Hallworthy Market

Saturday was the second of the seasonal sales at Hallworthy in Cornwall.  There were 80 entries in the catalogue, with a few extras entered on the day, but quite a few of those entered didn't show up.  There was a majority of domesticated horses and ponies entered, so it was a very different day to what it used to be with hundreds of wild ponies coming off the moors to the sale.

As usual for the moorland breeders, miniatures sold well making up to a maximum of £180.  One of the larger moorland horse foals was very frightened and tried to jump out of the ring.   Quite a few only made £20, whilst others went unsold - bids were started at £8 for a few but they didn't even reach the minimum of £10...and so went unsold.  Unlike the breeders on Dartmoor, the Bodmin farmers have to foot the cost of the microchipping and passporting themselves and (unless they were selling miniatures) many would have made a loss on the price their horses reached at the market.  On the whole, more horses and ponies (both wild and domesticated) were sold at Hallworthy than any of the other seasonal sales this year.

The drovers weren't the usual ones we see at the horse sale and they didn't look comfortable moving the wild ponies around but they did their best to keep things running smoothly, keeping gangways clear and penning animals suitably after they had been sold.

I was told that there was something on Spotlight news last night about the sale - where they made a mistake about ear tagging of horses, which is illegal!  The story said that the farmers are talking about removing stallions from Bodmin...let's hope some action is finally being taken...

That's the last of the wild pony markets for us this year (as Bampton is not selling ponies) so thank you to all the volunteers who have added extra days to their normal rotas to help either at the markets or at the yard.  There has been a huge improvement in the conditions at markets since we first started attending in 2010.  There have been no illegal ear notches/tagging, and the only intervention we had to make this year was at Chagford...plus it's great that the large scale illegal dealers haven't been present and we don't believe any ponies have been illegally transported directly from markets abroad...Hooray...

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