Exmoor is a large upland area in south-west England that straddles West Somerset and North Devon. There have been ponies running there almost wild since records began.
For a long time, people thought that those Exmoor ponies were descendants of the original wild ponies that came to these islands before they were these islands. As the last Glaciation (Ice Age) drew to an end, maybe 11,500 years ago, ‘the British Isles’ were still connected to the rest of Europe by a vast land bridge. Most of our wild animals came here by that route (not rabbits, though; it seems likely that they were introduced by the Romans – and escaped). Certainly, some wild horses did cross and were hunted by Stone-Age humans.
Exmoor ponies do have some characteristics of the original wild ponies. For instance, they look quite like early cave paintings and like other breeds believed to be ancient. However, recent genetic research seems to show that they are in fact descended from the same stallions as all the other domesticated breeds. Although there is also a little 'old' genetic material, this is not unusual among Moorland types. It looks, therefore, as though Exmoor Ponies cannot be pure-bred Ice Age survivors.
All of today’s Exmoors are descended from the ponies that were rounded up from Exmoor in 1818.
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