23 minute read
BREED PROFILE
CONNEMARA PONY
Ireland’s native breed wins fans across Canada.
BY PIPER WHELAN
In the wild and wondrous west coast of Ireland, lives a special pony that embodies the heritage of this striking landscape. With a long history in the Connemara district of County Galway, the Connemara Pony has shaped this place and its people as much as the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Gaelic still spoken here, endearing itself to riders around the world with its gentle disposition and resilience.
Standing between 13 and 14.2 hands high, the sure-footed Connemara is a strong and compact animal. This breed is known for its wide chest, deep girth and good bone. While they can be found in a variety of colours, grey and dun are the most common. The breed standard only permits some white on the face and legs. The mane and tail are thick and often wavy and the eyes are large, wide-set and kind.
The Connemara generally reaches full maturity at the age of five or older. The breed is sturdy without being coarse, which makes it an easily kept animal. With its good disposition, intelligence and natural jumping ability, enough to rival tall horses, these ponies bring a lot of effort and heart to everything they do.
The Connemara traces its roots back thousands of years to when ancient Celtic warriors brought the ponies to Ireland, beginning a tradition of horsemanship and love of all things equine found throughout the island today. The rugged character of Ireland’s west coast, windswept mountains, moors and rocky coastlines, has helped shape the ancestors of the modern Connemara into an agile, steady and athletic pony.
Considered the country’s only native breed, the Connemara shows up in Irish mythology as the mount of choice for the tribes living in the ancient kingdoms of western Ireland. According to local legend, when the Spanish Armada ran into storms off Ireland’s west coast in the 16th century, Andalusians aboard many of the ships that ran aground successfully made it ashore. This introduction of outside bloodlines is believed by some to have, over time, help increase the Connemara in size, strength and endurance.
With a natural athleticism, the Connemara excels at jumping and is a show-ring favourite.
The ponies’ hardiness and kind temperaments made them ideal for the hard-working farmers of this area, who relied on the Connemara as their mode of transportation and to work their fields. These ponies were also fitted with baskets placed over their backs to carry items such as large stones for building fences, peat (used instead of wood in fires) and seaweed, which was used as fertilizer. Families could usually only afford to own one pony at a time, making their stamina and disposition all the more important to carry out everyday tasks, and good mares were bred to raise foals that thrived in the rugged area and looked after their owners. In more recent history, the Connemara has begun to attract attention for its jumping and racing abilities, a product of its upbringing in the marshes, hills and mountains.
PRESERVING A PART OF IRISH HERITAGE
An early effort to improve the Connemara pony came through Ireland’s Congested Districts Board in the 1890s. As part of the Board’s work to encourage the improvement of quality of life for people on the country’s overpopulate west coast, it introduced a range of stallions into the district for breed improvement. However, several of these stallions were poor choices for crossing with the Connemara and the resulting progeny were deemed disappointing.
In 1923, the Connemara Pony Breeders’ Society was established in Ireland to improve and preserve the breed. Early on, the Society referred to a 1901 report by a professor at the University of Edinburgh on how to best
The good sense, intelligence and gentle disposition that endeared Connemara Ponies to farmers on Ireland’s West Coast for centuries, have won the breed many fans across the world.
develop the Connemara Pony. The report advised creating a stronger breeding plan of existing stock, rather than bringing in different bloodlines. “There was recognition of the need to have quality broodmares as well as quality sires, located at indigenous stud farms to perpetuate the best characteristics of the Connemara Pony,” the Society’s website states. “The primary objectives of these farms was to increase the bone and improve the makeup of the Connemara Pony without destroying the hardiness, vigour, stamina and temperament of the breed.”
Although most Connemara Ponies are dun or grey; they can be found in a range of colours.
Using the report’s suggestions, the Society began selecting top-quality Connemara stallions and mares to build the foundation of its Stud Book, founding a rigorous inspection program. “It was felt that there was plenty of ‘old breed’ to be found in the heart of the pony districts of Connemara, and it was the opinion of the Society that the best results were likely to be obtained by breeding only from carefully selected native stock,” the Society’s website continues.
