The Carneddau ponies are some of the wildest animals in Britain. They aren't treated with any medication and are completely organic. They've been here since the age of the Celts.

The ponies are vital for the ecology of the mountains. For example, there's a colony of choughs who feed off the insects found in the ponies' dung.

Three years ago the European Union passed a law that all such animals had to have a passport and be tagged. This costs £50 per animal, and at that time the ponies were only worth around £15 each so it just wasn't going to be financially viable for us to keep protecting them.

Then seven local farmers got together, managed to secure Objective One funding and set up the Carneddau Ponies Association to fund and carry out this work.

When you see a 'Welsh Section A: ponies' class in an agricultural show, you'd be able to trace their bloodline back to the original stock in the Carneddau.

Such ponies have vanished from all other mountain ranges in the UK and if you got rid of ours, you'd never get them back. Someone tried to introduce a pony from Anglesey back onto the mountains, but it died - they just can't survive.

They live in families, like other wild animals. Some stallions do go from group to group trying to steal each other's mares - you'll see them fighting sometimes during the spring.

Not many people are aware that the mountains of North Wales only look like they do because of the work of the farmers. Some think we don't care about nature, but we've looked after this rare breed for generations.

My family have looked after them for over 300 years. My great grandfather was a bit of a horse dealer and sold lots of them to the Government or to coal mines during the First World War. My father sold some to an American dealer who wanted to set up a herd there.

Just recently, a London businesswoman read about us in a magazine and bought a foal and mare. She used to come to North Wales on holiday as a child and always loved the ponies, so now the foal will be shown in competitions and the mare will be allowed to live wild.

Usually we sell them as a family. We've just sold 17 to a man in Ireland who wants to try and introduce them to the mountains there.

Our main work is in bringing them down from the mountains each August. This isn't something you could do unless you knew every nook and cranny of the mountains like we do, being born and brought up here.

This year, we're going to keep some of the foals for a year and let people sponsor and name them. This way we may not need funding in the future and the sponsors will know they've helped secure the future of these beautiful animals.

We also want them classed as a rare breed, which would allow us to sell a group on one passport instead of individually.

If all this is done, then hopefully the wild ponies of the Carneddau will be safe for years to come. Gareth Jones

ALSO ON BBC.CO.UK:

• BBC Wales Nature: Mountain pony species guide