SIX pure-bred Exmoor ponies were saved from slaughter after 11th-hour help from The Moorland Mousie Trust – and are settling in to their new home at the Exmoor Pony Centre.

Now the charity, set up nearly 20 years ago to take in unwanted, moor-bred, Exmoor pony youngstock, is appealing for donations after spending over £2,000 to help them.

The Moorland Mousie Trust was contacted about the ponies when they were already at a dealers’ yard in Yorkshire.

The group, which included pregnant mares, foals at foot, youngsters and a stallion, were no longer wanted by their owner, and were just about to travel to an equine slaughterhouse down south.

The charity had to consider if its resources could stretch to helping any of them, after nine moor-bred foals had already arrived at the Exmoor Pony Centre in the last month.

The charity made the hard decision about which ones it could afford to save, and people working there were sad to find out that several in the group were already dead.

Juliet Rogers, trustee of the Moorland Mousie Trust, said: “It was a fraught situation with very little time to arrange the ponies being taken into the charity’s care. We are pleased that we could help and look forward to offering these ponies a safe and secure future.”

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