A POTENTIAL threat to the future of Exmoor Ponies has been lifted after Government Ministers reversed a Natural England decision in the face of a massive campaign.

Natural England had ruled Dartmoor Ponies would in future be included in stock numbers when issuing new common land grazing agreements.

Commoners were then faced with the prospect of culling the ponies so they could keep more productive livestock such as cattle and horses.

It was estimated about 90 per cent of Dartmoor’s 1,000 semi-wild ponies could be lost, and there were fears for Exmoor’s ponies if the same application was rolled out in the national park.

But, a petition warning of the danger to Dartmoor’s ponies gathered more than 200,000 signatures, while a separate letter defending the ponies of Exmoor attracted more than 10,000 names.

Now, the Government has moved to secure the future of semi-wild moorland ponies by taking the animals out of the grazing calculations.

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said ponies would be completely removed from stocking rate calculations in new environmental land management agreements, so farmers no longer faced a choice between keeping ponies or maintaining their sheep or cattle.

The move goes further than the Government’s own 2023 Fursdon review, which had recommended only that ponies and cattle should be separated when making the stock calculations.

National grazing guidance had counted ponies as livestock units alongside cattle and sheep in a mechanism which applied equally to Exmoor and every other common in the country.

Campaigners argued that what happened on Dartmoor, could happen anywhere if the same rules were applied, meaning a change to the principle mattered far beyond a single moor.

The Government said alongside the grazing rule change, pony numbers would be monitored to ensure they did not fall below current levels, and that any reduction would not free up room for more sheep or cattle.

Ms Reynolds said she intended to introduce a ‘pony supplement’ into farming schemes so there was a positive incentive to keep them, to similarly apply to Exmoor and other upland areas.

Exmoor farmer and Conservative campaigner James Wright, who organised the letter defending the national park’s ponies, said: “This is a victory for the thousands of people who stood up for our ponies.

“We always said this was never just a Dartmoor problem.

“It came from national rules applying just as much to Exmoor, which is why changing them protects moorland ponies right across the country.

“The job is not finished.

“On Exmoor, hundreds of environmental farm agreements are due to expire this year with no new scheme.

“The Government has shown that it will act when people speak up.

“Now, it must fix the funding cliff that still threatens our commoners and the nature-friendly farming these schemes exist to protect.”

West Somerset MP Rachel Gilmour claimed there was never any threat to the Exmoor Pony, one of Britain's rarest and oldest breeds and classed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust as ‘endangered’.

Mrs Gilmour said previous Free Press reports were ‘scaremongering’, ‘irresponsible’, ‘inaccurate’, and ‘downright false’.