Always on
This project successfully funded on 18th December 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Christmas Ride and Charity Open Day Fundraiser
Newton Abbot, Devon, United Kingdom
Aim
Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony Christmas Sponsored Ride and Charity Open Day - help us hit our winter fundraising goal!
We had so much fun on our sponsored Christmas fancy-dress ride last year that we’re doing it all again and we would love you to join us!
On Saturday 6th December, the Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony will once again be riding out to raise much-needed funds to support our ponies through the winter months. With your help, we’re hoping to meet (and even beat!) our fundraising target.
Christmas open day at Pony HQ
While our young riders and Display Team ponies bring festive cheer to the lanes of Dartmoor, we’ll be opening up our barn at Corndonford Farm in Poundsgate from 12:00 on Saturday 6th December for visitors and supporters.
You are warmly invited to come and meet our ponies, enjoy carol singing, sip mulled wine, and treat yourself to a mince pie or slice of homemade cake. There will be pony rides for children and some special festive surprises waiting in the barn. We promise you a warm Dartmoor welcome from ponies, riders, and volunteers alike.
Every penny raised—both through ride sponsorship and at our Open Day—goes directly toward our vital work protecting Dartmoor’s iconic pony herds, on and off the moor.
Why your support matters
Dartmoor’s semi-wild Hill Ponies have roamed the rugged landscape of the moor for centuries, perfectly adapted to the moorland ecology and playing a key role in preserving its unique biodiversity. But policy changes mean that the number of ponies permitted to graze on the moor has reduced sharply over the past 20 years, and their future is in jeopardy.
The Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony is a completely volunteer-run charity dedicated to safeguarding these incredible animals and their unique gene pool. Our volunteers care for and train hundreds of ponies each year, giving those that must leave the moor the best possible chance of finding good homes. Helping the ponies move on to happy and fulfilling lives off the moor is vital to securing the future of their semi-wild herd-mates on the moor.
Through the winter, our barn and fields become home to foals and young ponies gathered in the annual drifts. These youngsters will be fed, cared for, and given veterinary treatment if needed. Over time, they will go from 'Wild to Wonderful', with futures as riding ponies, driving ponies, companions, and conservation grazers.
But winter care is costly. Feed, vet bills, and everyday essentials quickly add up. A single bale of hay costs £30, and our ponies can munch through several bales a week with feed bills alone over the winter in excess of £3000.
How you can help
Please give what you can to sponsor our amazing young riders and ponies. Every penny helps.
And please join us for our Open Day on Saturday 6th December. Your support will help us feed this year’s foals, continue our vital work, and protect the future of Dartmoor’s Hill Ponies.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
To learn more about our work, please visit wildtowonderful.org
With thanks to Tom Shiner-McGinley and Dartmoor Chris for photos
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made