Monroe, GA: Jennifer Hood has written to say that her daughter, Sarah Beth Hood, is leasing Stonybrook Conan O'Brien (*Kingstown Joe X Stonybrook Irish Cream) from Deanna Whitfield of Aiken, SC. Dillon, as O’Brien is more commonly called, and Sarah Beth competed over the weekend in a fundraiser show held by Hilltoppers Pony Club and were awarded two firsts for their Training 1 and Training 2 scores. They were also awarded the Mia Dalrymple Memorial Trophy for achieving the highest score of the day on a Training Level test. They had a 68.4 on Training 2. Mia Dalrymple was an avid rider and supporter of Pony Club who suffered a heart attack in 2007 while out for a hack. This is the second year that the trophy has been awarded at Hilltopper's Spring Dressage Show. Dillon and twelve-year old Sarah Beth were competing against adult riders and several large warmbloods, so she was very excited about their accomplishment and wanted to share her news.

Lexington, KY: Balmullo’s Azalea (Concord River Roaringwater Bay X Courtney’s April Frolic [by Custusha’s Cashel Rock]), shown as Ooh La La and ridden by young rider and new owner Sara Powell, qualified for the 2009 USEF Pony Finals at their first "A" rated show together. The pair were champions, winning all over fences classes as well as the conformation class, in the Large Pony division at the USEF "A" rated Lakeside Arena Winter Series show. Sara, who is fifteen, and Ooh La La are currently state high point holders in all of the divisions in which they've competed this year. Sara has only owned Azalea/Ooh La La for less than a year now. The duo is constantly improving and has come to be quite the team, winning dozens of championships together. Sara, with the help of trainers Sarah & Sean Reilly of Punchestown Stable, plans to attend the 2009 USEF Pony Finals in August as well as many other "A" rated as well as local shows this show season. This will be the young pony`s third year in a row qualifying for the finals. In 2007, Azalea was 10th in the Over Fences phase and finished 12th Overall (out of 73 ponies) in the Large Green Pony Division at the Pony Finals. She was later awarded the Clifden Trophy for the Purebred Connemara in the Pony Hunter divisions who received the most points in USEF sponsored competition. She was owned at that time by Katherine Woodruff of St. Louis.

Scottsville, VA: Seventeen-year-old Benita Strini and her Connemara/Thoroughbred gelding, Cameron Creek, pulled off a big win in one of the Junior/Young Rider Preliminary divisions at Southern Pines last weekend. Strini and Cameron Creek led the field from start to finish, and ended on their dressage score of 29.6. Cameron Creek is by Ridgetop O’Rian (Aladdin’s Denver X Blue Hill’s Egan) and was bred by Wendy Arbuszewski.

Ocala, Fl: Two Connemaras competed in the Intermediate Single Pony Division at the prestigious Live Oak Combined Driving Event in March. Allison Stroud was also there with her four-in-hand of Connemaras, winning her FEI division and qualifying her for the World Driving Championships. Purebred Captain Jack Sparrow, aka Johnny, has been competing successfully at the Intermediate Single Pony level. Owned by Muffy Seaton of SC and driven by Janelle Marshall of Australia, Johnny was third at Live Oak in Ocala, and first at the Gilcrest Farms HDT in Windsor, SC. Johnny is by Seven Hills Grey Ghost (Fieldstream Nicholas X Tullymor’s Heather Lass), out of Tullymor’s Rose (by Montully Son). He was bred by Kim Lander, formerly of Good Hope, GA. The photo shows Johnny at an HDT, Horse Driving Trial. This has an abbreviated CDE format, intended to all occur in one day -- dressage and cones in the morning, then after lunch a shortened Section E marathon with hazards. A full CDE has three sections on Marathon, Section A at any gait, a walk section and a Section E with hazards.

Dona Love was also in the Intermediate Single Pony Division at Live Oak and finished in eighth place. Her partner is Rylee by Balmullo’s Same as Gold (Hideaway’s Erin Smithereen X *Nansin Deas). Her dam is O’Flynn’s Lady. She was bred by Pat Reichle of Ohio. Pictures of all the Connemaras can be found on the Live Oak site, http://www.cailiveoak.com/ Click on “pics of you” at the top right. The Connemaras are numbers 5, 8, and 62.

