Springwood Sanctuary
Archie - The Wild Herd
Archie is a beautiful 12hh black Dartmoor hill pony gelding. He is 18 this year - his birthday is 1st May 2006.
He was rescued by Springwood Sanctuary in July 2023. It is our honour to give this gentle, wise and huge hearted pony a forever home here with freedom to roam and thrive with his herd.
He is the most undomesticated of all the horses here. He was born wild on Dartmoor and ran free with his family band as a stallion there for his formative years.
As is the case with all ‘wild’ native ponies, he was rounded up every year. They are checked, branded and if deemed fit enough they are returned to the wild. Many don’t make the grade and are separated from their families forever. Archie was lucky to be returned to the wild with many of his family each year for 8 years.
One year however, Archie was deemed too old to carry on breeding as a stallion on Dartmoor, so he and his mother were sadly separated from their family group and sent to the horse sales. Many native ponies from Exmoor, Dartmoor, New Forest and other national parks end up being sold at horse sales for meat – some even transported as live exports making a long, arduous journey across the channel to France and other parts of Europe. Luckily Archie and his mother were bought together, by someone who had a conservation grazing herd. Archie’s mother was pregnant when rounded up and sold and she gave birth to Archie’s half sister Cleo when safely in the conservation grazing project. Archie was then gelded as they wanted to rescue rather than breed more, but he was not "trained" and was allowed to still live as a wild pony.
After 6 years the conservation grazing herd needed to find other homes, so Archie and Cleo were taken in by a sanctuary in Sussex for 3 years. His mother unfortunately did not want to load onto the horsebox with them, so they were very sadly separated. When that sanctuary had to close in July 2023, Archie, Cleo and all of their bonded herd mates were rescued by Springwood. Heartbreakingly darling Cleo passed away in March this year and we all miss her hugely. Archie has continued to thrive. We enable him to live with freedom and to not train him – he has never worn a headcollar, is given complete autonomy over his body and is the closest to be a wild pony of any of the equines here, or any that I have had the honour to care for.
Archie has bonded strongly with both Remy and Skye, but is comfortable around all the others in the herd. He has taught them a lot about being a wild pony – for instance digging thistles up so he can enjoy their roots. When moving to a new area he will explore the perimeter fence and which medicinal plants are on offer in each area before settling down to grazing or relaxing.
Archie has developed a lot of trust with me, allowing me to help him with essential first aid and care including untangling his mane, removing bot fly eggs from his legs, giving him scratches and even cleaning his eyes with chamomile soaked cotton wool pads when he chooses this. He doesn’t get his hooves trimmed. They have never been trimmed and he manages to self trim and keep them in great shape. He is very friendly with the humans he senses have a quiet presence and will enjoy licking hands or standing peacefully alongside them.
If you’d like to sponsor Archie we would love to have you join our sponsorship family to help us care for him. Thank you.
Go back to MEET THE HERD
