Yesterday was the annual Chagford Pony Sale on Dartmoor - 175 ponies (actually including 3 donkey foals) were entered in the catalogue - far fewer than in previous years, 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. Some of the breeders that attend every year without fail were missing and they are believed to being taking part in the ponies for human consumption scheme.
Looking at the approximate statistics...3 extra ponies were entered on the day of the sale but 24 ponies were not brought to the sale. 53 ponies went "not sold" meaning they didn't reach a minimum bid or the set reserve...that leaves approximately 101 animals sold. Approximately 36 ponies sold for a minimum of £10 each.
It's quite interesting looking at the figures - (excluding the donkeys) it was the spotted ponies in general who made the most money - up to £210 for a spotted filly and £100 for the spotted stallion - not all the spotted ponies sold but they did get the highest prices - at least 7 reached prices of over £100 each.
The groups of mixed Hill pony foals on the whole sold with the lowest prices and many were "not sold" ...(it would be interesting to compare the figures with previous years though)
One breeder sold 7 out of 14 - making £82 without costs/fees and taking 7 home.
Another breeder sold out 7 of 14 - making £140 without costs/fees (thanks to just one pony getting extra bids to reach £65, the rest going for £10) and taking 7 homes.
Another sold 14 out of 22 - making £160 without costs/fees and taking 8 home .
Handled ponies from the moor which had already been passported and microchipped by their owners made just £10 each - nothing for all the costs and effort that had been put in.
The purebred types which hadn't attracted much attention generally did get a higher price with some more keen bidding... 5 out of 7 sold making £265. Their owner was the only one we saw to make sure there was plenty of hay available for her ponies. At least three of them did go to a man who wanted to add a few more ponies to his conservation grazing herd.
Those that had been crossed with bigger Paint Horses didn't sell at all. Shetlands and the very small miniatures were popular although there were a few that were very young - most likely younger than the 3 month minimum age set by law for them to be at market.
There were more private buyers than in previous years with lots of people buying one or two, and a few finding homes after the sale after having been through the ring unsold.
There were stories again from pony owners who had removed their stallions but their mares had been covered by their neighbours' stallion resulting in foals they just didn't know what to do with. They end up being forced into an impossible corner.
One of the dealers rang a client at the end of the sale, over the moon that he'd purchased him a quality young stallion at the price of just £10...and so the breeding will continue...
At the end of the sale the pens were sectioned into "sold" and "unsold" ponies and you could really see how humans buy in that sort of materialistic way of whatever the fashion is at the time...this year there was an unsold pen of piebald colts no-one had wanted, single "dull" colours of average size ponies...wrong colour for this year...it reminded me of a book I own called "A Good Horse Is Never A Bad Colour"...they shouldn't be better or worse for their colour but that's what humans get drawn to. Their fate will likely be death in the very near future...if it was another year it might have been different, but of course, there are still far too many ponies there to be able to achieve good prices...they didn't really need to be born at all.
Amongst all the ponies were 3 tiny donkey foals - who were very lucky as the Flicka Foundation in Cornwall were keen to rescue them and won the bidding, thanks to Angela's efforts!! Thank you so much to Karen, Sam and their family - we met them just a few weeks ago and they were just amazing - not only were they able to take on 2 pony foals and so had decided to come down to the market, they also stepped in with transport and temporary overnight accommodation for the 3 baby donkeys until the Flicka Foundation could pick them up the next day. They are so aware that they don't want to encourage the breeders to breed more but had a home for 2 ponies...so that's 5 little souls that we know will be going to 5* (or perhaps 25* between them!) homes. Flicka have told us today that the baby donkeys are between 10 and 14 weeks old - so very little to be away from their Mums. At least the 3 have stayed together...they were some of yesterday's lucky ones.
With fewer ponies at the sale and more private bidders there seemed to be a bigger proportion of sold versus unsold ponies than previous years. Trading standards were there all day and did stay to supervise the loading. There was one small livestock lorry towing a trailer, both parts absolutely full of ponies - the driver said he was heading to Chester so we don't know what his intention was with all those ponies. What we can say is that we didn't see any of the usual "suspicious" dealers we have seen in previous years and no extra big lorries so we are cautiously hopeful that none of them will be heading abroad.
N.B. just for interest, here is a history for the last few years of the numbers of ponies entered at Chagford (there used to be a Tavistock sale too but the last one ran there in 2013). In general the numbers of ponies entered has greatly reduced):
Year - Number of ponies entered
2015 - 175
2014 - 214
2013 - 212
2012 - 250
2011 - 433
2010 - 434
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| Ponies in pens waiting to be sold |
All photos and text copyright people4ponies 2015
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