Alachua, Fl: WH Top Gun (*Gunsmoke X Ballywhim Candace) has had his first purebred foal. Kathy Bridges announced that Balmullo’s Matilda (Seven Hills Grey Ghost X Balmullo’s Veronica) has produced a filly foal with lots of bling!! Kathy said she thought about calling her Kite because of her kite-like blaze, but has settled on Kate instead. Top Gun is the only son of Gunsmoke currently standing at stud in this country. He was the Grand Champion Connemara in hand at the 2007 Region 4 Connemara show.

Warner, N.H: This happy/sad note was received from Bette Fredrickson. She says, “On May 28th at about 10:45pm my mare Caraway Piper (Irish Park’s Caraway Finn X Kindesella Contessa) gave birth to a gorgeous long legged *Canal Laurinston (Callowfeenish Mairtin X Village Laura) colt. He is a bay with no white markings. I ,of course, was not there! I left Piper in the very capable hand of Kimberley Edelman(my instructor) and Lorna Young. They called the vet and everything went smoothly. I have named the colt Sutton Cardigan. In 1971, I took a graduate course held at the AMC Lodge on Mt Cardigan, NH and fell madly in love, married, and had twin boys in 1980. Unfortunately Fred (their Dad) died of severe hypothermia when hiking in the White Mountains when a very violent storm came in on Feb 10th of this year ( his climbing partner did survive but with severe frostbite).On May 28th, the band my son is in played at Symphony Hall in Boston at the Pops cafe after the main program. I had to go! Cardigan was born while they were actually playing. All in all it was a magical night.”

Swope, Va: Alexandra Duckworth and Tiki Murray, friends since they were 3, wanted to leave their young children behind with their respective husbands and celebrate their 40th birthdays by riding for a whole weekend. The Region 3 Connemara ride in the Shenandoah Valley seemed made to order! So they joined 16 others for two days of riding through the beautiful Virginia countryside. Both rode half-breds by CR Roaringwater Bay, Alexandra on a half-TB, Chesapeake Bay, and Tiki on a half-Canadien Warmblood, Loch Linne. By all accounts, everyone enjoyed themselves immensely!

Goode, Va: Alicia Daily wrote to say that three Cady O'Daly purebred Connemaras ran at the VA Horse Trials and all came home with excellent ribbons. Alicia says, “Ridgetop Cady O'Daly (Aladdins Denver X Blue Hills Egan) finished on her dressage score with Emily Daily aboard, whistling effortlessly over all that was in her way. The young cremello full brothers, Michael and Gabriel (Tre Awain Goldsmith X *Cloud Shadows [Windy Day X Kilfenora Trixie]) both strutted their stuff in the novice division-- the two angels confused everyone who was trying to tell them apart. They showed elegant dressage, clean stadium rounds and bold cross country. Excellent showing for these young boys. Helen Farley rode the oldest, Gabriel, and brought home the 4th place in the large junior division. And I had the luxury of riding Michael, an oversized eventer out of Anne Frey's mare, and we brought home the 2nd. I'm hoping he'll see me into my old age!” Cady O'Daly is one of the ACPS' premium mares.

Allentown, NJ: At the Garden State CDE in the Advanced Single Horse division, Robin Groves jumped up from third place after the dressage, to second after the Marathon and took home the victory by way of a perfect trip through the cones on Sunday. The Brownsville, VT driver confidently drove Thor’s Toy Truck (a Connemara/TB cross owned by Lana Wright) after overnight leader Leslie Berndl lost her lead with a disappointing Cones performance. This section served as a selection for the 2008 World Horse Championships (Singles) to be held in Jarantow, Poland August 28-31. Lisa Stroud with her Pony Four-in-Hand of Connemaras also won their division.

Somewhere, USA: Maddie Morris has sent the following e-mail….
“I own a connemara and he is the cutest most amazing pony ever. When I first bought my pony Mcjagger I wasn't the most interested in him I thought he was a really weird color and a really bad mover. But when we started showing in the Short Stirrup we were winning, a lot. "Mickey" has taken me through thick and thin, he is my life long friend and I will never ever forget him. I have only been in the Children's hunter 3 times and Mickey has won one hack and he led me to winning a second in the pony medal at the Garden State Horse Show. I love him!” Maddie didn’t know McJagger’s breeding…maybe someone out there can help??

WWW: The French Connemara Pony Society has changed its address (and design).

The new URL is http://www.connemara-france.com It is in French but there are a lot of pictures to look at.

And at http://www.thepaisleypony.com/march08.pdf you can see Lisa Stroud's Connemaras on the cover of the March/April issue.