In addition to “(establishing) the Connemara Pony as the world’s premier pony for sport and recreation,” the Society has hosted the annual Connemara Pony Show since 1924. Since 1947, it has been held at Clifden in County Galway and is the largest Connemara Pony exhibition in the world, showcasing the best of the breed.
It is a primary mandate of the Society to raise awareness of the Connemara and celebrate its role in Ireland’s heritage. One major initiative in the 1990s was establishing a museum and heritage centre dedicated to the breed because the Society received much interest in the breed’s history and wanted to share its story more broadly.
THE CONNEMARA IN CANADA
Connemara ponies were first imported to North America in the 1950s and the breed’s popularity has grown throughout Canada in the last few decades. Before the establishment of a Canadian association, Connemara ponies in Canada were previously registered with the American Connemara Pony Society.
In 2006, the Canadian Connemara Pony Society (CCPS) was incorporated, bringing together the previous eastern and western Canadian groups of breeders into one national association. The Canadian Society is divided into three regions – Pacific, Prairie and Central – and will be able to recognize the Maritime region when there is a sufficient membership base. The CCPS is recognized by Ireland’s Society and is a part of the International Committee of Connemara Pony Societies.
Members can register purebred and half-bred ponies and the CCPS’s inspection program is adherent with international breed standards. Currently, there are 63 members and since its establishment, more than 1,200 ponies have been registered. Members also receive promotional items and an annual newsletter.
Connemara enthusiasts speak highly of the breed’s excellent temperament, translating into ponies that are generally
easier to train. Their athleticism makes them a top choice in a wide range of disciplines. “The Connemara has a natural jumping ability that is out of proportion to their size,” said Susan MacDougall, CCPS president. “They have an ability to adapt to any situation, excelling in jumping, dressage, driving, eventing, endurance and a wonderful pleasure mount for the whole family.”
The breed’s kind nature, willingness and good sense make it an ideal choice for the youngest of riders, which also appeals to adults looking for a smaller mount. “Good-natured individuals may be found in most breeds, but for the Connemara Pony, a gentle disposition is its most outstanding characteristic,” said MacDougall. “The fact that Connemara stallions are often shown by juniors in performance classes for Connemaras is further evidence of the reliable temperament of the breed.”
For Jocelyn Davies, the Connemara has been her breed of choice for almost three decades. Davies runs Devon Ridge Farm at Devon, Alberta, breeding and raising purebred and part-bred Connemara Ponies since 1992. At the moment, her facility is home to more than 30 ponies and the family is involved in the disciplines of eventing, jumping and dressage.
“We have chosen bloodlines from all over the world that combine some of the best traits of this breed,” said Davies, who is currently the CCPS Prairie Region chair and active on the society’s committees. “The Connemara Pony is known for the generous disposition and temperament as well as their work ethic. They are natural jumpers and good true movers.” AB
SAVE THE DATES! Thursday, March 18, 2021 AEF VIRTUAL AGM 6:30 - 8:30 pm Saturday, March 20, 2021 STRIDE WITH US
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CHRISTMAS
IN THE BARN
Plan socially-distanced activities and retain the “Christmas cheer” in your barn this season!
It’s been a year like no other. As the year wraps to a close, shoes are pulled from the horses and many of us settle into winter routines; it’s time to focus on the holidays. However, celebrating the Christmas season in 2020 will require extra forethought to prevent putting barn clients, students, boarders and your own families at risk during the pandemic. Crowded parties go against health regulations. Still, there are many creative ways to celebrate the season. Here are five great ideas for hosting a holiday celebration in your barn, while also preventing community transmission of COVID-19.
1HOST AN ONLINE GATHERING
There’s no reason a group of people can’t gather in front of their computers
BY JENN WEBSTER and make memories in a virtual holiday get-together this year! Host a Zoom, Facetime or Skype meeting and maintain your connection with your barn pals or clients via an online party. Everyone can dress up, or wear ugly Christmas sweaters, or lounge around in their pajamas – you can decide the theme. Spend the time together in an equestrian-focused trivia game, play charades, or enjoy an online class (like cooking or painting), or simply visit with one another.
