DARTMOOR pony meat was on sale at Tavistock Farmers’ Market last Saturday — and is proving popular with residents and visitors alike.

Dartmoor Conservation Meat, a co-operative of various organisations, held the pony meat stall at the market.

The project has been spearheaded by Charlotte Faulkner, who is pictured left with Dartmoor hill farmer Mary Alford.

Pony meat is one part of a pony herd management plan which includes selling ponies to be trained and domesticated to become riding or driving ponies and using mare contraception to match the number of foals born to the number of ponies sold.

Farmers are being encouraged to look for new ways of increasing value to the ponies to avoid the culling of the ponies at under a year old. Selling their meat and training them to become riding and driving ponies are just two ways in which farmers can justify keeping them.

Charlotte said that the stall on Saturday proved popular: ‘People travel to us to buy pony meat and we even have return customers.

‘People seem to be surprised to see pony meat but they do understand what we are doing. The pony meat is high in protein and low in fat — everything we look for in food.

‘It is also important to add that we will never breed ponies for meat.’