While the history of the Connemara is obscure it is considered Ireland ’s only native breed. The
Ancient Celts brought toe ponies to Connemara more than 2,500 years ago and used them to draw war charriats and carts along
the beaches of their new found home. Legend has it that when the Spanish Armada sank off the Connemara coast in the 16 th
Century, the horses swam to shore and bred with the native ponies running wild in the mountains.
The area of Western Ireland known as Connemara is rocky, barren mountainous terrain and is full of endless
desolate moors and bogs with shores pounded by the tide and storms of the Atlantic . These ponies learned to live in these
conditions where a misplaced step could send a pony crashing to its death. Over the centuries in the ruggedness of their western
Irish environment, the Connemara developed its prized qualities of hardiness, agility and extraordinary jumping ability.
Farmers in this area had large families to support and could usually only afford one good pony. These
were often captured off the mountain and tamed. This pony had to be a mare who could have a foal each year to sell and also
pull a plow or a cart and word from dawn to dusk often under extremely harsh conditions. These ponies were fitted with baskets
called creels to carry heavy loads. The moved tons of rock and hauled seaweed from the shores to fertilize the barren fields.
Their strong sturdy legs could maneuver through the muck which might swallow a different type of horse. She also carted the
family to Mass on Sunday. Hardiness, stamina and a good disposition were needed or she was replaced.
Stallions would travel the primitive roads between villages breeding many mares and covering many miles
in one day.
The Connemara Pony Breeders Society was formed in 1923 in Clifden by the local breeders for the purpose
of conserving and developing the breed. Centuries of natural selection, some interference needed for human survival, followed
by the past 72 years of selective breeding has given us the quality Connemara we have today.
The Connemara has a short, dense, flat and clean cannon bone, measuring 7 to 9 inches below the knee.
The body is deep and compact, well-balanced with depth, substance and good heart room. The Connemara has a good sloping shoulder,
length of rein, and moves freely with little knee action in surprisingly large strides for its heights. On this strong, sturdy
body sets a handsome head with a well defined jaw and good width between large kind eyes. They are mannerly and manageable,
kind and responsive, and possess good sense and basic intelligence. Easy keepers, they do not require a rich diet to stay
healthy and fit.
The Connemara is the largest of the pony breeds, raging in height from 13 – 15 hands with 14 –
14.2 hands as the average. Full maturity is reached at five years of age, sometimes older, and they can live well into their
30’s.
The most common colors are grey and dun, but there are blacks, bays, browns, chestnuts, palominos and
an occasional roan. Black points are common but piebalds and skewbalds are not acceptable for registration. Sure-footed, hardy
and agile, they possess powers of great stamina, staying power and adaptability. They are renowned for their versatility and
their gentle, tractable, sensible and willing dispositions
The Connemara has a natural jumping ability, and its build is suitable for dressage. They often beat
larger horses with staying power, intelligence and heart. As a show jumper or working hunter, in eventing, western pleasure,
endurance and driving – Connemaras can do it all!
Balius Kerry Blue
Balius Kerry Blue moved from Novice Level eventing to Intermediate
in less than three seasons and according to the USEA records, she was the first pony-sized individual, standing only 14.1
hands, to ever compete successfully at Intermediate Level, both in horse trials and full-phase events.
Kerry began her performance career at age 12 after serving time as a broodmare. Her superior athletic
ability and her love of the galloping and jumping phases of Eventing, often put her at the top of AHSA/USCTA recognized division
in which, throughout her career, she competed only with horses.
Kerry won bronze, silver and gold medallions in Combined Training in the American Connemara Pony Society
and at the 1992 Area VI Young Rider Championships, Balius Kerry Blue, the only pony in a top-notch field of horses, won the
overall Equine Fitness Award. In 1992 she was recognized as “Horse of the Year” by the American Connemara Pony
Society and was featured in 1993 issues of The Chronicle of the Horse and Equues.
In April 1993, at the age of 16, Kerry returned to the broodmare pasture to add to her brood of three
talented offspring. At term, Kerry colicked and despite the efforst of a U.C. Davis surgical team, she could not be saved.
A beautiful bay filly is her legacy.
Bright memories live on of the courageous, 14.1 hand mare dubbed “The Magic Pony” by an enthusiastic
fan and in 1995 she received posthumously the most prestigious career performance ward offered by the American Connemara Pony
Society, the Camlin Trophy.
Black Points Tilly Go Bragh
When it comes to cross country, Tilly, a Connemara/Thoroughbred
cross, is all business. Under the guidance of World Equestrian Games Team Gold Medal winner, John Williams, this 15.2 hand
powerhouse mare had a meteoric rise, leaping from Training to Intermediate in just ten months and finished 2 nd in her first
3-day event at the Preliminary level.
Tilly earned honors that include USCTA Preliminary Horse of the Year, the AHSA Zone 2 Intermediate Championship,
the USCTA Connemara of the Year (with her sire, Hideaway’s Erin Go Bragh), and the AHSA/ACPS Joan R. McKenna Trophy
for excelling in Combined Training at both the Preliminary and Intermediate levels. She was Reserve Champion at the Advanced
level in the Mid-Atlantic series in 1998, National Intermediate Reserve Champion in 1996 and was complimented along with her
rider, by Captain Mark Phillips for a brilliant cross-country round at the Rolex Kentucky CCI*** in 1997.
Custusha’s Cashel Rock
Rocky won both the An Tostal and Camlin Trophies in
his distinguished career and earned gold medallions from the American Connemara Pony Society in Hunter, Jumper, Dressage and
Combined Training. He was the Champion Connemara in-hand at Woodstock in 1977, 1978 and 1979 and in open competition he won
championships from the Washington State Horseman’s Council in Dressage, Adult Amateur Hunter and Jumper, and Small and
Working Hunter.