If you’re up for a little pre-preparation, a virtual Secret Santa gift exchange or White Elephant present swap will guarantee fun, without making anyone feel pressured to give gifts to every single person in the barn. Draw names out of a hat to determine whom each person gets for a “Secret Santa.” Then, have everyone drop a small gift off at the locker or stall belonging to their respective recipient of the gift. The Secret Santa’s identity remains anonymous until everyone opens their present during the online party. Similarly, the White Elephant gift exchange works the same. Have each person bring an unwanted gift (Buns of Steel video tape? A Chia Pet? Funny socks?) to the barn. Then, the host will swap them amongst the stalls or lockers. Have your partygoers open their gift during your virtual gathering and hilarity will ensue!
If none of the above appeals to your virtual tastes, send a gift box, decorations, props or a pre-made charcuterie board to each of your guests. As you visit, everyone can enjoy the same snacks (cheese and crackers, or cookies for example), drinks, balloons, party favours or photo-booth props, bringing all a sense of “togetherness” even when you can’t be in the same room.
2DECK THE STALLS A stall decorating contest might be a great way to get younger riders involved and excited for the holidays. Have each client embellish the stall front of their mount or favourite lesson horse with their creative ideas. Use ribbon or wrapping paper, or anything really, that can safely be used to adorn the front. Offer a prize to the winner.
Place stockings on each of the stalls that owners can use to fill with Christmas treats for their equine counterparts. This may include horse cookies, apples, carrots or homemade peppermint treats.
3SLEIGH RIDE It would require some social distancing protocols in terms of seating, but an outdoor sleigh ride is as festive as it gets. Consider hiring an experienced team of horses and their teamster and set up a day at your barn when everyone can enjoy a winter wonderland adventure. Encourage guests to bring their own cups of hot cocoa with them and ensure people from different cohorts are spaced out when seated. Or, offer each group their own ride.
4BARN PHOTO BOOTH
Set up an area in your barn that can remain as is for a week or two prior to Christmas. Deck it out with balloons, or pine boughs, a tree, a white bench, straw bales or anything that sets the scene. Email each client or student in your barn a set of free, printable photo booth props and encourage them to create these props at home. Then, invite your barn guests to have a “photoshoot” at the barn at their convenience; share the festive snaps with your Facebook and Instagram communities!
5DONATE TO AN ANIMAL CHARITY
There are many in need this year, including charitable organizations and equine rescue operations. If the above options are not practical for your barn to celebrate the season, consider encouraging your group to donate to an animal shelter, charity or rescue facility. Often these organizations are in need of gently used items such as halters, blankets, dewormers or hay. Gift cards to hardware stores and credit card reward points might also benefit a rescue or shelter in many ways. And, cash donations are always welcomed. Do a drive in your barn to gather these much-needed items and donate to your charity or operation of choice as one big group.
Whatever you choose to do, it can be festive and fun! Nevertheless, ensure that you and everyone at your facility is aware of the COVID-19 protocols in place and is familiar with the current government recommendations. AB
SPOOKY HORSES: An Issue of Confidence
Riding or working with an anxious horse can be intimidating, especially if you have had a mishap or suffered an injury. It is important to recognize that when a horse spooks, they’re also struggling with a confidence issue. However, as a team, you can work through these struggles together and build strength in your relationship.
BY SCOTT PHILLIPS
When a horse is nervous, they need to rely on our confidence and leadership. However, turning on confidence is not like flicking on a light switch; what we can do though is work through some exercises to mutually build confidence with your horse. Confidence comes when you believe you can change the outcome of a situation; when you know you can create success.
Proactive VS Reactive
To set the stage, consider learning to drive a car. We can be proactive: learning how to be attentive to the situation
around us, intimately knowing our vehicle and having lots of practice in judging and negotiating situations that have the potential to become unsafe. By doing this we avoid accident scenarios. Reactive training would be teaching us only to manage our vehicle after it was out of control.
