An Ancient Lineage: The Story of the Dartmoor Hill Pony

An Ancient Lineage: The Story of the Dartmoor Hill Pony opened at Torquay Museum on 24 October and runs through to 28 February, so you've got plenty of time to catch it over the winter. It's an exhibition celebrating the Dartmoor Hill Pony, and the museum co-created it with the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association and the Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony, so it comes from the people who know them best.

There's a bit of a distinction to pick up here that the exhibition makes clear: the ponies it focuses on are known as 'Hillies', and they're separate from the registered Dartmoor Pony breed. The Hillies are described as the last truly semi-wild pony population in England, so this is about the animals that still live out on the moor rather than the ones kept in stables. If you've spent any time up on the hills, you've probably seen them, but you might not have known there was a whole history behind them.

It's worth remembering where you're heading, too. Torquay Museum is Devon's oldest museum, and it was re-developed and improved back in 2013. It's a key site of the English Riviera UNESCO Global Geopark, and it's a hands-on, family-friendly place, so it works as a day out with kids as much as a quiet wander on your own. The pony exhibition is just one of the things on; the museum also houses Britain's only Agatha Christie gallery, where you can step inside Poirot's London Art Deco apartment, alongside North-West Europe's oldest human fossil and the sabre-toothed tigers he shared his home with 44,000 years ago, plus the coffin of a 2,500-year-old mummified boy.

Tickets are £10 for adults and £5 for children aged 5 to 17, with under-fives free. One thing that makes it a good value for a winter visit is that the ticket lasts for 12 months, so if you can't see everything in one go, you can come back. You'll find the museum at 529 Babbacombe Road, Torquay, TQ1 1HG.