A large crowd assembled for Rocky’s retirement ceremony in 1993 at the West Coast Connemara Show.
He was preceded in the amphitheater by a stallion parade of all the stallions present at the show, followed by thirteen of
Rocky’s get. Rocky entered the ring ridden by trainer/handler Connie Tuor. Elizabeth Hadley, his groom of seven years,
removed the saddle and a wreath of carnations in white, green and orange, the colors of the Irish flag, was placed around
his neck and he made his last pass around the ring while a bagpiper in dress clan attire played strains from traditional Irish
music and piped Rocky from the arena to the strains of “Amazing Grace.”
Rocky has been immortalized as the model for the 1990 Breyer horse, “Rocky, Champion Connemara
Stallion.”
Erin Casco Bay
Puffing up to look much bigger than his 15.1 hands, Erin Casco Bay
competed in dressage to Prix St. Georges level. A superb mover he also noticed every little thing, including subtle signals
from his rider. These traits indicated a dressage career as did his heredity as both his sire, Hideaway’s Erin Smithereen
and his dam’s sire, Far Above Ballingarry Bay, were outstanding movers and competitors.
A true Connemara , Casco was very kind and sensible giving pony rides to children at the Sunday School
picnics. He was an easy keeper and held up well under the demands of collection at F.E.I. levels coupled with a great deal
of travel.
Grasshopper
Bred in County Wicklow , Ireland , Copper Coin (The Grasshopper) was
purchased by Col. Joe Dudgeon whose son Ian rode him at the 1956 Olympic Games in Stockholm , Sweden where he had a clean
cross-country but was eliminated for missing a flag.
After the games the 15.1 hand Grasshopper was sold to Mrs. John Galvin and was shipped to the family
ranch in Santa Barbara , CA . Two year later, the United States Three-Day Team, including Michael Page, was invited to train
at the Galvin ranch and The Grasshopper was assigned to Michael to ride. The two went on to win an individual gold and team
silver medal at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago and an individual gold and team gold in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Grasshopper’s outstanding record stands as follows:
1955 European Championships – Penelope Moreton
1956 Olympic Games – Ian Dudgeon
1959
Pan American Games – Michael Page
1960 Olympic Games – Michael Page
1963 Pan American Games – Michael
Page
1964 Olympic Games – Michael Page
“Grasshopper was neither very big nor very handsome, but such was his toughness, mentally and physically,
that he never started an international event in which he was not expected to produce the fastest time cross-country….I
don’t expect ever to see another horse like him.” Michael O. Page
Hideaway’s Erin Go Bragh
To watch Hideaway’s Erin Go Bragh in the dressage
ring, is to marvel that this supple, elegant performer is any relation to the shaggy ponies of the west of Ireland . On the
other hand, to see him attack a cross-country course or a stadium round, the cat-like grace, the power, the sheer courage
of this little stallion are truly evocative of all that is best in his native pony breeding.
Partnered with rider Carol Koslowski of Geneseo , NY , he moved quickly through the Preliminary ranks
finishing second three times in 1990. In 1991 his win t the MCTA Horse Trials, a highly regarded event with a notoriously
tough cross-country course, against some stiff competition gave some indication of the talent in that compact body. He won
at the Groton Horse Trials later that year in a division that included riders like Bruce Davidson, Mike Plumb and Denny Emerson
and in the next three years he became a favorite of the eventing world with remarkable performances at almost all the major
show sin the east coast.
Erin Go Bragh began 1995 by winning three second-level classes at the Lake Erie College Dressage show,
followed by winning his Open Intermediate divisions at Fair Hill and the Middleburg Horse Trials and ended by becoming the
AHSA’s Zone 2 Advanced Horse Trials champion for 1995 as well as the USCTA’s Connemara of the Year
In 1935 at the International Horse Show in Olympia London, the 22-year-old, 15 hand Connemara gelding,
The Nugget, cleared a 7’2” jump and subsequently won over 300 prizes internationally earning over 4,500 pounds
sterling in prize money
At Madison Square Garden in New York , NY , in 1939, the 13.2 hand Connemara , Little Squire, won the
Open Championship by clearing fences of seven feet. The American press dubbed him “the littlest horse with the biggest
heart.”
Tommy Wade’s 15 hand Connemara gelding Dundrum became Supreme Champion at the Wembley Horse of
the Year Show when he set a record by clearing a 7’2” puissance wall. In 1961 he was regarded as show jumper of
the century when he won five major events at the Dublin Horse Show, the first time in history that so many awards were won
by the same rider, and he did it with the same hrose! He was International Jumping Champion from 1959 – 1963.
MARCUS AURELIUS was a Connemara/Thoroughbred ridden by Mary Ann e Tauskey. The pair competed in the 1975
Pan American Games and were members of the Gold Medal winning United States Eventing Team. In 1976 they were again on the
Gold Medal winning United States Eventing Team.
Only one of two horses to jump a clear round in the entire 1968 Olympics was a 14.1 half bred Connemara
, Stroller. Stroller competed in the Olympic games as a member of the British Team ridden by Marium Coakes. They won the silver
medal behind the gold medal winners Snowbound and Bill Steinkraus.
Stroller cleared an Puissance Fence of 6’10.”
Lendon Gray earned worldwide recognition while riding the Connemara/Thoroughbreds Seldom Seen and Last
Scene in upper level international dressage competitions.
