Volunteer with Dartmoor pony charity and enjoy the great outdoors
The Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust is looking for volunteers to help support its work securing the future of the native Dartmoor ponies and is hosting a Volunteers Open Morning which will take place on Saturday November 19 at its Parke, Bovey Tracey headquarters.
The charity was created to work with the pony keepers on Dartmoor to protect and preserve the traditional type of native Dartmoor Pony, officially a threatened species.
It also manages 450 hectares of land at Bellever, near Postbridge, where it provides the public with hugely popular and free guided walks to learn about the moor’s history, archaeology, flora and fauna – and the way of life on Dartmoor over the centuries. It runs a herd of up to 26 ponies there – providing free grazing for pony keepers to enable some of their youngsters to mature, perfectly demonstrating the role of equines in conservation grazing and improving biodiversity, in partnership with Forestry England.
But the DPHT relies on an enormous amount of support from volunteers to enable it to carry out its work. There are a number of roles to be filled including pony handling, pony checkers at Parke and Bellever, gardeners, poo picking at Parke, paddock maintenance, event organising, meeting and greeting visitors and fundraising.
Volunteering for the DPHT is very rewarding not least working in a beautiful environment, being part of a valued community and forging new friendships.
Chairman Malcolm Snelgrove said: “It’s a very relaxed atmosphere with volunteers sharing a common love of the outdoors, Dartmoor, and helping to ensure ponies survive and thrive for future generations to enjoy.
“People can give as much or as little time as they like. We do hope people will come along to our open morning to learn more about the charities work protecting the Dartmoor pony and how they can get involved.”
The Volunteer Open Morning is on Saturday 19th November 2022 10.30am to 12 noon with refreshments provided.
If you would like to join please register your interest by emailing admin@dpht.co.uk
