exmoor pony centre

Enjoyed a good couple of hours visiting the centre. Nice little shop for gifts. Had some cakes in the cafe here, absolutely gorgeous. One daughter so delighted to meet Victoria Eveleigh having bought one of her books whilst on holiday.Would recommend a visit here.Thanks for a wonderful attraction.

My two grandchildren Laura and Taylor, had lovely afternoon at this delightful place.Caring friendly staff and really lovely 'adopted' ponies for the girls to saddle, groom, do their manes, tails and feet, and saddle them up and ride. This is HIGHLIGHT of their trip to North Devon.Patient really nice staff, at this lovely charity rescue pony centre.The Exmoor Pony Centre is owned by The Moorland Mousie Trust, a registered charity working to promote and protect the rare-breed registered Exmoor pony. You can visit the stables, see the ponies in paddocks, and also gift shop, adopting a pony, and lots of events organised throughout the year for this worthwhile Charity, who also rescues foals.Wish we lived nearer this lovely place on Exmoor. Though we visit whilst on our holidays in North Devon. This fab place right on Exmoor. They welcome donations but you can visit free.Also see the ponies in fields, paddocks.

A free attraction that is well woth the visit. This is a rescue centre for Exmoor ponies and is run by a team of helpful volunteers. You are able to get really close to the beautiful ponies, sroke them and learn about why they are endangered. There is a toilet and you can get tea, coffee and squash for a donation to the centre, but you make your own. A very well stocked and appealing gift shop. My kids are not pony mad but loved this and we ended up adopting a pony!It is worth checking out the website before you visit as on certain days there are cream teas etc. The centre also offers pre-bookable pony rides for both inexperienced and experienced riders.

We visited with our 11 year old pony mad daughter whilst on holiday in the area. We chatted to one of the volunteers who was very friendly and introduced us to Winston who was happy to be made a fuss of. Small gift shop and a cafe but this wasn't open for our visit. We walked round the paths and looked at all the ponies. Spent about an hour here in all and we were very happy to leave a donation as there was no charge. Incidentally we had no problem finding it either contrary to what other reviewers have said.

What a lovely little place to meet some of those elusive Exmoor ponies. We often drive through Exmoor and don't see the ponies at all so knowing we can visit them here is amazing and they're so friendly. We called in with our pony-mad girls and were greeted by enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers who told us all about the ponies and the charity's work. We will definitely be booking a trek to go out to meet the ponies on the moor next time. The Green Room was open and we had a leisurely lunch before going back to see the ponies once more.

We took our granddaughter to visit the centre, as she is "horse mad!"The ponies are lovely, as are their surroundings. The volunteers and staff are knowledgeable and spent plenty of time with our party, as with all the other people around us.Well worth a visit!

I recently spent a wonderful morning at the Exmoor pony centre where I got close up and personal with the amazing ponies and staff.I had booked a trek but was also able to groom, tack up and generally get to know my pony - the fabulous Abbie.The trek over the moor was something special, you see so much more from the back of a pony,and there's lots to see.Great care was taken to match me and my riding ability to a suitable pony as much for the pony as for me,I loved it!The work the centre does with the ponies is so important that I support them as much as i can.You would be made so welcome if you should visit them but please remember this is a charity and they need your money.

Had a lovely few hours at the pony centre today. The cafe is small and busy at lunchtime, but did a tasty and good value sandwich and fantastic homemade cakes! My 5yr old and nearly 3yr old loved feeding the ponies and had fun doing Easter crafts and won a couple of prizes on the tombola! A pony ride on Abby went down a treat and the staff were lovely. The centre is free to visit but appreciate donations to contribute to the good work they do. Well worth a visit!

We are sorry that you found your visit to the Exmoor Pony Centre disappointing. We try to do all we can to ensure that all our visitors and supporters have an enjoyable time when visiting the ponies and would like to assure you that we will take your comments on board. If you would like to contact us directly to discuss your visit we would be happy to try to put things right.As noted in an earlier Trip Advisor response, we are aware that due to the restrictions on signage within the National Park, our signposting is limited and for this reason do give full directions in our leaflet and on our website. We should point out also that sat nav directions can be misleading and that mobile phone reception within the National Park is extremely limited.

