Dulmen Pony
Germany is more famous for its excellent production of warmblood horses than for its pony breeds, and only has one native pony breed remaining - the Dulmen, also known as Dülmener (German), Münsterland. The Senner pony of Teutoburg Forest was the only other German pony breed and is now considered extinct. The Dulmen is a very old breed found near the town of Dulmen in the Meerfelder Bruch, an area where ponies have been documented since the early 1300s. The exact origins of the breed are not known although it is likely to have developed from ancient primitive horse types, and still have some primitive characteristics.
The ponies used to live in large wild herds all across Westphalia, but during the 19th century, as land increasingly divided up and separated, the ponies began to lose their natural habitat. Today, there is only one wild herd left, owned by the Duke of Croy, which roams approximately 860 acres of the Meerfelder Brunch. The Dukes of Croy have had a long relationship with the Dulmen pony and first helped the herd back in the mid-1800s. Within the Meerfelder Bruch acreage, there is a wide diversity of small habitats, ranging from woodland to open moorland, which provide the ponies with every environment they may need. They are left to lead a wild lifestyle and must find their own food and shelter, and cope with illness and death. Those members of the herd that survive are subsequently the strongest and, therefore, as a breed, they are particularly tough and resistant to disease. One a year, on the last Saturday of May, the ponies are rounded up and the colts separated off. The colts are then sold to the public auction and the mares are returned to the Meerfelder Bruch with one or two stallions.
Dulmen ponies that are tamed and trained make good children's ponies and adapt to civilized life well. They are also useful driving ponies and were used for working the land, maintaining their inordinate hardiness, even in captivity. In appearance, they are quite primitive looking with coarse features. Some of them retain the dun coat coloring, while others exhibit brown, black, or chestnut coats, which indicates infusions of foreign blood throughout the breed's history. They usually stand between 12 hh and 13 hh.