Chief Executive of Natural England, Marian Spain, admitted to me @bbc5live that new proposals could lead to a reduction of ponies on Dartmoor. Natural England is including the ponies in livestock counts under its new moorland agri-environmental schemes that provide payments for farmers for grazing upland in ways that benefit nature. When I asked if what was being proposed could to lead to a reduction in ponies on Dartmoor, Marian Spain said, 'it could do.' "It could do because if you're a businessman if you are a farmer and you have to reduce some of your livestock you may well choose to reduce the stock make you the least money what we are keen to do is make sure that doesn't happen there are supplements available in some of these schemes there's a pony and cattle supplement, there's a native breed supplement, so we're working to make sure that farmers don't choose to get rid of the ponies that are given the right incentive so they keep the ponies." She also said: "It's not about reducing the number of stock on Dartmoor, It's about changing the grazing patterns. And farmers are choosing to enter schemes and are being given financial compensation, given money by the government for making those grazing changes. But we absolutely hear the concern that we need to do that in a way that keeps the ponies as well as keeping the cattle and as well keeping the right levels of sheep."