Dartmoor pony

Equus ferus callabus

Content
o taxonomy
o Food & digestion
o Breathing & respiration
o Skeletal system & body build
o Sense & sensibility
o Reproduction & offspring
o Environment
o Facts
o Sources
Taxonomy
Kingdom: Animalia
Animilia is a kingdom for animals, And a Dartmoor pony is an animal so that is why he lives in the
kingdom Animalia
Phylum: chordata
A Dartmoor pony is a chordate. Chordates is a of group animals a that has different klasses like:
vertebrates, mucus, tunicates and lancet fish
Class; Mammalia
Mammals (mammalia) form a class of warm-blooded, usually life-bearing ( the child grows in the
venter of the mother) chordates, that give milk to their young
Order: Herbivore
Herbivores are physically and anatomically adapted to eat plants
Family: Equidae
Equidae is the taxonomic family of horses and related animals, like: extant horses, donkeys and
zebra’s
Genus: Equus
Equus is the only recognized extant genus, comprising seven living species and is a genus of mammals
in the family equidae
Species: horses and pony’s
Food & digestion

The digestive system of a Dartmoor pony is adapted to eating small amounts of the same kind of food
all day long. The Dartmoor pony is adapted to eating grasses from the Dartmoors. The digestive
system of a Dartmoor pony is about 100 ft long.
Mouth
Digestion begins in the mouth. The mouth is build up with the hard plate, soft plate, the tongue and
related muscles, teeth, the cheeks and lips
Dartmoor ponies select pieces of forage (the plants they eat) and pick up finer food with their lips, the
front teeth of the pony clip forage, and food is then pushed back in the mouth by the tongue and
ground up by the back teeth for swallowing

Esophagus
Is about 4 till 5 ft long and it carries the swallowed foot to the stomach

Stomach
In the stomach assorted acids and enzymes to break down food. The end product is food broken down
into chyme. Then it leaves the stomach via the pyloric valve, which controls the flow food out of the
stomach

Small intestine
The Dartmoor pony’s small intestine is 50 till 70 ft long. In the small intestine are the most nutrients
absorbed. And it has tree parts the duodenum, jejunum and the ileum. The majority of digestion occurs
in the duodenum while the majority of absorption occurs in the jejunum.

Large intestine
The cecum is the first part of the large intestine, its about 4 ft long. It contains bacteria that digest
cellulose plant fiber. The rest of the large intestine is build up of the large colon, the small colon and
the rectum. The large colon is 10 till 12 ft long. The main purpose of the large colon is to absorb
carbohydrates, which were broken down from cellulose in the cecum.
The small colon is also 10 till 12 ft long. It’s the area where the majority of water in the horse’s diet is
absorbed, and it’s the place where fecal balls are formed.
The rectum is about 1 ft long and acts as holding chamber of waste matter, which will be expelled via
the anus.
Breathing & respiration
The respiratory system of a Dartmoor pony is made up of the upper airway and lower airway. The
upper airway contains the nasal passage, the pharynx, the larynx and the trachea. While the lower
airway contains the lungs.

Oxygen is used to fuel the muscles. The oxygen is inhaled by the lungs and is transferred to the
horses blood stream, where its used to create energy. To reach the lungs the oxygen has to pass
trough the nose then the pharynx after that the larynx and as last the trachea (the wind pipe).
In the respiratory system are volumes of 300 liters of blood are pumped trough small lung capillaries
who surround 10 million air sacs to take up and deliver 70 liters of oxygen per minute.

The lungs are the essential respiration organs. The main function of them is to transport oxygen into
the blood streams. The trachea is a tube that connects the pharynx and larynx to the lungs, to create
a passage for the oxygen. The pharynx filters, warms and moistens oxygen and conducts it to the
lungs. And the larynx is used for sound production and houses the vocal cords of the pony.
Skeletal system & body build

The skeletal system of the Dartmoor pony has three major functions: it protects vital organs,
provides frame work and supports soft parts of the body. The skeleton averages 205 bones.

The bones serve also three major functions: they act as levers, they store minerals and they are the
site of red blood cell formation.
There are five categories of bones;
1, long bones
Long bones store minerals and act as levers, they are found mainly in the limbs
2, short bones
Short bones absorb concussion and are found in joints such as knee, hock and fetlock
3, flat bones
Flat bones enclose body parts containing organs, the ribs are an example of flat bones
4, irregular bones
Irregular bones protect the central nervous system, they are found in the vertebral column
5, sesamoids
Sesamoids are bones embedded within a tendon

Ligaments and tendons hold the skeletal system together. Ligaments connects bones and tendons
connect bones to muscles.
There are three types of muscle;
1, The skeletal muscle
The skeletal muscle’s contraction leads to a muscle pulling a tendon, which in turn pulls on a bone.
To move a bone a joint has to be flexed or extended. Skeletal muscles are divided in pairs so that
they oppose each other. Skeletal muscle is made up of several muscle bundles, which are made up
of muscle fibers. Muscle fibers contain bundles of myofibrils, which are placed parallel to one
another
2, The cardiac
The cardiac is the hart muscle
3, The smooth
The smooth are the muscles that make up the automatic systems like the digestive system

Tendons attach muscles and bones, and are also called flexors (flex a joint) and extensors (extend a
joint)
Sense & sensibility
Hearing
The Dartmoor pony can hear low to very high frequencies of sound, in the range of 14 Hz to 25 kHz.
The ears of the Dartmoor pony can turn 180⁰ and are able to single out a specific area to listen. This
helps the pony to concentrate on the sound and figure out what is making the sound. And if it’s
dangerous to run away to the other side. The ponies are very sensitive to the tone of the voirce.

