An amateur showing enthusiast from North Devon has qualified her rare-breed Dartmoor Hill pony for the SEIB Insurance Brokers Search for a Star Championship at Your Horse Live in Warwickshire this November.
The breed has recently been under the spotlight amid fears its future may lie in the balance due to new rules surrounding livestock grazing.
Clare Alderman and Barramore Pinky Pie, known as Pinks, won the SEIB Insurance Brokers Search for a Star In-Hand Plaited Pony qualifier on the 14 June at Royal Three Counties Show in Malvern, Worcestershire to earn their qualification.
Clare and Pinks will now go on to compete under the bright lights of the Main Arena at Your Horse Live this Autumn.
“We are flying with it today!” said Clare. “Pinks is a Dartmoor Hill Pony, I bought her as a foal wild off
the moor and it’s all my own work done with her to be here now, she is an absolute superstar.
“Pinks is now four, we’ll break her in over the winter. She caught my eye when I first saw her and we’ve
shown since I got her and improved all the way.
“It will also be great at Your Horse Live to bring her to represent the Dartmoor Hill Pony breed. As a child I did lead rein showing and then ridden hunters before getting into ponies.”
Clare and Pinky had already taken second place in the Coloured class and then Reserve Champion of Coloureds earlier in the day at Three Counties Show.
They also qualified for the CHAPS (Coloured Horse & Pony Society) Championship in April at the South West CHAPS Regional Show in the Home-Produced Amateur Grassroots Final.
Dartmoor Hill Ponies are semi-wild equines that have roamed Dartmoor National Park for several thousand years. Today, these hardy, genetically distinct ponies are vital to the moor’s ecology, managing invasive grasses and creating space for native wildlife.
Despite being on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist, their population is currently facing severe threats due to changes in government grazing regulations.
The Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony said up to 90% of the ponies could be lost. On 2 September, they will be delivering their petition to Downing Street, accompanied by some of the ponies they are working to protect.
Images by 1st Class Images
