Historically the herd ran over Winsford Hill, Varle Hill and Ashwayside with a couple of stallions claiming their own mares. Nowadays, with the British Horse Society requesting responsible breeding , the economic dip in this country and the need to keep our rarest bloodlines alive for the benefit of the breed in the future ;we select the necessary blood line mares and hold them on the private enclosed area to be covered by the stallion in the spring before removing the stallion and returning the mares to the open hill in the early summer.
This ensures we do not get late foals or too many that would be difficult to re-home, and that also ensures the tourists are able to see some young stock and foals frolicking during the summer. On the moor there are mares of all ages, currently our oldest girls are 30 and they will only be removed from the hill if their condition is not good enough to survive the winter. The biggest threat to the herd is road traffic and we loose ponies annually to road traffic accidents.