Profile of author Sue Baker - The Exmoor Pony Chronicles

Sue Baker with Exmoor mare Sutcombe So Charming in 2007



Sue Baker with Exmoor foal Pinkery Ilex in 1994

Sue Baker (neé Gates) was born in London in 1953 and moved with her family to Somerset at the age of nine. Educated at Ilminster Girls’ Grammar School, she then went to Leeds University where she gained a First Class Honours degree in Botany and Zoology. This was followed by a three-year research study of the ecology of free-living Exmoor Ponies for which she was awarded a Doctorate in Biological Sciences in 1980. With a complete change of career, she spent the next ten years as a marketing manager, continuing her studies of the history and origins of Exmoor ponies and writing in her spare time. Her first book Survival of the Fittest was published in 1993 with a revised second edition Exmoor Ponies – Survival of the Fittest in 2008.

In 1994 Sue and husband Ian moved from the New Forest to Exmoor, near East Anstey. In 2014 they moved to Dulverton and, at the time of writing, they have five Exmoor Ponies living free on Exmoor and a local nature reserve.

Sue joined the Exmoor Pony Society in 1974 and has been a Committee member many times. She was Chairman for several years and has also served as President. She edited the Society's newsletter for a long period. Sue was a joint founder of ‘Friends of Exmoor Ponies’ in 1980 from which she retired in 2014. In 2001, she was awarded the Helen Dashwood Rose Bowl for outstanding service to the Exmoor Pony Society and 2016 made an Honorary Vice-President for life.