number of ponies of all breeds on the Forest had more than doubled to 1,341. Twenty years later pony numbers were up to 3,589, rising to 4,112 in 1994, before dipping back below four thousand until 2005. As of 2011, there were 4,604 ponies grazing on the New Forest. In 2014, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) conservation charity watch-listed the New Forest pony in its "minority breed" category, given the presence of less than 3,000 breeding females in the forest. Over the course of five years, the number of foals born each year had dropped by two-thirds (from 1,563 to just 423 in 2013) – a change attributed by The New Forest Pony Breeding and Cattle Society to a declining market, and by the New Forest Verderers to steps that had been taken to improve the quality rather than the quantity of foals. For a variety of reasons, including normal trade in the area and attempts to improve the breed, Arabian, Thoroughbred, Welsh pony, and Hackney blood had been added to ponies in the New Forest. Over time, however, the better-quality ponies were sold off, leaving the poorer-quality and less hardy animals as the Forest breeding stock. To address this situation, as well as to increase the stock's hardiness and restore native type, in the early twentieth century animals from other British native mountain and moorland pony breeds such as the Fell, Dales, Highland, Dartmoor, and Exmoor were introduced to the Forest. This practice ended in 1930, and since that time, only purebred New Forest stallions may be turned out. The New Forest Pony Breeding and Cattle Society has been publishing the stud book since 1960. New Forest ponies have been exported to many parts of the world, including Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Australia, and many countries now have their own breed societies and stud books. Uses In the past, smaller ponies were used as pit ponies. Today the New Forest pony and related crossbreeds are still the "working pony of choice" for local farmers and commoners, as their sure-footedness, agility, and sound sense will carry them (and their rider) safely across the varied and occasionally hazardous terrain of the open Forest, sometimes at great speed, during the autumn drifts. New Forest ponies also are used today for gymkhanas, show jumping, cross-country, dressage, driving, and eventing. The ponies can carry adults and in many cases compete on equal