Exmoor pony

Common card · No. 431643

The Exmoor Pony is a British breed of pony or small horse. It is one of the mountain and moorland pony breeds native to the British Isles, and so falls within the larger Celtic group of European ponies. It originates on, and is named after, the Exmoor area of moorland in north-eastern Devon and western Somerset, in south-west England, and is well adapted to the climate conditions and poor grazing of the moor. Some still live there in a near-feral state but most are in private ownership. Written records of ponies on Exmoor start with Domesday Book in 1086. After centuries of being a Royal Forest (not an area of trees but a hunting ground), most of Exmoor was sold in 1818. Thirty ponies, identified as the original old type, were moved to neighbouring moorland and were the foundation stock of the present-day breed. A breed society, the Exmoor Pony Society, was formed in 1921 and the first stud-book was published in 1963. The ponies came close to extinction during the Second World War when...

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