Athens, Tn: Megan Buchanan sent the following report. “On March 10th & 11th, the ACPS Region IV members gathered at Vanessa Morgan's Foothills Farm in Athens for a fun filled weekend. Many of our members participated in a clinic with Marc Russell on Saturday. He dealt with each horse and rider separately, emphasizing how to get the most from one’s horse, no matter what you want it to do. Then we all enjoyed a delicious meal and productive meeting on Saturday evening. Sunday morning six of us packed our gear and loaded our ponies to travel south to the Chickamauga Battlefield Park in North Georgia.

Participants in the trail ride included Ann and Rebecca Bush on their half-bred mares, Lydia and Gwen, both by Balius Turlough; Vanessa Morgan on her half-bred, Pushbutton, by Balmullo's Beacon; Rachel rode Vanessa's purebred mare Foothills Hopefilly (CR Roaringwater Bay x Blue Hills Morning Star); Megan Buchanan Harris rode her purebred mare, Wildwych Cricket (*Glenormiston Flurry Knox x Tower Hill's Fiona) and her husband, Lee Harris, rode Megan's TB mare, Greta. Lee and Greta took to the lead as our fearless trail guides, and the rest of us fell into line with our ponies. The weather was beautiful and we all enjoyed the well kept trails and lovely scenery. The battlefield was buzzing with activity and our ponies behaved wonderfully.

We traveled at a leisurely pace through open fields, wooded trails, and several creeks. We not only shared the roads and trails with pedestrians, but bicyclists and cars. The trails were marked with signs describing the historic site, large monuments, and cannons; we never knew what would be around the next bend in the trail! Leave it to our sound minded Connemaras to take it all in stride! We rode for four and half hours that afternoon, and although we were all a bit weary by the end, we all agreed that it was wonderful fun. We are hoping to organize a bigger trail ride for this summer, so watch for updates!"

Athens, Tn: Foothills River Queen (CR Roaringwater Bay X Blue Hills Erin) gave birth to a Gunsmoke filly just in time for the clinic. The filly is dark bay and was named Foothills Caroline. Vanessa says she is everything she was hoping for.

Brannigan has now been in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on two continents! He was in the parade in San Francisco a few years ago. That makes him, as best as we know, the only pony ever to participate in an American St. Patricks day parade as well as one in Ireland. Brannigan’s real name is Balius Derring Do. He is by Balius Brannigan (by Chiltern Colm) out of Connemara’s Emerald Star. Karen has owned him for many years. He stood as a stallion in California for awhile, and, in fact, won the An Tostal Award from the ACPS, an award given to performing Connemara stallions. This weekend Karen will be at Clifden. There is a stallion inspection on Friday, with about 50 ponies are expected. There is a table quiz in the evening, which should be fun. On Saturday, Karen and Brannigan will be participating in a driving clinic being given by Charles Powell, who is an internationally known CDE driver, judge, and course designer. The CPBS is sponsoring it for their members. Also, there will be a drive and parade, plus show jumping, and dressage demonstrations. Sunday is the stallion parade. We will look forward to photos!!