I thought i'd call this picture 'A Portrait of a sheep named horse' as the left hand sheep looks like a young pony looking through the fence on a wind swept hill between Haytor and Hound Tor.
Dartmoor Sheep History
It is thought that sheep have been a part of the Dartmoor landscape since prehistoric times, in fact some say that the native Dartmoor breeds were descended from the Iron Age Soay sheep.
There is certainly evidence that by the late 13th century Dartmoor was a wool producing area.
Ministry of Agricultural figures stated that in 1939 there were 108,000 sheep in all of the Dartmoor parishes, this figure declined further to 98,000 by 1949 of which around 30,117 were on the moor.
Figures taken from the Agricultural and Horticultural MAFF/DEFRA census show that the sheep numbers on Dartmoor farms rose from around 56,000 in 1972 to over 200,000 in 2002.
This huge increase was due to the Common Agricultural Policies sheep regime. Today there are 145,000 sheep grazing rights on the commons which would be a close reflection of the early figures.
