New Zealand Connemara ponies

Time to introduce some sunny New Zealand Connemara Pony Breeding to the Weblog   

Ingrid de Hoedt, New Zealand Breeder              

Ingrid and family

 

A visit to the home of Ingrid de Hoedt about 50 miles south of Auckland near a town called Pukekohe, is an experience to savour.  This Irish native – a medical doctor – and her Kiwi husband Ross head up a lively household – “chaotic but good craic”as she herself described her home- comprising three children, Tadhg, Fionn and daughter Cianneth and their visiting Irish Aunt Rose.  

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THE MOYCULLEN PONYMEN by Tom Mac Lochlainn

THE MOYCULLEN PONYMEN    From Working Ponies to International Stars.

The author with his Annaharvey Junior Champion ’10, Ashbrook Orga

To open this new book by Tom Mac Lochlainn, a former President of the Connemara Pony Breeders society, is to be immersed immediately in a long- vanished culture of old Irish lore and  tradition.   Storytelling, working methods and conditions, old photos and verse – all involving the family farm ponies and their owners – fill over 200 pages.    The author quotes descriptions of the work ponies of the early nineteen hundreds as they were both worked and enjoyed by their small farmer-owners who loved to celebrate a wedding by racing their ponies to the bridal couple’s house after the ceremony, a tradition called “dragging home” which colourfully opens Chapter 1, vividly recording how both stamina and speed were valued in the working pony.