THE fate of Lot 83 hung in the balance. The skewbald foal, confused by the sudden unaccustomed noise and bustle, huddled against its mother for comfort.
The future, for better for worse, would spin like the flick of a coin — propelled by brisk bidding at the annual Dartmoor Pony Sale.
Ward and Chowen's Chris Clapham accelerated proceedings in the packed Tavistock Livestock Centre auction ring. His rapid auctioneer's patter was put through its paces while scanning the attentive faces for fresh bids.
Corralled outside, some 400 fillies, colts, mares and stallions had been divided into lots and numbered ready for the sale.
While many animals went to caring new owners some inevitably faced a less certain future.
Luck was on the side of Lot 83. Fortunately, 22-year-old Laura Drury stepped in and paid £40 guineas for the mare and foal. She paid a further £40 for the mare's previous year's foal who was in the same pen — so the family trio would not be split up.
'I was looking for something to buy and the foal was the smallest and the youngest,' said Miss Drury who has a degree in equine science.
'I have a little pony at home that needed friends. Rather than get a pony that already had a good home I thought it would be good to get one that might otherwise end up on the Continent as dog meat.'
The pony and baby foal, believed to be no more than several months old, had also caught the attention of Sylvia Phillips who runs the Devon Horse and Pony Sanctuary at Manaton.
'I have rescued getting on for 100 ponies from the sales for the last 30 years and still they come. Why do they keep breeding these foals every year? It is most depressing.'
Mrs Phillips, a member of the National Equine Welfare Council, said the small foal was 'one of the smallest I have ever seen at the market.'
RSPCA markets inspector Steve Donohue was monitoring the sale and said the quality of the ponies was 'better than last year'.
He said so long as a foal was 'at foot' with the mare it could be sold at auction under the age of four months.
Mr Donohue said the newly introduced £8 minimum bid and a buyer's premium of £10 would help prevent 'impulse buying'.
'Hopefully the ponies will be bought by responsible owners who will give them the attention they need.
'There has been impulse buying in the past where people have bought ten ponies for £1 each and then realised they are not experienced enough to deal with this type of pony.'
He recalled someone from Plymouth bought a pony and kept it in a flat. Nine ponies were dumped at a tip and eight were abandoned in another part of the city.
But he said there were many responsible people that would buy a pony and give it a good home.
'They know what they are taking on and have a full understanding of the responsibility that requires.'
He said the idea of the horse and pony passport is so that an animal can be traced through the system.
'It is aimed at ponies that are destined for the meat trade. It is for traceability. At the moment the Dartmoor Commoners have their own ideas of a regional scheme which will work until they have to be moved off the moor. But a lot of the farmers are biting the bullet and going down the route independently.'
Mr Donohue said the RSPCA was working closely with the Dartmoor Commoners, Dartmoor National Park and all the pony keepers. 'There is an improvement programme to reduce the number of ponies and improve the quality so that they do have saleable ponies like the New Forest. It is a different situation but if you go back ten years the New Forest was having the same problems as they have here now.
'With everybody's co-operation things have got better over the last three to four years. There has been a noticeable improvement but there is still scope for a lot more improvement through co-operation.'
Russell Woolcock of Ward and Chowen said all the animals for sale at the Tavistock Livestock Centre last Friday had a minimum price of £8 guineas.
'In my youth a lot of ponies were sold as pit ponies, but that is all history. In an ideal world it would be good to reduce the number and produce a better quality pony that was more in demand with the buying public,' said Mr Woolcock.