For the first time since its inception more than 15 years ago, the driving competition at the Live Oak International world class qualifying competition will be broadcast to equestrian enthusiasts internationally at a date to be announced in the near future. This comes as a result of an agreement between the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) and the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) which grants the exclusive filming and broadcast rights of the highly acclaimed driving competition to HorseTV. “Live Oak International has risen to a class all its own. It is simply one of the best driving events you’ll find anywhere in this country,” said John Long, USEF Chief Executive Officer. “With this exclusive rights agreement, HorseTV has the opportunity to elevate the scope and attention of a world class competition with an already loyal following. HorseTV certainly brings the needed expertise to the table and we very much look forward to their presence at the competition as well as their resulting productions.”

Plant City, Fl: W.H. Topgun (Gunsmoke X Ballywhim Candace), owned by Jim and Nancy Kilcrease of Ocala, Fl., has his 3rd foal on the ground, a beautiful buckskin filly out of a Trakhener mare owned by Beth Davidson of Blackdog Farm. Beth is thrilled with the foal and plans to keep her. Topgun has one more foal due this year for Beth, a full Connemara out of Loughin’s Leighseach (Tre Awain Cavan O’Connor X Heaven’s Ridge Treasa [by Balius Rhyddspence].

Beth also sent an update on some of her other ponies. She says, “Swift Ocoee River (Big Bear’s Special Order X Big Bear’s Molly Brown [by Bobby Brown]) finished out the hunt season hunting First Flight with South Creek Fox Hounds with Linda Williams. Ocoee loves hunting and Linda had a blast hunting on a pony! Ocoee’s son, Black Dog’s River Ghost aka Toby (by Seven Hills Grey Ghost), has recently been entertaining everyone by standing on his tree stump and going for canters around his paddock with his deflated ball in his mouth. He is a true Connemara! His canter is so balanced and uphill, Toby will be backed this summer when he is 2 ½ years old.
We are so pleased to be getting such wonderful updates on our first half-bred, Black Dog’s Fiona. She finished 3rd of 18 at her most recent Beginner Novice event and she is working on qualifying for the Eventing championships for 2009. Fiona has earned her bronze medals in jumping and eventing. Her owner, Carol Green, sends the most wonderful photos of their competitions!

Our daughter, Anneke, won the year end awards for leadline on the local hunter circuit aboard Loughin’s Leighseach. Anneke was so proud of her accomplishment and her pony was a trouper.”

Bloomfield, IN: Erin Moira Lemrow of Willow Run Connemaras wrote that she is tickled to announce the birth of a beautiful bay colt out of Summerstreet Mountain Heather and by Willow Boy. His full pedigree can be found on the allbreed site here.

Erin says, “I knew something was going on because our alpha mare Maggy kept neighing and neighing. Sure enough, when I went outside, there he was! We are calling him Willow's Killydeere as the only bird calling was a Killdeer who was attempting to call mom and foal away from her nest!” Killydeere seems to be living up to his birdy name – he built himself a nest and hid from Erin!

Clifden, IR: Marynell Eyles has kindly sent the following report of The Connemara Pony Spring Festival, 2009. “Attendance was good for the 2009 Stallion Parade weekend in Clifden, IRE. The ACPS, represented by a group including Susan McConnell, Marynell Eyles, Gloria LaCroix, Maureen Loughman Abel, Ginny Winkler, Robbie Fallon of California and Ireland, and Karen Vicencio who has relocated to Ireland, took part in the festivities. The long weekend opened with a meeting on the international database on Thursday afternoon, followed by a photo exhibition of photos taken through the years by John Petch. The photos provided a walk through history, and it was enlightening to hear the local pony breeders talk about the ponies and the people.

“A colt inspection at the Clifden showgrounds on Friday attracted many onlookers, but the international crowd was baffled by the lack of a catalogue with which to identify the breeding of the colts they were seeing. The weather was not entirely kind on that day, and the Station House Hotel did a brisk business in hot tea and chowder! A "Table Quiz" was the highlight of that evening. The competition is a bit like a Pony Club Quiz, and it's an activity you MAY find at the next annual meeting of the ACPS!

