EXMOOR PONY APPEAL

Exmoor National Park Authority has appealed to people not to feed the Exmoor Ponies on North Hill above Minehead. Someone has recently been putting out vegetables and scraps for the ponies which will eventually cause them to become more demanding and aggressive towards people when looking for food.

Alison Kent, Ranger with the National Park Authority who is responsible for the ponies says: “The way that Exmoor Ponies graze by just nibbling off small amounts of scrub at a time is an important part of the conservation management of North Hill and they should not be fed man-made food which upsets this natural balance.”

She continued: “By feeding the ponies, people are encouraging them to walk across the roads and into car parks and we will soon be having accidents where ponies are hit by motor vehicles. It would be a shame if we had to remove the ponies from the hill as people enjoy seeing them there.”

Exmoor Ponies have evolved over thousands of years to live on open moorland with minimum intervention from man and the continued purity of the breed depends on this. The Exmoor Ponies have become a welcome sight on North Hill for local people and visitors alike and when they were first introduced to the area they kept well away from vehicles and people. Alison said: “By encouraging the ponies to come closer people are putting the ponies and themselves in potential danger.”