Connemara Ponies tread a path across the globe

By Máirtín Ó Catháin

Deep in the heartland of New South Wales in Australia, there is a city called Wagga Wagga (pronounced ‘Wawga Wawga’).

Each Springtime, they hold a showcase event involving the Connemara Pony in Wagga Wagga but they don’t call it that.  They take their wording from the Irish language – from the heartland of where the hardy, nimble pony first left hoof marks on the ground. In Wagga Wagga, they have an ‘Aonach’, the Irish term for a fair. Like “Beidh Aonach amárach i gContae an Chláir” or “Beidh Aonach amárach i Wagga Wagga”.

At the ‘Aonach’ in Wagga Wagga each St Patrick’s Day, the afficionados in Australia bring together the cream of the 1,500 Connemara Ponies that are registered Down Under.

“We have at least that many,” explains Karen Holloway who was part of the Australian representation at the Annual Connemara Pony Show which took place in Clifden last week.  She explains that there are probably a number of ‘Connemara’s’ also across the vast continent that are not in the official books.

New Zealand also has a branch of the international Connemara pony societies – one of 17 across the world. Karen Holloway was there on the South Island some time ago carrying out inspections for registration. “We did it in a rugby field,” she says.

Australia and New Zealand are the farthest flung countries that have branches of the Connemara Pony Breeders Society. The pony has travelled the continents thanks to the pioneering work of those who established the society in Connemara almost a century ago.

Last week’s Show in Clifden was the 96th Annual Show since the inception of the Society in 1923. A big anniversary is fast approaching.

The issues of today and plans for the future were on the agenda when the International Branches of the Society held their yearly meeting in Clifden. However, at a corner of the Show Grounds the past was being remembered. A Commemorative Plaque was unveiled in honour of the Society’s “Custodians”.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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