“Saturday was packed with clinics offered for international judges, for juniors to learn how to show in-hand, farrier information, nutritional information, a dressage ride, and a carriage drive through the town and surrounding area. Participants in the judges' clinic all agreed it had been a superb offering, facilitated by Nicola Musgrave and Phillip Scott. Thanks also had to go to Jimmy Canavan who was brave enough to bring his young stallion for the judges to use as one of the subjects. While the clinic was not a competition, there were participants from The Netherlands, France, England, Germany, Scotland, America, Australia, and Denmark. The Americans and the Australian Society member were proud to be the group that ranked the class as had the clinic instructors. The evening highlight was a lecture by Lib Petch on the “Thoroughbred Influence on the Connemara Pony”. Lib’s research proved that there is Thoroughbred in each of the “lines” of the Connemara. A book will be published later on this subject.

“Sunday brought the huge stallion parade with 70 stallions, some senior stallions and some just approved that weekend. For that day, there was a comprehensive booklet, and an announcer who kept the large crowd informed. More information and photos will appear in the May/June issue of the American Connemara magazine.”

Stockholm, Sweden: Jenny Hagenblad sent a report of the Swedish stallion inspections. Jenny says, “ We had our stallion inspections in Sweden last weekend, and we got a new licensed stallion. This was our first approved son of Poetic Justice, Poetic Kelly.

Kelly is out of the mare Lofty Dusty Rambler who is by Kimble, so Kelly has all the genetic reasons to be a good performer. He was also very impressive in his loose jumping and scored very well, so this looks promising for the future. I hope he will walk in his father’s footsteps as a sire of performance ponies.

Poetic Justice (Ballydonagh Cassanova X Gloves Misty) is spending this year's covering season in France, but at the Swedish inspections he was awarded an Elite premium. He has sired a very large number of highly successful show jumpers and has made a reputation outside of both Connemara people and pony breeders in general.

The stallion Calvin Klein (Janus X Coosheen Dill) also recived a premium, an A premium, for his conformationally strong offspring. His half brother Langarno Cedrick (Janus X Ciao Bellissima) completed his performance test and is now fully approved.

Upcoming Shows: Lee Webster, the Region 10 chair, has written to say that the website for their 2009 West Coast Connemara Show is up and running!
http://www.westcoastconnemarashow.com/ Premiums, entry forms, and information can be found online. (Trying to save some trees and postage!) Lee also said that when she has more information about the inspections which will take place after the show, she will post that information on-line.

Information regarding the Region 4 show to be held in conjunction with a Jimmy Wofford clinic on May 30 – June 1 is also on-line. http://www.connemaras.com/Region4/home.html

The Region 1 show is in S. Woodstock, VT on Aug 8 and 9.This year they plan to incorporate a 2-phase into the show. And the Region 3 show on July 18 in Middleburg, VA will also offer a 2-phase competition in conjunction with the usual dressage competition.

And Jenny Hagenblad has invited us all to Sweden! Says Jenny, “In case anyone is thinking of visiting Sweden this summer there are a couple of events you might find interesting. During the spring we will have a number of Connemara meetings at different studs. Usually a simple get-together where we have something to eat and talk Connemara and related issues. There are four meetings planned so far. We will also have two local shows. The first on will be at Hölö on the 14th June. This is not too far from Sodertalje which is just south of Stockholm. There will be both in hand and ridden classes here. The second local show will be on the 11th July at Bjorback. This is in the (south-) western part of Sweden. This show will also have both ridden and in-hand classes. And then there will be our national show. This year it will be held on the weekend of July 31 - August 2 in the town of Norrkoping. The show will have in hand classes, ridden classes and also the Swedish Championships for Connemara ponies in both dressage and show jumping.

This event gathers more and more ponies each year. Last year we had some 120 ponies entered and we aim to beat that this year, so it will be a good opportunity to see lots of Swedish Connemaras. Norrkoping is about a two hour drive from Stockholm Arlanda International airport, so it should be easily accessible for international visitors. Arlanda is about half an hour's drive north of Stockholm, big easy motorway drive all the way. From Stockholm to Norrkoping it's about 1.5 hours further drive south along the same road. Very easy driving once you're clear of Stockholm. So in total it's two hours from the airport to the show. There are also train connections from Arlanda - Stockholm - Norrkoping. You can actually take a direct train. The riding school where the show will be is rather central in Norrköping, so it would not be a problem to go there by train. If you are interested in visiting and need further information, feel free to contact me. Jenny Hagenblad jenny.hagenblad@telia.com