While visiting my third cousin, Kayleigh, and her husband, Adam, in Plymouth, England a few weeks ago, one of my favorite things was seeing wild ponies. Kayleigh is one who contacted me and invited us to Ireland to meet the family. I was happy I got to spend another weekend with her and meet Adam. It was too bad that Evan had to work, as it is one of my favorite parts of the UK. On the last day of my visit, we had planned to go to see the Eden Project, a large indoor garden project, but instead we opted to hike around Dartmoor, and I am so glad we did.

Dartmoor is in south Devon, England. It is protected by National Park status and encompasses a massive amount of land- 954 kilometers. It is also used for training in the Royal Military, which Adam is in. We brought their dogs, Rolo and Lola, and hiked a small portion of it. The land is beautiful with terrain unlike anything I had ever seen.

The granite hilltops, or tors, allow many different types of wildlife to survive. Farmers have sheep and cattle in the area, but although the sheep we saw were marked, I have been told there are also wild sheep.

Of course, my goal when we began hiking was to find ponies. I felt like a little girl searching for wild ponies, but the concept is so foreign to me. I was told there are so many that there is no way we would miss them, and sure enough they were correct. They were everywhere and surprisingly let us get really close to them. Their manes are long, their bodies stalky and their fur is often matted, but I thought they were beautiful. We saw families and babies too.

The area is rather open and thus is subject to extreme weather conditions, making the animals hardy and ideal for working animals.

It was a wonderful visit and I will always remember watching the Dartmoor ponies. They really are magnificent creatures. They have declined in population from 25,800 to about 5,000 with an estimated 800 in the Dartmoor area as of 2004. These numbers are taken from Wikipedia after a quick online search, so I am unsure how accurate they are or what the numbers are today, but it does give you an idea. I hope these babies grow up to be strong and help continue the breed.