DESPITE the sales of Dartmoor ponies having slowed, claims that the market could be on the point of 'extinction' was an over-exaggeration, the market manager of the Tavistock Livestock Centre this week said.
David Landick said although the market had been affected by the current credit crunch, the cost of buying now mandatory passports for the animals and and the rise in transport costs, there was still very much a market for Dartmoor ponies.
Mr Landick, who works for auctioneers Ward and Chowen, said: 'There is not so much of an outlet for ponies at the moment because the credit crunch has stopped people buying them to ride; they also cannot afford to keep them.
'To say the ponies face extinction is too extreme, but they do face reduction in their numbers.
'There will always by ponies on Dartmoor. I can remember when five or six ponies would be sold in the ring for a £1 and the market price is far better than that.
'Cattle and sheep are much easier to predict as a market than Dartmoor ponies, but I hope that the market will pick up again in the future.'
Mr Landick said the minimum price of £10.50 means ponies selling for a guinea were a thing of the past.
At the last Dartmoor pony auction at Tavistock on October 3 the good specimens still sold well.
One big Dartmoor cross went for £451.50 while a filly off the moor fetched £168. Of the 341 entered, 214 were sold.
Of those unsold, prominent were the bays, blacks and colts.
The next market for Dartmoor ponies at Tavistock Livestock Centre is on Friday, November 5.