Herd 11 was originally established along with Herds 10 and 21 by Nick Westcott's great grandfather, A G Westcott and his two brothers. The Westcott family had maintained moorland ponies since at least the 1870's. A G Westcott was a founding committee member of the Exmoor Pony Society in 1921. The Westcott family ran semi-feral moorland ponies across the vast open (and then unfenced) moorland area which stretched from Porlock Hill to Dunkery. By the 1950's, these pony herds were dispersed. 
Nick and Dawn were re-establish Herd 11 in 2009 to enable this long-standing tradition of breeding Exmoor ponies to continue. 

Founding stallion, Hawkwell Versuvius 'Bear', has sired some beautiful quality Exmoor ponies and is able to put his impressive stamp of strong bone, excellent conformation and movement and stunning good looks on his progeny. He has excelled in the show ring, standing Overall Supreme Champion of the Exmoor Pony Society Breed Show in 2006 and and again taking the In Hand Supreme in 2010. He stood Overall Reserve Supreme Champion at the NPS/Kilmannan Stud M&M In Hand Silver Medal Championship Final in 2011, winning a gold medal rosette. Bear has many other championships to his name including standing Champion Exmoor at Royal Bath & West, Devon County and Royal Cornwall shows. 

In 2011 and 2012, Bear stood International Horse Agility World Champion, after competing in the year-long worldwide leagues. His compelling story is told in Dawn Westcott's book Wild Stallion Whispering (published in hardback by Halsgrove Publishing).

Bear's son, the lovely Cheritonridge Mont de Brouilly, sired three beautiful fillies before he was gelded in 2014. Two of them remain in Holtball Herd 11 - Holtball Princess Khaleesi and Holtball Princess Cristal. 

Bear's moorbred son, Farleywater Yogi Bear, is now Holtball Herd 11's licensed stallion and covered his first mares in 2021. 

In 2015, Bear sired a stunning filly, Holtball Black Bess, out of the Herd 23 mare, Anstey Princess, who is one of the very few, if not the remaining daughter, of the legendary Herd 23 moorland stallion, The Highwayman. He tragically remained unregistered after early DNA testing failed to identify his parents, although he passed his stallion inspection with flying colours. 

In 2015, Bear ran with a small number of carefully selected herd of semi-feral Farleywater H67 mares at Farleywater Farm. In 2016 his first moorbred foals were born on Buscombe. Farleywater Yogi Bear who is now the Herd 11 standing stallion. Farleywater Tanana (2023 Swedish Exmoor Breed Champion) and Kenai. Colt foal Farleywater Sitka joined us here at Exmoor Pony Project before travelling to his new home in Germany. In 2016 Bear also sired two lovely colt foals, Holtball Pierre Parfait, out of Hawkwell Penelope Pitstop (by Ebony) and Holtball Kilimanjaro out of Hawkwell Smarty Pants. Holtball Kick 'em Jenny, Cheritonridge Mont de Brouilly, Holtball Karisimbi also run in the herd. In recent years, bear's daughters Holtball Goldilocks and Holtball Princess Phoebe have joined the herd. 

From time to time, Holtball Herd 11 youngstock and ponies may be available for sale or loan to the right homes. Please contact us to discuss and email in the first instance to DawnWestcott@hotmail.com or telephone 00 44 (0)1643 862466.

Read the Tribute to Nick Westcott