Hi, I'm Jill Pendleton. A Dartmoor landlady for over twenty years. I also ran the local Tourist Informtion Centre. Let me tell you about Dartmoor accommodation Do take a look at my blog
I have been recommending the Miniature Pony Centre to families with children for over 15 years. Over the years it has improved and improved. The slideshow photos were taken on Tuesday 3rd August when the weather was not too great.
But children were enjoying themselves despite the odd shower, and the cafe was available for a tea and good cake.
The ponies are all accessible. In the main paddock, kids can get up close for a stroke and inspection without the animals getting excited. These ponies have seen it all before. At set times during the day, children can help with feeding, and stroking. Later on in the afternoon, the ponies and donkeys are brought out of the main paddock and fed on their way to bed, and it is a comical sight to see them all rushing up the yard, ponies first then the donkeys.
Pony rides are on offer at an extra £1.50 per child. Which is a walk around the paddock on one of the older more
steady older horses, with a staff member holding on to the child. Each child gets a rosette at the end of the ride.
Further up from the pony rides, are trampolines and a newly installed zip wire. On the same level, an aviary and pet's corner, where at arranged times, staff let little 'uns hold onto wriggly mice and pretty rabbits.
Most days in the Summer, an entertainer does just that. As you see in the slideshow above, Professor Fumble was wholeheartedly in charge, and I must say that us adults enjoyed the performance almost as much as the children did.
Especially the child called Max on the front row who was the equivalent of a bar-room heckler!
If you have a child under teenage years, then this really is a whole day out of entertainment.
Budding farmers can sit in a real tractor seat and use the loader. There is a regular bird of prey demonstration.
