Bred for the moor, kept in a family paddock
The Dartmoor evolved on open moorland where grazing is thin, the weather is rough and a pony keeps condition by moving and foraging all day. Move her to a small, fertilised paddock with hay on tap and that same thrifty system overshoots: the realistic risks for this breed are obesity and laminitis, not hunger. A log keeps the difference between her heritage diet and her actual diet in plain sight. It also gives a child's pony the one thing several loving feeders cannot provide unaided — consistency. It takes each feeder under a minute to keep, which matters, because a log that feels like homework does not survive the winter.
The feeding side: less than you would think, written down
Note turnout hours and whether she wears a muzzle, weigh the hay rather than trusting a slice, and record every feed, however symbolic the handful. The entry that matters most is the honest one: treats from pockets, the extra net given because it rained, the neighbour's windfall apples. A monthly condition score, taken by the same hands each time, turns those daily entries into a verdict — if the score creeps while the entries look innocent, something unrecorded is feeding her, and the log has done its job by proving it. Keep the book where the hay is stored, and the entries will happen.
The farrier side: simple feet, still worth dating
Dartmoor feet are famously tough, and many ponies are trimmed rather than shod, which makes it easy to let intervals slide because nothing looks wrong. Date every trim anyway, and note balance, any flare developing on the fronts, and how the feet are coping if she has started driving or longer roadwork. A run of dated trims shows whether the interval you chose is genuinely right for her growth rate or merely habitual. Should she ever go suddenly foot-sore on both fronts, that tidy history helps your vet and farrier judge how much has changed and how fast.
What the log catches over a full year
Kept across the seasons, even a small pony's log starts to forecast. You learn the month her condition always surges, how many weeks a trim really lasts in summer growth, and whether the winter hay needs soaking because last winter's notes say her crest hardened by midwinter. Those patterns are invisible in the moment and obvious on the page, and they let you adjust grazing or book the farrier before the pattern becomes a problem. For a pony likely to be passed on to another young rider one day, the record is also a kindness to whoever comes next: her management, proven over time, transfers with her.
One log for several pairs of hands
A child's pony may be fed by a parent before school, a grandparent at lunch and a young rider with a pocket of carrots in the afternoon, none of them aware of the others. A shared log ends that. Each feeder writes what was given, each trim and vet visit lands in the same place, and the pony's care stops depending on who remembered to mention what. On KinsLe, Care Teams turns that shared page into assigned duties: the person who feeds ticks the task off, the timestamp shows it happened, and tomorrow's feeder starts from fact.