Holt Ball Farm, Luccombe, Minehead, Somerset TA24 8SZ, United Kingdom
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About The Exmoor Pony Club and The Team
This Club is for Owners & Enthusiasts of Exmoor ponies - our aim is to promote the Exmoor pony breed worldwide and encourage positive, trust-based horsemanship for socialising, handling and training the closest relative to the North West European Prehistoric Horse.
The Club was informally founded in August 2012 by Exmoor pony breeders Nick and Dawn Westcott and Miriam Geraghty MRCVS. They are all actively involved in promoting, producing and breeding Exmoor ponies - and encouraging interest and understanding of this amazing ancient native breed.
Exmoor Pony Welfare Campaign: They have been actively working with the UK equine veterinary and welfare organisations and government to reduce the outdated practice of multiple hot branding Exmoor pony foals. Significant progress has been made with the reduction this year of hot brands applied from seven to a maximum of four and the end to any branding on the shoulder area. Ongoing work continues to end the hot branding of domestic ponies and reduce hot branding of semi feral ponies to a single brand, and only until a suitable alternative method of visual ID is found. The future looks bright for Exmoor ponies, without this painful and traumatic start in life.
How the Exmoor Pony Club was Born: During their work to reform the hot branding system, they realised that there is a place for an Exmoor Pony Club that enables people to meet and connect within a friendly, safe environment, where they can enjoy the ponies and take part in activities that encourage the use of positive, trust-based methods of horsemanship - and include activities such as riding and showing, Horse and Pony Agility, endurance, TREC, driving, show jumping and dressage.
You do not have to be an Exmoor pony owner to join the club - enthusiasts from across the world are welcome too!
About Exmoor Ponies: Exmoor ponies are one of the oldest, genetically pure breeds of equine walking the planet today and are the closest relative to the North West European Prehistoric horse. They have evolved to be intelligent, independent thinking, with characteristics that enable them to live largely independently from man. Grazing quotas in the moorland areas are limited, so in order to enable the breed to leave the Endangered Breeds List, ponies leaving the moors must find suitable roles in domestic life. The Exmoor Pony Club's aim is to help increase understanding and awareness of the socialising, handling and training methods that enable the ponies to successfully make this transition and thrive as performance and family ponies.
Meet The Exmoor Pony Club Management Team
Nick Westcott's family has been involved with Exmoor ponies since the early 1900's and his great grandfather Arthur George Westcott was a founding committee member of the Exmoor Pony Society in 1921. He and his two brothers founded Exmoor pony herds 10, 11 and 21. Nick and Dawn breed Herd 11 (Holtball Exmoors) ponies today. Nick's cousin, Malcolm Westcott has Herd 4. The Westcott family is a long standing Exmoor farming family, with many years experience of moorland farming and stock management. They are part of the Dunkery Commons and Tenants Graziers committees which determine the management of the moorland livestock that shapes the natural environment.
Miriam Geraghty MRCVS is a practising vet, who was also President of the Royal Dick Exmoor Pony Trekking Centre, and is now an Exmoor pony owner and breeder herself.
Dawn Westcott breeds and produces Exmoors and is the International Horse Agility Club World Champion 2011 and 2012 with her Exmoor stallion, Hawkwell Versuvius. She runs demos, clinics and workshops in Horse Agility and horse behaviour and is also the founder of Equinetourism.co.uk - an initiative committed to good horsemanship practice. She is a Horse Agility Accredited Trainer, a Monty Roberts MRCIH and Reiki Master. Dawn and Nick run the Holtball Exmoor Pony Stud.
Please join us in promoting awareness of the amazing Exmoor pony breed and enabling owners and enthusiasts to meet and connect from across the world. You can Register at the www.exmoorponyclub.co.uk
Horse Agility & Pony Agility at The Exmoor Pony Club
The Exmoor Pony Club wholeheartedly embraces and supports the concept of Horse Agility training. Dawn Westcott has competed in the International Horse Agility Club's OLHA League (Worldwide Video Competition) with her Exmoor pony stallion, Hawkwell Versuvius, and they have stood World Champions in 2011 and 2012. Dawn is a Horse Agility Accredited Trainer and Judge and she and Bear have taken part in Horse Agility Demos across the South West, including their demo for the 2012 Exmoor Pony Festival.
Here is a video of clips of their work from 2012:
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The Exmoor Pony Club will be holding workshops, clinics, demos and activities including Horse & Pony Agility to enable equestrian people to understand horses and ponies better and build trust and confidence in their relationships with horses, improving 'Connection' and learning to work at Liberty.
Exmoor ponies, with their ancient wisdom, are some of the planet's greatest equine teachers and we can learn a lot from them about horsemanship and how to communicate and get the best from horses.
For more information about Exmoor Pony Agility and our Workshops and training days and demos - please come and join the www.exmoorponyclub.co.uk community, where you can enjoy a host of interactive facilities including Forums, Blogs, Calendar, Magazine and Photo and Video Galleries.
Equines At Liberty If you’re interested in learning to work with your horse at liberty, or want to improve your connection and liberty skills, then check out the new Equines At Liberty section in the www.EquineTourismCommunity.com.
This is a friendly and progressiveTutorial Group formed from a collaboration of some of the world’s top liberty and positive, trust-based horsemanship trainers and competitors to encourage and promote this way of working. It’s FREE to join the group and you’ll have access to a constantly increasing set of Liberty Challenges, from basic Warm Up exercises on the line to prepare for working loose, up to Super Challenge level with tasks to complete in wild, open spaces using natural obstacles. It’s all about Fun, Focus and Feedback. You choose a challenge list, work on it at your own pace, film it when you’re ready, and post the link in the group’s forum. You’ll then receive encouraging, constructive feedback on your work. And you’re invited to also offer your feedback to others. It’s not a competition so there is no pressure or judging. Come and join us and discover how to build trust and partnership with your horses and ponies! You can also find us on facebook – look for the Equines At Liberty Group.
Welcome to The Exmoor Pony Club
The Horse Agility & LIberty Sports Forum
You can now Join the Horse Agility Community and Forums. It's FREE to sign up. Simply visit http://www.equinetourismcommunity.com, follow the simple registration process and then you can create a personalised profile and take part in this positive, friendly and informative Horse Agility & Liberty Sports Community.
Keep up to date with the latest news, announcements and competition results and videos, meet other members and people interested in Horse Agility, Pony Agility, work at Liberty and positive, trust-based methods of horsemanship, from across the world. We look forward to seeing you there! Click on the image above to go straight to the ET Community!
For more information:
www.exmoorponyclub.co.uk
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