Riding Exmoor Ponies on Exmoor – A rare sight as well as a rare breed! Holtball Exmoors endeavours to encourage Exmoor pony enthusiasts to ride the home territory of the Exmoor pony
Exmoor National Park offers some of the best riding opportunities in the country - its varied terrain includes vast, open moorland, deep wooded combes, meandering rivers, masses of forest tracks, emerald fields and idyllic sleepy hamlets. You’ll discover an abundance of wild life including the magnificent red deer, otters, buzzards and free-living Exmoor ponies. Yet, while you might see plenty of Exmoor ponies living wild and free, it seems that finding an Exmoor pony being ridden on Exmoor is now something of a novelty.
These days, it’s unusual to see an Exmoor pony out hunting, competing at Riding Club events, or even out hacking. In the Porlock Vale - the home of Holtball Exmoors - it’s quite normal for motorists and passers by to stop and comment (usually with delight) at the sight of Exmoors out riding. So in this autumn, we decided to hold the first ever Holt Ball Exmoor Pony Ride and see if we could encourage people with Exmoor ponies to come and experience riding them in the beautiful Exmoor National Park. Being the first ‘event’, the promotion was pretty ‘low-key’. Nevertheless, there was interest, which increased when Vanessa Bee, the founder of the new Horse Agility sport, offered to set up a ‘taster’ agility course for ponies to sample after the ride.
The day arrived and with it, the only thick blanket of fog seen so far this year. Gone were the spectacular vistas sweeping the National Trust Holnicote Estate up to Robin Howe and Dunkery, and across the Bristol Chanel to Wales. Riders arrived with somewhat grey faces after negotiating the descent from Dunkery Beacon to Luccombe with almost zero visibility and coffee and biscuits were needed all round. Thankfully, some of the fog lifted by the time we were ready to set off and at least it wasn’t windy or raining.
Riders and spectators came from the local area and as far away as Hampshire and Dorset and it was good to put faces to names. Amongst the Exmoor ponies was an ‘honorary’ Connemara accompanying Tracey Isbell on Liquorice, so it was still a 100% native pony ride. We set off into the forest tracks that lead directly off the farm and made our way out onto the moor and ascending the side of Robin Howe to Webber’s Post. There is no doubt that the terrain is undulating to say the least, and quite steep in places, so there was a bit of readjustment for the riders more used to the gentle sandy tracks in Dorset. The Exmoor ponies all seemed to be comfortable with each other and looked a picture riding out together over the moorland which is the home of free-living Exmoor pony herds. Luckily no mares were to be seen as I was leading the ride on the young stallion, Hawkwell Versuvius, who had enough to contend with coping with ‘the line-up’ behind him – it was his first experience as a ‘ride escort’.
Webber’s Post normally takes your breath away with its awesome views into the dramatically steep and densely wooded Horner River Valley and over to Cloutsham Ball and Ley Hill. This area is also the playground of the Tawbitts ponies, as well as Malcolm Westcott’s Herd 4 ponies. However, today Webber’s Post’s misty cloak refused to reveal the surrounding beauty and we were left admiring majestic trees in the middle distance.
After a few light-hearted enquiries as to whether we would be riding down anything as steep as we had ridden up, I felt heartily thankful that I’d chosen a gentle, forestry track descent back to Luccombe village, rather than the narrow path which disappears alarmingly into the base of the Horner Valley, over loose stones, and with a sheer drop off the side. It’s a wonderful ride along the river at the bottom, but not a great approach if your horse isn’t used to steep slopes.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the ride through Horner Wood, with its stunning array of autumn colours, wooden sculptures and pretty tracks. Olivia Holme was smiling from start to finish on Kidnap Moss, who behaved impeccably on the ride. Alyson Govier’s gorgeous19 year old Buzzard made light work of the terrain and looked ready for the show ring at the finish. Anchor gelding Strongbow was ridden by Chelsea, with Herd 23 Boy Harry (Otis) ridden by Nicole.
The paparazzi was lying in wait as we emerged from the woods as various husbands and partners snapped away (which is why there is a lot of giggling in the pictures). It was so much fun to see the Exmoors riding out together and there were a lot of smiling faces as we rode through Luccombe village, with its delicious stone cottages, thatched barns and immaculate gardens.
A long trot along the side of Holnicote racecourse settled the ponies before we reached the optional ‘gallop’, which consisted of a series of four fields running back up to the farm. A few riders on tired ponies opted to return via the lanes while the rest of us hit the grass. I did wonder how Bear would respond riding through the field in which he ran with visiting mares, but after one ‘plant’ (so he could carefully scan the perimeter for lurking mares), he carried on. We enjoyed a lovely canter through to the final field, where we met the others, and made our way back to the farm.
With ponies tended to, it was time for lunch for everyone and a good catch up before the Horse Agility. Vanessa Bee and Philip had set up a challenging course in the barn, with flapping coloured curtains, crazy flags, narrow gaps, a bridge, cones, tarpaulin, S-Bend, jumps and poles. The ‘star’ obstacle was The Giant Hoop and the aim was to get the ponies jumping through it ‘at liberty’. When they were first shown the large, plastic, wobbly, blue hoop, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was just not going to happen, but it is amazing what they can do willingly and confidently in a very short time. Vanessa is an accomplished trainer and spoke beforehand about the importance of working inside and outside of the comfort zones of the ponies, but not pushing them ‘over the edge’ so they feel the need to panic and take flight. She showed us how to move the ponies feet and get them focused and working with us. The ponies were interested and keen to try the obstacles and obviously thoroughly pleased with themselves when they’d mastered one. It was lovely to see Olivia working with ‘Mossy’, who had never before tried Horse Agility. He proved to be very compliant and wasn’t fazed by anything.
Vanessa worked with Boy Harry and decided to see what he could do ‘at liberty’. As soon as he was free, he threw her a look and marched through the spooky flags, over the jump, through the narrow gap and around to the hula hoop, where he proceeded to step into it with two front feet and stand still (the required task is to stand like that for 10 seconds), looking at her as if to say, ‘See, I know what’s required and I can do it perfectly well on my own”. Exmoor ponies really do have that X-tra something…you’ve just got to get it working with you and not against you.
Chelsea and Strongbow made wonderful progress with The Hoop and Chelsea had him jumping through at a trot completely unattached to a lead rope. There was clearly a bond of trust between the two of them, as Strongbow was skeptical of it to begin with. Yearling colt, Monty (Cheritonridge Mont de Brouilly) was willing to negotiate the obstacles, ably coached by Vanessa’s partner, Philip, and particularly liked standing on the bridge. It was a fascinating experience and we’re grateful to Vanessa for giving us the opportunity for the ponies to have a try at Horse Agility.
The day was great fun and we hope to make it a regular fixture. Exmoor ponies are so well suited to the varied and sometimes challenging terrain of the National Park, and have the strength and stamina to literally ‘go all day’. They are extremely comfortable to ride and stay level-headed while they cope with whatever the ride throws at them, and at the same time can put on an impressive turn of speed when you want it. It would be lovely to see more of them ridden in their home territory and represented in the many equestrian activities we are fortunate to be able to enjoy on Exmoor.
