Athens, TN: Vanessa and Charlie Morgan have announced that after 3 months in Virginia at Amethyst Acres to finish his 2007 breeding committments, then a month in Kentucky for quarantine, Gun Smoke is in the Wicklow Mountains back in his homeland.

Vanessa says, “We have been very blessed to have shared these few short years with Gun Smoke (and are thrilled that he has left us a beautiful bay filly and 5 more purebreds on the way!); we are also very excited for Michael and Orla Igoe who purchased him to enrich their breeding operation at Kippure Stud.

Their program was recently featured in the Jan/Feb 2007 issue of Ireland's Equestrian; The Equestrian Lifestyle Magazine in a 3-page article entitled "Kippure Stud - Breeding for Performance". Kippure Stud also stands Ashfield Village, Trobadour, Rosscastle Kippure Cathal and Crusader, among other top-quality performance Connemaras.”

Gunsmoke leaves one stallion son (out of Ballywhim Candace) in the United States plus many young mares.

Altoona, Al: Randy and Lisa Rease of Rivendell Farm are beyond estatic to announce their first foal, a fancy little colt, Denver's Grand Sparrow, who is affectionatly called Finny. Finny is by Aladdin's Denver and out of Sparrow's Leis (Grange Finn Sparrow X TB). Rivendell Farm is looking forward to many future foals and Connemara lovers are always welcome. Lisa says they have just bought two Connemara mares and are very enthusiastic about them!!

Delaware, Ohio: Courtney Yeager and Shammer Jake competed at the Mid Ohio Dressage Classic. They performed the Prix St. George twice, and scored a 64.25% and a 66.5%. They had tons of fun doing their 4th level musical freestyle and came in 2nd out of 9 riders, with a score of 72.9%.

Battle Ground, IN: Vickie Maris reports that Loughin Aragorn aka Conor (Landgate Bluebeard X Serendipity My Goodness McGinnis [by Oakhill's Country Song]) of Dawn of Promise Farm is enjoying his summer as the only pony at a nearby warmblood breeding farm where Vickie is schooling him several evenings a week. He’s getting a lot of mileage out his cuteness factor, wonderful sense of humor and fun-loving personality. He spent January through April at Findlay University at Findlay, Ohio, in the Equestrian Program. His student rider, Kara, furthered his training as a pleasure riding pony while he was at Findlay, and Vickie is now working with him in preparation of showing in hunter classes and dressage. They may eventually do some combined training as well.

Vickie purchased Conor as a yearling from Loughin Farm, thinking that she would like to have him as her next stallion to campaign, but she decided that it was too much to have two stallions on the farm so she gelded him at age two and now enjoys him as a riding partner. He is everything you would want in a Connemara pony – easy-going disposition, beautiful Connemara type, dressage-quality movement, sound mind, bold on the trail and while out hacking in the field, and funny! His parents are Landgate Bluebeard and Serendipity’s My Goodness McGinnis.

Vickie says, “I recently took him to an open show where we entered two trail classes. Conor had never seen or tried most of the obstacles that were involved in the class. The pattern called for experience and agility that was something akin to eventer meets reining horse meets grand prix level dressage horse meets experienced trail horse. Since he is a greenie, I chose a strategy of riding the test very slowly when no other riders were waiting for their turn. That gave us plenty of time to negotiate obstacles. For instance, when we trotted into the box made of landscape timbers, instead of wheeling around on haunches in a reining-horse spin (in which most horse-rider combinations had trouble with and stepped out of the box several times), we halted and quietly stepped around the 270 degrees within the confines of the box. Instead of the immediate right lead canter depart from the halt out of the box, we trotted out and picked up a right lead. At the bridge, Conor was cute as could be. He’d never crossed a wooden bridge but he gladly put a foot up on the planks and gave it a try. When he had all four feet on the bridge he turned his head back to me for a pat before he stepped off the other side. His willingness to try everything and our slower speed keeping the pattern neat in appearance earned him a first (green horses trail class) and a second place (open trail class). We were very proud of him for his efforts at his first open show. He made it quite obvious throughout the day that he was having a great time. He loves being out with other horses and humans. I look forward to more trail riding with him and future horse shows. Three cheers for Connemaras!”