Lib Petch lecture, Stallion Parade and Dressage Clifden Connemara Pony Spring Festival

Lecture on Thoroughbred influence

The final event of the day on Saturday was a presentation given by well-known Judge and seasoned Connemara Pony expert Elizabeth Petch,  Lib as she is generally known, is the author of the History of the Breeders Society  and her topic in this first ‘Bartley O’Sullivan Lecture’ was ‘The Thoroughbred Influence on the Connemara Pony’.

Lib Petch and husband John, picture for auction by Siobhan Bulfin

She went back to the years preceeding the foundation of the Society in 1923, to the introduction of the T.B. stallion ‘Watchspring’ to Connemara in the 1890’s.  He covered many native pony mares and was said to be the sire in 1919 of the famous jumper ‘The Nuggett’ who jumped to fame in England and in three consecutive years in the early 1930’s was Stone Wall Jumping Champion of Britain and jumped 7’2” at Olympia.  He stood 15 h.h and his dam was a native mare. Lib had many marvellous pictures on screen, including some of the T.B’s of that time and of ‘Little Model’ Dressage Champion by ‘Little Heaven’ whose dam also was a Connemara mare.  There was the equally famous ‘Dundrum’ by the Society owned stallion Little Heaven who, at 15 h.h out of a Connemara mare, jumped incredibly high to beat the best horses in Ireland and England with Tommy Wade in the 1950’s and ‘60’s.

Lib Petch, John Petch and Countess April Merveldt confab.

 But enough from me; suffice it to say that Thoroughbred blood runs in the majority of modern day Connemara ponies and was responsible for contributing to the quality, speed and jumping ability of today’s pony.  This finely researched lecture, you will be glad to hear, will shortly be published as a pamphlet. Coming up, we hope, will be a future session on the introduction of Arab and other blood, including Irish Draught.

 

 

Stallion  Parade and Dressage, Sunday

A very graceful dressage display to music took place in the interval during the Stallion Parade;

Mary Mitchell and Creemully Western Melody

this was Mary Mitchell on her 7yr old homebred all-rounder stallion Creemully Western Melody.(I Love You Melody X Creemully Heather)  This performance pony demonstrates the versatility of the Connemara with a performance record in International Showjumping, Dressage and Working Hunter.

 

 

 

Pattys Veuve Cosmic by Pattys Veuve Cliquet-Blue Bell, Peadar Murphy

I got some random pictures of the many handsome stallions who were shown on Sunday, many in nasty driving rain early on in the day, but all looking fabulous and most showing a welcome increased bone as well as quality which has been occasionally missing in the recent past.  With 18 new stallions now coming on the scene since Friday’s colt inspections, and more to come, mare owners can consider themselves spoilt for choice. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linsfort Barney by Kingstown boy-Inisowen Rosie with Joe McNamara

 

 

 

 

I hope these stallion photos speak for themselves.

Shakelton by Streamstown Larry-Hazel Dun with Joe McCann

3 yr old Newtown Molls Pride by Fred. Hazy Match-Newtown Moll, Mairtin Nee

Knockillaree Tomas by Calla Boy-Annaghdown Dusty, Roger Joyce

Skousboe Morning Rock by Hazy Dawn-Fredericksminde Mellow,Seamus Keady

3yr old Rosscon Surprise by Templebready Fear Bui-Cooloo Lady, P.J.Watson

3yr.old Glencarrig Patrickby Glencarrig Prince-Festy Lady, Gearoid Curran

Moorland Snowy River by Laerkens Cascade Dawn-Easter Trixie, Martin Coyne

Coral Misty’s Comic by Coral Dun-Coral Misty with Declan O’Flynn

www.Marne.ie

Connemara National Park and Park Ponies

Connemara National Park

Connemara National Park

The story of the Park ponies must begin when James and Mary Ellis and family decided to move from England to this remote spot west of the Connemara mountain ranges of the Twelve Bens and the Maumturks, in 1849.  At the time poverty and famine were endemic in the area and this Quaker family came to work as benevolent missionaries in a forsaken famine-plagued land.  They were in a good financial position and purchased 1,800 acres of land, mostly bog and mountain.  Here they created a model village, Letterfrack, in the shelter of Diamond Mountain, establishing a school, a farm providing employment for large numbers, a dispensary and doctor’s house, a Meeting house, Courthouse and shop and a large family house, as well as workers’ cottages, and a Temperance Hotel.  For about a decade the family drained, planted and farmed the land and provided training and employment for local people, until ill health forced the Ellis’s to return home:  thankfully their project continued in operation.    The property changed hands a number of times and finally came into the ownership of the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam.  An Industrial School for boys, run by the Irish Christian Brothers was constructed and opened in 1886, catering for as many as 150 boys up to the age of 16 years. Times were hard and social ‘mores’ and the justice system in Ireland at that time were not attuned to anything other than work, harsh physical punishment, and worse, for these boys, who were sometimes orphans, or minor delinquents, or simply and sadly children whose parents were unable to care for them: these child rejects of the era were sent to Letterfrack. The little headstones in the boys’ graveyard nearby tell a sad tale of small children from the age of four and up, buried there. Advantages were that the boys were fed, educated and taught a trade as well as learning to work the land. The old Ellis house was the Brothers’ residence and became known as the Monastery.

                                                                                                               

  While Connemara West acquired the Industrial School and the outbuildings, the State in 1976  purchased the vast area of mountainous land along with some land from the Kylemore Estate. The Connemara National Park was opened to the public in 1980 and is now administered by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Dept. of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government.  It is open year round, while the Visitor Centre (formerly the farmyard area) is open March through October.  Last year the Centre recorded ‘a footfall’ of 126,000 people while many more roamed in the Park, and since paths were laid to the top of Diamond Mountain two years ago, the area and its wonderful views are enjoyed year round by thousands of visitors and locals alike, a fantastic and much appreciated facility – and it’s all free!  Here you may see wild flowers and heathers, birdlife, the Connemara ponies, and if you are lucky you may spot wild red deer or goats in their native habitat, or perhaps catch sight of a fox or hare or rabbits     

Park Visitor Information Centre, in Winter

The Visitor Centre has an audio visual show, an interpretative centre with an excellent 3-D exhibition portraying the development of the Connemara landscape over 10,000 years, with information on the bog, land use, the human element, and flora and fauna of the area. There are activities for children based on fun with nature, while a series of evening talks on nature and wildlife in general are organised in summertime.  Information sessions on the Connemara pony are organised by an experienced Connemara Pony breeder on three afternoons a week.  If you would like to know more go to their Website at  www.npws.ie

Connemara Pony Knockdoe Walnut at RDS in 1992

 

Next post will be on Connemara Ponies in the Park.

 

 

 

Connemara West Centre and part of Furniture College to-day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The school buildings built for the Industrial School – which closed its doors in 1973 – were purchased by the community development company Connemara West, who have since set up an employment and social and industrial complex there, second to none, in use by a multitude of organisations and offering a wide range of services. To-days students attend the School of Fine Woodworking and Design – voluntarily I might add -   and their lifestyle is a far cry from the experience of generations of their former younger predecessors incarcerated in the infamous Industrial School.