WHINTOR DARTMOORS: THE FRENCH EXPERIENCE –FROM THE DARTMOOR DIARY 2008

About two years ago, following Paul’s unexpected early retirement, we decided to up sticks and move to France.  For many years, we had looked at French properties in the hope that one day we would spend our retirement in the land of good food & wine.

However, retirement to France did not mean that Jeanne was ready to give up breeding Dartmoors.  On a reconnaissance visit to Normandy, we visited Agnès & Gérard Buisine Dartmoor breeders at the Square Stud, who welcomed us warmly.  The conversation regarding Dartmoors in France was interesting.  France appeared to be in need of a fresh injection of vigour, and this suggested that bringing our breeding herd over could be a viable proposition.

All we had to do was find a suitable property with land.  Incredibly, thanks to a chance “hit” on the internet, we found a wonderful old manoir in Central Brittany (with much potential!) plus 88 acres.  After the usual problems of buying and selling houses, and having left the ponies in livery in England, we finally made it to France with some of our possessions (two dogs, a cat, two geese and a tortoise) on St.Valentine’s Day 2006 – only to discover that, because of a mistake on the French side, we could not own the property for another week, and even that was not absolutely certain!

One nerve-racking week later, the French system delivered us of the house, then our furniture arrived and we thought that was that.  No chance!

The French notary had advised us that we needed to contact an organisation as soon as possible – but did not say why.  We did this, and a very pleasant young man arrived to tell us that we were now French Farmers!  Breeding ponies was for us a hobby, but in France, such things are not allowed.  There are taxes to pay on farmland even if it is not used.  Therefore, we had no choice but to become official farmers, no doubt permitted to blockade Channel Ports, burn lamb carcasses & throw artichokes!

On our visit prior to our purchase we had seen fencing around the grass fields (the others being arable), and felt that this was adequate at least initially.  However, on our arrival we saw to our horror a local farmer removing them, as they were his, he said!

 

 

Our first task therefore was to secure these fields.  After a hectic few weeks, and having to keep the ponies in England a little longer, this was accomplished.

The ponies arrived about six weeks later, and it was wonderful to be reunited with them.  They seemed no worse for their experience apart from being a little thinner and were soon happy with their new surroundings, but were not certain about learning French!

The Haras Nationaux is the French National Stud, but unlike its counterpart in the UK, it is in total control of everything equine in France. Despite the fact that we had a herd of pure-bred Dartmoors with Dartmoor Pony Society (DPS) passports, UELN numbers and microchips, this meant nothing.  Despite all the DPS’s efforts through DEFRA and other contacts, we still had to re-register all our stock with the Haras, who gave them new identification numbers.  After initially stamping our feet at this seeming insult to the EU and our bilingual passports, we realised that the only way forward was to go with the flow, be incredibly patient, smile, fill in the lengthy multiple copy forms and have an ever-open chequebook. Every step of the way through the labyrinth of regulations requires a fee.  We do not feel that we could have succeeded with the bureaucracy without the generous, influential and continuous help of the DPS and our new French friends, even with our reasonable knowledge of the French language.

 Our first foals in France arrived, and thrived.  Their registration threw up another little problem.  We name our foals after trout & salmon fishing flies but in France, not only does our prefix become an affix, but every horse or pony must be named beginning with the specified year letter – in 2006 this was “S”; 2007 is “T”, and 2008 “U”, which last letter has hardly any French words in the dictionary, and there are almost no fishing flies either!

Our “mature” stallion Senruf Gladiator was delighted to have his girls around him and soon all were in foal again.  The 2007 French foals by Gladiator are superb. Our website, which is now bilingual, has attracted many inquiries from interested European breeders.

Jeanne particularly misses the English shows very much, there being nothing equivalent in France.  However, regardless of all the problems we have encountered in setting up the stud in a foreign country, the quality and pace of life here in France is so wonderful that returning to England does not come into the equation.