Thank you so much for your kind review of the Exmoor Pony Centre. We are so pleased that you enjoy your visits and are grateful to you for your continued support of the work we do with the Exmoor ponies. We look forward to seeing you at the Centre again soon.

We visited The Exmoor Pony Centre as we were in Exeter on another trip and we own an Exmoor Pony. When we visited (Sunday afternoon) we were the only ones there but were still shown the ponies and given an explanation as to what the Centre was all about. As for the review regarding directions, I entered the post code into my Sat Nav and though I did believe we were lost on more than one occasion, followed its directions and when near the destination, the signs put us on the door step. As others have commented, the staff were enthusiastic and very helpful and the shop provided us with some nice Christmas gifts whilst helping a worthwhile cause.Our daughter is jealous that we visited without her, so we will be visiting again in the New Year, even from the remoteness of West Wales :)

Having recently visited the Pony Centre, I feel I have to comment on the last review about the directions. I was very sorry to hear that the family had a bad experience. I can only say that on the occasion that we went we had a lovely day, the staff were both enthusiastic and helpful, with an obvious joy and love of what they do. We had no difficulty in finding the Centre but we did have a satnav to help. We adopted a pony 'Katie' for our Granddaughter, she was absolutly delighted and really looks forward to updates about Katies life. Overall a wonderful experience, thank you Exmoor Pony Centre.

Hello lilac_filly,We are so sorry that you experienced such problems trying to visit us and are extremely saddened that you feel that we were unhelpful at the time. It is very much our aim to ensure our visitors enjoy their experience at the Exmoor Pony Centre and can only apologise to you and your daughter that you didn’t manage to find us and feel so upset about your experience.A response to your comments was emailed directly to you via Trip Advisor on 16th October, but as we have not heard from you, are concerned that perhaps you did not receive that communication?Due to our location being within the Exmoor National Park, planning restrictions limit the amount of signage we are allowed and for this reason we do provide full directions to the Exmoor Pony Centre on our website and in our leaflet. Unfortunately too, mobile phone reception within the National Park area is extremely limited and we are aware that this can be frustrating for visitors.I believe that your attempted visit was back in July and only wish that you had contacted us sooner, and directly, to sort this out. As a very popular riding Centre, our Taster sessions during July and August were fully booked and at the time it would have been very difficult to re-schedule your daughter’s session. Under the circumstances however, if you had requested it at the time, we would have tried our best to do this or offered alternative dates. As a small charity The Moorland Mousie Trust works to conserve and promote the rare-breed Exmoor pony. At the Exmoor Pony Centre we work with a very small core staff team and rely on volunteer support greatly. For this reason, as would have been explained to you, we need to operate a cancellation policy that generally means refunds are not provided when cancellation of a riding session is made within 24 hours of the session timing as we would have organised staffing cover and pony work schedules to accommodate the bookings of the day.We would be very grateful if you would contact us directly in order that we can perhaps organise an alternative session for your daughter and hopefully improve your perception of our customer service.

We visited the centre on a Monday morning at the beginning of this month. We only went along for a short stop (about an hour) as my toddler becomes restless after a while! The ponies had been very busy with special events over the weekend and weren't that bothered in coming over to see us at first! We decided to go inside instead to look at the displays and the shop and had a chat with the friendly and devoted staff. The shop sells some lovely bits. We bought a beautiful cushion made by a local lady. When we went outside again two of the ponies decided they wanted to say hello, so my son and daughter were thrilled by this. A lovely morning out for us at a place which is genuinely dedicated to the welfare of the ponies and attracts visitors without the need for any gimmicks.Our morning would have been even better if we had been able to follow it up with a walk to Tarr Steps but with a 9 month old and 2 year old we decided to take a raincheck!

We really enjoyed meeting the Ponies and staff. We decided to sponsor Winston. We also went to Tarr steps nearby, and were pleased to see and walk on the moors. We left the centre turned left towards Tarr steps, parked up and then walked over the moors to Tarr steps (1.5 'country miles' seemed a lot further, but a lovely walk and saw wild exmoor ponies too. Well worth a visit!