o find things they are scared of really, we will have to be very inventive to give them a real challenge ha ha. Mikey really is the most clever, quick and responsive pony. Which does mean that he can be a challenge, but in the right hands he could be an amazing pony and do ANYTHING! He just needs that special person to put the time into him.