IN?excess of 200 ponies and their foals were brought off the high moor on Monday in the annual Merrivale pony drift.

Dartmoor commoners from some 12 farms gathered on quad bikes and horses first thing in the morning to go up on to the moor and gather in their herds.

The ponies and horses were brought down to the Dartmoor Inn at Merrivale, where in a paddock surrounded by stone walls, commoners identified their own ponies by the branding on their hides.

Some of the foals brought off the moor will be destined for the pony sale at Chagford on Thursday next week.

In previous years, there have been problems with unwanted foals not selling at the market.

Farmer Mary Alford, one of those involved in the drift, said that this year’s foals and horses were in particularly good condition.

‘The purpose of the drift is to wean the male foals and sell them and to wean the filly foals that we don’t want to keep and sell them. It’s also to give them a health check to make sure they are fit enough to go back on the moor for the winter,’ she said.

‘It is a good year, the foals are looking well and the ponies are looking really well. We just got on and got them in because we wanted to miss the rain which started in the afternoon.

‘The drift is very much a tradition of the moor. The landlord at the Dartmoor Inn kindly lets us have one of his fields to sort them into ownership, and we then take them down to our own farms. They will then make their own way back onto their home territory. They will travel up to ten miles to go back to where they live.’