Middleburg, Va: After a slightly down year in 2008, the Region III show was back to its old self with close to 100 horses and ponies competing in everything from in-hand classes to egg and spoon races. A combination of county fair and hunter show at beautiful Glenwood Park, the show featured a mother-daughter pas de deux and a quadrille of Connemaras in dressage , a bride with her reluctant (doggie)bridegroom as well as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf in the costume class, combined tests at Beginner Novice and Novice, jumper classes, trail classes, children’s showmanship, dozens of Mountain and Moorland ponies for the newly introduced M and M classes and sparkling Connemara ponies as far as the eye could see. Susan McConnell took the two yearling futurity prizes with her Oakfields Russet Sparrow in the fillies and Oakfields Jameson in the colts. Fieldstream Lilee, a beautifulmare by Landgate Bluebeard out of a Balius Brannigan mare, won the young mares class and was the eventual Best Connemara of the Day. Hohnhorst Milaya won the eight and older mare class. While Region III does not have a Connemara Stallion Class it does have a stallion showcase and Sycamore Ridge Irish Envoy (by Greystone Ian McVai) showed off his stuff. Indian Summer’s Shamus was the best Halfbred Connemara of the Day. A complete report will be in the next American Connemara. The hard-working volunteers who made the show run smoothly are already planning for next year, so for a fun two days and some of the prettiest Connemaras in the country, plan to be in Middleburg in the middle of next July!

Fieldstream Lilee, Best Connemara of the Day
(photo by Vickie Maris)

Dawn Weniger on the halfbred Connemara, Indecent Proposal
( by Greystone Ian McVai) performing a pas de deux with
her daughter, Anna, riding Aladdin's Delaney (by Aladdin)

Pat Brescia as the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood

Sam Davis with one of the two oldest ponies (25)
at the show, Tor, in the costume class

North Sandwich, NH: Could our own Caroline Nesbitt be the next Dick Francis? For many years, before the ACPS had its own magazine, Caroline published Connemara Country, a lovely little magazine about all things Connemara. And she is the author of a popular book about pony breeding and care, the “Pony Breeder’s Companion”. She has now written a novel set in the high-powered world of show jumping that features a halfbred Connemara doing his first Grand Prix amoung mysterious horse deaths, a horrible van wreck, and love affairs, both gay and straight. “Ride on the Curl’d Clouds” is a great summer read, and copies can be ordered from Caroline at P.O. Box 52, North Sandwich, NH.