Thursday 13 October 2016

Chagford Dartmoor Pony Sale

Today was the annual Dartmoor Pony Sale at Chagford.  Thank you so much to Vanessa, Angela, and Thea who all came to sale, and to Roy and Margaret who looked after the p4p ponies whilst we were at the sale.

There were 143 ponies entered in the catalogue for the sale but not all were actually brought to the sale, including the donkeys that had been scheduled to be sold.  There were approximately 115 entries, of which approximately 30 were unsold.  There was a very different atmosphere at the sale this year - there were fewer ponies generally in the pens and the ponies were in good condition.  There were lots of private buyers with trailers.

There is still no provision of water.   Whilst there were still dealers buying - they were mostly local.  There were none of the large scale long distance traders seen in the days before the exposure of the horse meat scandal.  There was no attendance by Trading Standards or Defra, so no enforcement agencies were present.


Spotted ponies were still making the most money - one going for £300, another for £250. 

 Approximately 20 ponies were sold for £10; 5 for between £10 and £19; 13 for £20; 30 for between £22-£99; 9 for £100 or more; 6 for £200 or more; 2 for £300 or more.  The 2 ridden ponies went unsold as their reserves were not met. 





The foal in the photo above was the youngest at the sale - they were appropriately penned at the beginning of the sale, separated in their own pen.  After being sold they were not appropriately penned and were added to a pen already full of other sold animals - disappointingly, this was done by the welfare officer of another charity who should know that The Welfare of Horses at Market 1990 requires a mare with a foal at foot to be separately penned - section 11, part 2(c).

The loading varied - one pony attempted to jump out a pen before loading was even attempted.  One set of private buyers used their purple lunge whip to hit ponies to try to get them loaded into their horsebox.  With no authorities to oversee loading there were trailers that were crammed full with foals.

Our thoughts are always with the animals sold after the sale...on their journeys to wherever they are going and that they can find kind, knowledgeable homes.  It is good that far fewer ponies are being brought to the sale but of course, that doesn't mean there are fewer ponies being bred and brought off the moors - it just means the others will be going straight for other purposes, either shot on the farms or for human consumption.

                                                           Year  -  Number of ponies entered in catalogue
2016 -   140
2015  -  175
2014  -  214
2013  -  212
2012  -  250
2011  -  433
2010  -  434

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4 comments:

Thea said...

I was with Faye at Chagford, having never been to a large pony auction before, I was saddened and shocked at the way some of the youngsters were handled both within the ring and out of it. At one time there were four people (including a young boy) all prodding sticks at a young foal to get it to move around, it must have been terrified. There was no provision for water for any of the ponies and foals and we also witnessed a foal being removed from its mother after being told that this would not happen. Both mare and foal were extremely anxious and the foal was loaded into a large horse lorry together with a large number of other foals one of which was four months old. Very sad indeed.

Unknown said...

The wee dark bay in the 4th and 5th picture down is safe at home with me, she was my accidental buy :-)

Wendy said...

Can anyone help me trace the origins of a stunningly beautiful spotted filly foal that was sold at Chagford on the 13th October please?She is now in a private home with us & has started her basic handling.She is tall - about 12.2 - 13hands already & may have some TB in her?She is not cobby & doesn't have much feather. She is a bay appaloosa, with black mane, tail & legs, white body with lovely dark bay spots all over.Truly beautiful, we love her.Thanks very much

people4ponies.co.uk said...

Hi Wendy - if you can send us an email to our main address we'll see if we have any info we can send to you...