Horses : CONNEMARA PONY

Origin: Republic of Ireland

Australian Status:

International Status: popular in its home country.

Arrived in Australia: 1963, see CPBSA; possible earlier imports in colonial days, nothing recorded found. Certainly some Irish blood came in, for example the Irish hunter sires Red Hand and Athlone were imported in 1891 and paraded at the City Horse Bazaar in Sydney. Possibly some early English horses and ponies imported had Connemara blood; this is but conjecture. In 1938, Father Hynes of Tenterfield, NSW, imported a grey Irish hunter to ride around his parish, it looked like a Connemara. Many Irish bred TB's came out here.

Australian Population: 185 breeding age mares with a possible total of 255 mares ALIVE including 1 filly. 43 stallion, 3 colts and 125 geldings.

History: From the wild and rugged west coast area of Ireland called Connemara, which is in County Galway. Happily live outdoors all year round in their native country.

The native horses and ponies of Ireland were virtually wiped out during the 800 year English occupation, as English horses and ponies were brought in and Irish people were forbidden to own a horse over 10 hands high. Henry VIII ordered the gelding of all horses under 14.2 which added to the near extinction of many pony breeds in Britain and Ireland. For a country of horsemen as Ireland was, the effect of English colonisation was catastrophic. The affect on people, with deliberate famine for genocide, and laws to forbid land ownership etc, was such that the human population has never recovered.

The Irish Improvement Scheme (an English operation) of the early twentieth century covered horses too. An emphasis was placed on only allowing the registration of Thoroughbreds, Clydesdales and Shire horses; the aim being Ireland as a nursery for army horses, Any stallion kept for breeding even if not of these breeds, had to be inspected by a vet before being permitted to be used, a fee paid, and the stallion also passed by a local county sub-committees. Each mare a farmer wanted bred had also to be inspected by a vet, and a fee paid, in return he got some financial assistance with service fees to an approved stallion. as a reimbursement once examined and approved by the county  sub-committee; this cumbersome colonial control over breeding was written up here in1905 in newspapers, saying such a scheme would never work in Australia.

This article was printed in an Australian newspaper, The Advocate (Melbourne) in November 1875 - any Irish news was eagerly read here as many Australians were of Irish descent; and Connemara ponies were often written up in papers from the 1890's and on - it gives a good indication of horse and pony numbers and breeds in Ireland at that time : "THE HORSE STOCK OF IRELAND. The Registrar-General has furnished the Lord Lieutenant with a return, showing by counties and provinces the number and breed of sires in Ireland in the years '64, '68, '71. and '75. From this important return we learn that in 1864 there were in Ireland 1034 sires; in '68, 1059 ; in ! 71, 1333; in '75, 1476. Of these there were in '64,286 thoroughbred siren; in '68, 395 ; in '71, 427; in '75, 403. Of the 1476 sires in Ireland this year, 254 out of 409 thoroughbreds, and 872 out of 974 sires of all other breeds, were bred in Ireland. The rest were imported. Descending to particular classes, we find that although the number - of thoroughbred sires exhibits a decrease in '75 as compared with ! 71, the number under that head has increased by 117, or 41 per cent., since '64, the first year for which the return was compiled. With regard to "half-bred" sires, the tables show a steady increase of 202 between "64 and '75. Of the 340 animals of this class in the country in '75, only 16 were imported. The "Clydesdale" column for '75 shows an increase of 74 animals as compared with '71 ; . 45 of the Clydesdales were imported, which was about the proportion in 1871. The number of "Suffolk Punch" sires in Ireland has increased from '75, four years ago, to 126 tliis year. Of this number 26 were imported. In the " Draught Horse " class the sires have fallen off from 161 in 1871 to 138 in 1875. Only 4 of the sires of this class in Ireland this year have been imported. There are 61 sires of all other breeds (12 imported) in Ireland, an increase of 5 on the number in 1871. Under the head of "all other breeds" are classed several Connemara., Shetland, Norwegian, and other ponies, and two Arab sires. The counties which contained over 50 sires were Cork (East Riding), 119 ; Galway, 80 ; Antrim, 79 ; Down, 69 ; Wexford, 69 ; Tyrone, 65 ; Kerry, 57 ; Cork (W. R.), 53 ; and Mayo, 50. The number of horses of every kind in Ireland in 1860 was 619,811, and they were worth £4,958,488. In '74 the number had fallen to 526,587, and the value to £4,212,696. The falling off in the number of horses has since 1860 steadily declined at the rate of about one per cent, per annum. This fact may be taken as another evidence of the mistake of those who have consoled themselves for the exodus by the fallacious belief that stock increases as population diminishes ; that "beasts accumulate where men decay." "

One can see how hard it was for the Irish to keep their pony breeds going for those centuries until freedom; only the remote and forbidding nature of the west coast kept the Connemara Pony in some safety. Windswept barren moors, rocky hillsides, freezing rivers. The fact Gaelic remained the main language there shows how they resisted English occupation, and were not so troubled as the rest of Ireland. Crossing Connemara Pines to Thoroughbreds for polo ponies was popular with the English in Ireland, and used to breed hunters. Pure Connemara ponies made the best polo ponies - there is a story of lancers from India, who returned to England with  heir eastern bred polo ponies, and went over to play John Watson's team in Ireland, all mounted on Connemaras. The Lancers were thrashed. They sought to buy Connemara ponies to take back to England with them. Many of these ponies were sold to England. The breed is much loved in Ireland and plentiful these days. Pony breeding boomed after independence.

Breed traits: 12.2hh to 14.2hh. Colours - Grey, Black, Bay, Brown, Dun, Roan, Chestnut, Palomino, Blue-eyed Creams and Dark-eyed Creams. 

Compact, strong riding pony, very sure footed. Intelligent. Hardy. Good jumpers, strong quarters, good hocks and muscular gaskins.

Uses: riding, trekking, showing, jumping.

Breed Organisation: Connemara Pony Breeders’ Society of Australia Inc. from which some information herein drawn.

In their country of origin Connemara Pony Breeders’ Society

Additional Notes: Foal chart for the past decade https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dxeVdfcyKalamH9rfk1okTTgQfh78EnF/view?usp=sharing

Photo : Blandings Juby - Purebred Connemara mare by Blandings Bobby x Connemara Park Judy. Her foal is Roscommon Gabriel by Blandings Beamish. Kindly supplied by Sharon Seymour.

Page by Janet Lane

(population updated 16/06/2020 by A.Y.)

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