Smell
The smell range of the pony is bigger than the human’s but less sensitive than the smell range of
dogs. They use there smell to identify other ponies, animals and feedstuffs.

Taste
The Dartmoor ponies and horses prefer salty and sweet tastes. They are also selective grazers and
they will avoid toxic plants if there are alternative plants available. There choices are based on
texture and taste. They will also ignore the older plants and graze the young plants if possible

Touch
The Dartmoor ponies touch is razor sharp. Their entire body is as sharp as our fingertips, they can
feel a fly on a single hair. The most sensitive parts of the body are the head, including the poll ( the
bridge of the nose and mouth), the back and the sides.

Vision
The Dartmoor pony sees most of the time by monocular vision, meaning that they see different
things out of each eye. Binocular vision is that they see the same out both eyes, is used when they
look straight ahead. The Dartmoor pony has to blind spots: directly in front of the head and behind
the back. They also have poor colour vision, and when they use only one eye they can’t see depths
really well. They can change their focus on a near object to a far object instantly and have a well
developed ability to detect movements. And at least the horses can see fairly well at night.
Reproduction & offspring
Reproduction:
The reproduction of a Dartmoor pony is the birth of a foal.
Most foals are born after a period of 11 months. The birth takes place quickly and more often at
night than at day. That is because Dartmoor ponies are prey animals and when they foal at night and
the birth takes fast place then the chance of getting eaten during the birth is smaller. Mares foal
usually separated from the other ponies, for the benefit of the mare and the soon-to-be-delivered
foal.

Offspring:
The offspring of a Dartmoor pony is an foal.
When a foal is born it takes most of the time only one hour for foals to learn to stand. And they learn
to Troth and walk the next few hours, and the next day they will already learn how to gallop. This is
an ability they need so they can escape from danger.The legs of a new born foal are already almost
as long as an adult horse. In the first weeks of the life of the foal, the foal feeds on the mothers milk
and gets everything it needs from the milk. A foal may start to eat solids when the foal becomes ten
days old.
Environment
Dartmoor as a national park:
The Dartmoor pony lives in the Dartmoor. The Dartmoor is a moor in the south of Devon in England.
The moor is protected by a national park status: Dartmoor national park. The area of the Dartmoor is
368 squared miles. Also is the Dartmoor a well visited area by tourist. Because of the Dartmoor ponies

The moor:
The Dartmoor is covered with many exposed granite hilltops who are also known as tors. The highest
point of the Dartmoor is High Willhays and that place is 2, 037 ft above sea level. Also the high
ground of the Dartmoor forms the catchment area for many of Devon’s rivers. And because there falls
much more rain on the Dartmoor than in the surrounding lowlands, dangerous bogs or mires can
occur. But don’t forget the deep wooded valleys that also occur there.

Climate:
Jan and Feb are the coldest months in the Dartmoor with minimum temperatures around 1⁰C while Jul
and Aug are the warmest months with daily a maximum of not reaching 18⁰C. The wettest months are
Nov and Dec. And in the Dartmoor is snowfall not common because of the Gulf Stream. And it’s all
year pretty rainy there.
Facts
Did you know that the Dartmoor ponies already lived for centuries in the Dartmoor. And they don’t
live only in the wild but also in captivity. But they are one of the less Horse species that still live in the
wild. The Dartmoor is a particularly hardy breed with excellent stamina, because of the extreme
weather conditions In the Dartmoor. In captivity they where used as a working animal by local tin
mines an quarry workers. Now they are used for: hunting, trail riding, showing, jumping, dressage and
driving. The number of ponies living on the open moor have decreased from an estimated number of
5000 in 1900 to only 800 in 2004 and only 300 ponies grazing the Dartmoor today.
The Dartmoor ponies are native to Britain but also seen in other parts of the world like the United
States of Amerika, Continental Europe, New Zealand and Australia.
Their head is small, and they have large wide set eyes and alert ears. The body is strong, with a broad
deep rib cage, and of medium length. The legs are also strong, and long from body to knee and hock,
but with short cannons with strong dense bones, and a flat fronted knee; the fore leg rises to a shoulder
that is well-angled and has a good freedom of movement, and the hindleg rises to a quarter that is well
muscled and round in appearance. The mane and tail of the pony are full and flowing, and the
movement of the pony is free and smooth. The Dartmoor pony has a kind temperament and is reliable
and calm. The colours of the fur of a Dartmoor pony can be: bay, brown, black, grey, chestnut or roan.
Sources
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoorpony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoor_pony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chordate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equine_anatomy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscular_system_of_the_horse
http://articles.extension.org/pages/10313/horse-senses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartmoor