Dartmoor pony
| Dartmoor pony | |
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| Important data | |
| Origin: | South West England, 11th century |
| Main breeding area: | England |
| Distribution: | Breeds all over Europe, the USA and Australia |
| Stick measure : | 116 - 127 cm |
| Colors : | mostly blacks and browns, rarely foxes and white horses, no piebalds, large-scale badges are undesirable |
| Main application area: | Driving and children's riding horses, landscape protection and biotope maintenance |
The Dartmoor pony is a small- stature pony breed native to the south-west of England .
Background information on horse evaluation and breeding can be found under: Exterior , interior and horse breeding .
interior
The Dartmoor pony is friendly, tough, robust and enduring.
Breeding history
The Dartmoor ponies come from a raised bog in the south west of England ( Dartmoor ), near the city of Plymouth . Before the studbook was founded in 1899, numerous horses of other breeds were crossed. The wild mares were crossed with Shetland ponies , Welsh ponies , fur ponies , Hackneys , Arabs, and a few other breeds. It was used as a pack animal on the farms and for transporting ore from the mines, it pulled the carts in the mines and served the farmers as a mount. The English royal children also learn to ride these ponies.
Dartmoor ponies are now one of the endangered domestic animal breeds. Worldwide it is assumed that there are around 3000 animals. In Germany there are 36 stallions and 140 broodmares of this breed.
use
It is suitable as a starting riding pony for children and due to its good jumping ability as a small hunting and jumping pony. It is also well suited as a driving horse for adults and children.
This primeval pony is also useful in the care of areas that are valuable in terms of nature conservation (utilization of extensive hay, keeping the traditional cultural landscape open, use in large-scale grazing projects , biotope care with the aim of protecting species and biotopes).
Due to their low weight, Dartmoor ponies can also be used on steep surfaces close to the groundwater. They are suitable for grazing almost all biotopes including wetlands, heaths and grasslands . With regard to the climate, they feel more comfortable in the mountainous climate than in dry and warm lowlands, according to their origin. They are good users of roughage and very frugal. They cannot stand forage from fertilized pastures and do not need any concentrated feed for rearing or when the performance is low. In adapting to their environment, they have developed longer grazing times, higher grazing intensity and less physical activity. They have a good tolerance to cold and damp weather. You can generally move skillfully in mountainous terrain. The pronounced chewing surfaces of the molars and the digestive organs are adapted to particularly hard-stemmed, voluminous and poorly rich, partly frozen food. The bite-like position of the incisors is gentle on the bite and the plants are pinched off rather than plucked. They hardly select their forage because they have a wide range of uptake for plant species and for different age stages of the vegetation. They do not consistently look for specific non-feeding areas for defecation because they are not always inclined to stop feeding for this activity. The droppings are therefore not very concentrated, but rather distributed over the entire area. In addition, the distance that is kept to the hot spots while grazing is small. These three factors mean that the grazing area is evenly eaten away, and if there is an appropriate supply, they will also regularly eat sedges , rushes and hard-leaved sweet grasses. They also accept and utilize older growth and overgrown food.
literature
- Documentation and handout on biotope maintenance with horses (= Naturschutz-Praxis. Landschaftspflege 2, ISSN 1437-0182 ). LUBW State Institute for Environment, Measurements and Nature Conservation Baden-Württemberg, Karlsruhe 2005.
See also
