First New Dartmoor Foals Born

As the early morning mist lifted on Wednesday I noticed there was a little dot next to a larger dot on the area of moorland opposite my kitchen window. After breakfast I took the four wheel drive vehicle over to where my herd of pedigree Dartmoor Ponies were grazing and sure enough; our first foal of the season was gingerly taking its first steps.

Most likely born that night it was pretty as a picture sticking to its mother like glue. I will wait for a few more of the imminent mares to foal and then bring them in to the stables to start handling the foals. Ideally this should be done within 24-48 hours of birth to ensure they are used to human contact from the outset. Fortunately the mares are all halter broken so they will come willingly. That is not however the case for the other herd of wild Dartmoor hill ponies who graze out on the common; they have to be herded and it is not so important to get these foals halter broken. In fact I prefer to keep the wild ponies timid as that way they are less likely to be attracted to the carparks where they are fed unsuitable food by unsuspecting tourists and also run the risk of being hit by cars.

On the way back I saw my herd of wild ponies and the older ginger mare had also managed to sneak her new baby behind a mound of granite, but I could just glimpse her outline as it was just as distinctive a colour as her mother.

We have had some really super weather this week; warm rain over night and they beautifully sunny, clear, warm days. The leaves are very nearly all out now and on Friday I saw the first bluebells coming up in the shelter of our valley by the brook. In a couple of weeks the whole area around us will transform into an "inland sea" of bluebells; it is such an extraordinary vision and not one people expect to see out in the open. Bluebells are normally associated with woodland, but on our downs here they are protected in the Summer by the bracken which towers over them until the Winter.

We had a welcome visit from Alan Titchmarsh this week who flew into our hotel; Holne Chase for lunch with his production team for the new series of "Nature of Britain". They were filming on the Southern part of Dartmoor to capture the element of "heath and moorland". They had a perfect day for it and enjoyed their lunch sitting outside and listening to the silence.

Email Philippa Pallero: Luxury Holiday Villa in Italy Luxury Holiday Cottages Dartmoor Devon Luxury Hotel Dartmoor Devon