WE WERE moving three Dartmoor ponies to our lower grazing, which meant walking them on the pavement down Slad Road on a recent Sunday at about 10am.

We had a car escorting behind with its hazard lights on to prevent anyone overtaking, but a classic car ignored this escorting car and overtook us on a bend and caused one of the ponies to panic and go into the road, my mum was leading this pony.

The engine sound of a classic car is different to any other car, and the pony was not used to it.

We were lucky in this case that my mum managed to turn the pony and gain some control but four more classic cars overtook after seeing the pony react with panic, which caused further panic and stress to the pony and my mum trying to calm it down.

One of the other ponies also became very nervous but I kept it back from the other larger pony who was in the middle of the road with my mum.

It was terrifying to watch as more cars overtook, as I was helplessly watching my mum struggle with the pony to avoid the cars.

Do those people that overtook us realise how it feels to be holding a nervous pony when it's panicking on the road and how dangerous it is for us, let alone a pony to be hit by a car?

We were lucky no one was hurt in this incident.

On the next bend as we were approaching our lane (The Vatch) where we turn down, there were balloons on the verge which scared the ponies so we stopped to gather them in and prepare to take them around the balloons, as we did this, five more cars overtook the escort vehicle and then us; one of the ponies reacted again and nearly hit the overtaking car.

We were minutes away from being off the main road and these cars had waited five minutes behind the escorting car, why didn’t they wait another few minutes before they carried on with their journey down the road?

What was so important that they wanted to put us and the ponies at serious risk?

They have no idea the fear that a young pony has on the road and how difficult it becomes when they panic, to calm and control them, especially while traffic is closely overtaking them.

What is our world coming to?

People don’t seem to care about anyone else but themselves and the constant rush to be somewhere else.

What happened to the bigger picture and a sense of unity and peace with nature?

It only takes us 10 minutes to move the ponies down Slad Road.

Please, just wait quietly behind the escorting car.

Kate Hulls

Slad