I hope our website www.exmoor-holidays.co.uk provides you with all the information you need for a wonderful holiday on Exmoor, whether you know and love Exmoor or you'll be visiting it for the first time in 2007.
The photo above is of silage-making at West Ilkerton Farm, 2006. Summer isn't very far away (honest!) and several places are already getting booked up for the summer holidays, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Perhaps this is a good moment to say that holidays on Exmoor in the winter, spring or autumn have many advantages: not many visitors around, plenty of parking spaces in the car parks (which are often free in the winter), lovely walks and rides, cosy evenings by the fire and lower-priced accommodation, to name a few. Many accommodation providers will take bookings for short breaks during school term times, too.

If you can't make up your mind which property to choose for your holiday, or if you're having difficulty finding a vacancy for the week you want, the Exmoor Holiday Group vacancies secretaries are there to help you. There are new vacancies secretaries this year:

Bed & Breakfast: Patricia Vellacott, Tel: (01398) 323722, Email: bb@exmoor-holidays.co.uk

Self-catering: Victoria Eveleigh, Tel: (01598) 752310, Email: sc@exmoor-holidays.co.uk

Camping: Oliver & Jill Edwards, Tel: (01643) 831216, Email: cottages@westermill.com or
Laetitia Brown, Tel: (01643) 851259, Email: ehgbrown@halsefarm.co.uk

The Exmoor Holiday Group is a self-help group and all the above contacts are busy running their own farm and accommodation businesses. If they are out working, they will reply to your enquiry as soon as possible. Please leave a clear message, by phone or Email, saying what you are looking for and the dates you would like, and giving your contact details.

Our first piece of news is from the Sareens at West Hollowcombe, www.exmoorselfcatering.co.uk Amanda and Michael Sareen provide a foster home for a couple of young Exmoor ponies from the Moorland Mousie Trust (www.moorlandmousietrust.org.uk) every year. This year, they have Billy (who featured in Johnny Kingdon's TV programme about Exmoor) and a nine-month-old pony called Cocoa. Here is a photo of the ponies in a field at West Hollowcombe:

Billy and Cocoa spent the first months of their lives running with free-living herds on Exmoor's open moorland. Their first contact with humans was when they were rounded up, weaned, inspected and branded; not a good foundation for a trusting relationship with people. Through careful, gentle, consistent handling, the Sareens will prepare these ponies for a life with humans. Amanda's main problem is that there isn't enough traffic around Hawkridge to provide props for traffic-proofing the ponies. Exmoor is one of the few places where you can have a problem like that!
When the ponies are about three years old and ready for the next step in their education, they will go back to the Moorland Mousie Trust Centre at Ashwick to learn how to be safe and reliable riding ponies. Merion, the pony who was at West Hollowcombe last year, is now at Ashwick completing his education.
Keep visiting this site for updates about the ponies from West Hollowcombe, together with news from other group members.