Hatherleigh Festival

Paint-a-(Dartmoor)-Pony Competition
2026-07-01 08:00 - 2026-09-01 17:00 (Europe/London) | Salar Gallery, 20 Bridge Street, Hatherleigh, Devon, EX20 3HY, United Kingdom
Capture the spirit of Dartmoor through its rapidly disappearing native ponies.

For £25 you’ll receive an MDF pony cut-out to paint or decorate however you wish. The brief is deliberately broad: your cut-out is a canvas for the spirit of Dartmoor in all its forms. That might mean a beautifully observed portrait of a Dartmoor pony, or it might mean tors and stone rows, rocky streams, thatched cottages, folk tales, the wide moorland sky – anything that speaks to what Dartmoor is. Realistic, abstract, whimsical, illustrative: all approaches are welcome.

One entry per person.

The shape of the MDF cut-out you will use

How to enter

Cut-outs are available from Salar Gallery during the Festival and throughout July, and from the Festival stall at the Saturday Street Market (11th July) for £25.

Painted or decorated cut-outs should be returned to Salar Gallery by Monday 1st September. Judging takes place later in September, after which entries will be auctioned to raise funds for the Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust and Hatherleigh Festival.

Prizes

1st: £100

2nd: £50

3rd: £25

Special prize for best entry by an artist aged 16 or under

Kindly sponsored by Sonia Lindsay and Sally Vick.

About DPHT

The Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust is a charity working to ensure these ponies, which have roamed the moor for centuries, still have a future. They are part of Dartmoor’s history, heritage and identity, and a living symbol of the National Park – which this year celebrates its 75th anniversary.