When we classify a horse as spooky, we’re really referring to their anxiety. A horse that’s anxious can be a liability as we might feel our safety is jeopardized. Often we’re only taught how to respond after the fact, for example with a onerein stop. However, that is entirely reactive and doesn’t address the obvious problems:
1) The horse has reached its pressure limit and is responding instinctively; 2) The horse does not know to follow us in pressure situations.
A proactive alternative is to show the horse that they can follow our lead, and also, that they can do so under increasing levels of pressure. Thus, we’re doing our best to prevent spooks from happening in the first place, and have the added advantage that when our horse becomes anxious, they defer to following us.
Changing How We Respond
Each horse is a unique individual and can handle a certain level of pressure. When that pressure level is exceeded, the horse will resort to instinctive behaviours: flee, freeze or fight. Humans behave the same way.
When riding a spooky horse, we’re typically our own worst enemy. When a horse spooks at something, they will likely focus on the thing (freeze) or run from it (flee). In both cases, however, our typical response is to focus on the horse, or the scary thing. We’ll look at the horse thinking, “What are you doing? What’s going on?” But it’s within that moment that our horse needs us to lead them. To lead them, we need to focus on the solution, not the problem.
So what exactly is leading then? We have the opportunity to lead every time we’re with our horse, from leading on the ground to leading in the saddle. Leading simply means that we’re providing a focus and energy that the horse can follow. And, horses are already experts at following, which means the onus is on us to lead.
What we desire is that our horse follows us under all circumstances. Consider horses in a herd; when pressure is presented, like something moving in the trees, they will follow the herd leader. If the herd leader sticks his head back down in the grass to eat, the rest of the herd will follow. Likewise, if he takes off at a gallop, they’ll do the same.
What we take away from this is that we need to present ourselves like a leader, so our horse will want to follow. To accomplish this, our horse must first understand we’re above them in the herd. This will promote them to follow us instead of their own instincts when a pressure situation arises.
Herd order is determined by ownership and clarity, in a space. To conceptualize space, think of your personal space. That is something that you own; it’s a part of you. Horses primarily communicate through space, so learning that language is fundamental. In our clinics and training, we use some simple exercises to accomplish this. When conducting these exercises, we remain positive; we want our horse to understand that moving with us or yielding to us is a good thing.
Only then do we really begin to develop trust. Trust is a journey. Our horse might understand we’re above them in the herd order, but not trust us. We can rapidly earn trust by presenting pressures to the horse and in each case, showing them that following us is the answer. Nevertheless, in order for them to follow us, we need to be good at leading and that starts with our own focus.
Here’s a game you can play, both on your horse and in the groundwork, to train yourself to change your focus and energy when you need to. For this exercise, you’ll need a friend to help you out. You’ll start by riding or doing groundwork. While you do that, your focus should strongly be on where you are going – as it always should be. Your friend, at some random moment, will yell something out like “Sasquatch!” In that moment, relax and exhale, look up, focus on where you want to go and ride there with intent. Pick a spot such as a tree, a post in the arena or a spot on the horizon. What you’re doing is training an autonomic response in yourself: when something spooky pops up, you focus right away on a way out and lead. You don’t need to add pressures that will spook your horse for this game; this is simply about programming yourself on how to respond.
Changing How Your Horse Responds
A horse is a born follower that instinctively excels at following the focus and energy of the leader. This gives us a fantastic tool.
Firstly, it’s imperative that we do not teach our horse to ignore pressure nor teach them to always stand still. That is similar to continuing to blow up a balloon after it’s full – eventually it won’t be able to hold any more air and it will explode. The response we train instead is that the horse acknowledges and manages pressure – under our leadership. I mentioned that a horse’s instinctive behaviour is to freeze, flee or fight. To accomplish our goal, we’ll introduce our horse to a new behaviour: releasing tension and following our focus.
In our training style, we start by introducing a basic pressure to our horse, then ask them to release tension and focus on us (maintaining eye contact). We’ll do that by working through progressions of pressure, distance, position and gait. What we’re looking for is that whenever, wherever and however a pressure is introduced, our horse does not become tense or anxious and looks to us for direction. This starts in the groundwork and progresses to the saddle.
