Dartmoor ponies are excellent grazers and have the ability to switch to less palatable forage when necessary and with the season.

On Dartmoor they play a particularly important role in the grazing of purple moor grass in the spring and western gorse in the late winter.

The Dartmoor pony excels in both wet marsh and dry heathland environments.

The Norfolk Wildlife Trust have recently bought a herd of 16 Dartmoors to graze a 120 hectare heathland site. Please click here for details of their arrival and progress.

Norfolk Wildlife Trust Testimonial

written by Melissa Slote Grazing Officer NWT

We have 160 hectares of wet and dry heath and valley mire that will benefit enormously from the structural diversity that the pony grazing will bring. The reserve is currently grazed with our own Flying Flock of sheep and intermittently by a grazier's cattle but having the ponies resident on the site will help secure the grazing management for the habitat and a range of heath and mire species.

Dru, DPHT Project Officer, has been extremely helpful in finding exactly what we were looking for in terms of the number, age range and gender of the ponies. It could've been quite a daunting prospect without her local knowledge. Having discussed the grazing with Dru, local keepers and seen the grazing that has been taking place firsthand in Dartmoor we are confident that our new employees will do a fantastic job on the reserve.

I am really pleased that through Heritage Lottery Funding we not only have this wonderful opportunity to protect important wildlife sites but to also help in the conservation of this vulnerable native pony.