Pressures we can play with include things our horse can walk through or over, see, smell, hear and feel. Obstacle courses and games are excellent for introducing a wide variety of pressures, however, pressures can also: • be stationary, come forward or move away • be random or rhythmic • be close or at a distance • vary in intensity
It’s important that when we conduct pressure exercises, we proceed in small increments and only institute one change at a time. That way, we can easily see when our horse struggles and if necessary, go back a step. When playing pressure games with horses, we need to see two very important things:
1) The horse releases tension: We see this through a lowering of the head, or a softening of the eye or jaw. This is something we need to teach the horse to do. We do this in part with a tiny rhythmic feel in the lead rope or rein, and in part by doing it ourselves; if we relax and breathe when introducing a pressure, our horse will also be more likely to do so. 2) The horse looks at or changes their focus to us: If our horse does not have a focus on us, they’re likely focusing on their escape route. We need them to stick with us, particularly when we’re on their back.
As horse people and as leaders, we accept responsibility for our horse’s fears and anxieties; we open the door to help them through their struggles. In doing so, we establish a relationship based on trust that has been cultivated through positive training; a relationship where your horse understands they can always rely on you and follow you in any circumstance. AB
For further information about Scott Philips, or if you’d like to dig into these concepts more, check out the “Following Under Pressure” and “Riding Spooky - Anxious Horses” video series on the Amazing Horse Country website at amazinghorsecountry.com.
Twisted Tree Photography
What a year it has been – nothing more to be said here! 2021 is just around the corner, so this is a perfect time to remind members of the Alberta horse community about the important partnership the AEF has with CapriCMW Insurance Services.
Our service in Alberta and relationship with AEF goes back a long way, and over time the insurance program associated with membership has evolved as the needs of members have changed.
Today, we offer a variety of risk management services and insurance products that are all designed around lifestyles that include horses.
A quick refresher; insurance included in the membership fees paid to AEF: a) $5,000,000 Personal Liability insurance that covers the member for any number of owned, borrowed, or leased horses used for personal purposes. The coverage is worldwide. b) $30,000 Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) that covers the Canadian member worldwide for serious injury (or death) arising from an interaction with horses. No coverage for fracture or dental injuries.
As a member of the AEF, you also have access to some terrific optional insurance products that enhance the value of membership: a) $50,000 Optional Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) that many members add, in order to increase and broaden the AD&D policy automatically included with membership. In addition to higher limits, this policy contains benefits for fracture and dental injuries. b) Members Named Perils provides coverage up to $10,000 in the death of an owned horse arising from fire, lightning, transport – and more. c) Emergency Life Saving Surgery insurance for emergency lifesaving incidents necessitated by accident or sickness, including colic surgery and fracture surgery, to a maximum limit of $2,500 for expenses incurred. d) Members Tack insurance - covers tack and equipment up to $10,000 from loss or damage anywhere in North America. Does not cover clothing or protective equipment worn by riders, wear and tear/abuse, mysterious disappearance or horse drawn vehicles. e) Weekly Accident Indemnity Insurance. This exclusive insurance policy provides income replacement in the event you are unable to work due to an accident. Coverage is in force 24 hours a day/ seven days a week and includes (but is not limited to), injuries arising from an equine related incident. The policy will provide up to $500/week in income replacement for up to 26 weeks (some restrictions apply). *Optional Insurance coverage available to Canadian residents only.
For more details, go to albertaequestrian.com/individual-family/. You are encouraged to take full advantage of the exclusive benefits associated with this important membership.
Like you and your horse, the partnership we have with the equine community in Alberta is very special. Give us a call with any questions at all. We will be happy to help!
Sincerely, Michael A. (Mike) King, Partner
Michael (Mike) King, CAIB, R.I.B.
Mike King is a partner at CapriCMW Insurance and the program lead for the PTSO programs across Canada. For more information, please call the Agri department at CapriCMW Insurance, 1-800-670-1877 or agri@capricmw.ca
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