BALMORAL SHOW
One of the early Season Shows, Balmoral in Belfast, has for the past five years run a Connemara Mare In-Hand Class. Due to popular demand a Class for ridden Connemara Ponies is being added to the Schedule this year and the Show will takes place 12 – 14 May at the extensive exhibition site surrounding the Kings Hall in Belfast. The Show features farming and agricultural displays as well as horse and pony in-hand and showjumping classes. Entries close on Friday 6 March. See www.balmoralshow.co.uk for more information.
The Connemara Pony Breeders Society will host Educational Seminars throughout the country in February and |March 2010. Seminars commence at 8p.m. and topics will include colic, in-breeding, genetics,and showing the pony. Members and breeders are welcome to attend and admission to all sessions are free.
Tuesday 16/2/10 Firgrove House Hotel, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork
Wednesday 17/2/10 Westwood House Hotel, Newcastle, Galway
Tuesday 23/2/10 Bridge House Hotel, Tullamore, Co. Offaly
Wednesday 24/2/10 Seven Oaks Hotel, Carlow
Wednesday 3/3/10 Bank House Hotel, Dungannon, Co. Tyrone
Friday 5/3/10 Carna Bay Hotel, Carna, Co. Galway
Janus (Oxenholm Marble Jnr. – Brantshammar Julie. 1989 to Oct 2009
 Janus (foto-job.com) With his sweeping long silky mane and forelock – an instantly recognisable trademark – the Connemara stallion Janus was a Showring favourite in Ireland for the past four years. Janus was bred by Eva and Anders Wilsonn in Sweden and owned by Sweden’s Lotto Sjoberg: Since 2006 he had been standing for four seasons with Henry O’Toole of Castle Connemara Ponies until his untimely death in the autumn of 2009. Henry had first noted his dam Brantshammar Julie while on a judging trip to Sweden, where Janus was Pony of the Year in 2004, having won many In-Hand and Ridden Championships. Janus had many successful progeny in Sweden, France and Denmark and Henry wanted to see his breeding, his invaluable qualities of conformation and movement and his incredible temperament passed on to Irish-born ponies. Henry praises this wonderful temperament and the striking movement which he passed on to this progeny; Janus had that wonderful extension coming from a freedom of the shoulder which Henry believes is bred-in. His Swedish based Sire, Oxenholm Marble Junior was top of the Swedish Connemara Pony Society’s sire conformation rating for 10 years. The phrase ‘bred in the purple’ automatically comes to mind.
 Marble won his 2yr. old Colt Class in Clifden in 1968 with John Brennan Marble, grandfather of Janus, (sold to Sweden by Galway breeder John Brennan in 1976) was by Rebel Wind (from Inver Rebel and Windy) while the genes of Carna Dun and Callowfeenish Dolly are in there too. On the dam,s side there was The Fugitive and Carna Bobby.
There are about 40 Janus foals bred in Ireland but many of them have been sold out of the country and it’s still too soon to predict how good they will be. One of his early foals did well on the Irish scene in ’07 when the colt son out of Murvey Cara took his class at Clifden. Among those showing early success in England we see Glencarrig Eleanor Ciúin ex Glencroft Amy.
 Janus, Connemara Champion, RDS 2006 with Henry O'Toole (foto-job.com) Shows:
Lightly shown, in ‘06 he was RDS Champion.in Dublin.and in the same year he also took Championship sashes at Ballyconneely and Oughterard Shows.
 Janus Clifden 2008 Dressage with Siobhan Cazabon Sullivan A top-
 Janus at Clifden '07 (foto-job.com) class Dressage performer, many will have been lucky enough to see Siobhan Cazabon -Sullivan put Janus through his paces in Clifden. In ’08 he was Midlands Ridden Champion at Annaharvey with fourteen year old Emma O’Toole on board.and more recently Emma had been showing him successfully for what was to be his very last season in 2009. The pair secured the Reserve Ridden Championship at Galway County Show in June ‘09 and they later won the Supreme Championship in Ardrahan.
 Emma O'Toole and Janus, Midland Ridden Championship '07 While he could be ‘a real stallion and on his toes’ at breeding time, in general he was a gentleman and regularly ran-out with his mares. Both Henry and daughter Emma, speaking of his ‘incredible temperament’, believed him to be ‘close to human’ as they describe how at Shows he seemed to know he had to be on his best behaviour, and he never put a foot wrong. This well-loved and respected stallion is buried in Connemara, close to the Castle Stud outside Clifden, where ponies of his former herd quietly graze the hillside near Clifden Castle, where, for a few short years, Janus was King.
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 Two Catalogue SALES of registered Connemara ponies are coming up soon at Clifden Mart Sales, the first of these is on Saturday, 20 February and the second will be held on Saturday 27th March.
Note that the Sale of 27th March is a specialized Sale open to 3yr. old’s and over, ie, mares, colts and geldings 3 years old and up. For details on these Sales or to enter a pony please contact www.connemaraponysales.com or ring 095 21861
For previous ‘08 and ‘09 News go to http://ardcru.wordpress.com
 Golden Horse Head broach copy
GOLDEN HORSE’S HEAD FOUND.
Apparently many of the pieces unearthed in 2009 were richly decorated with precious stones. If you’re in the area it would be well worth a visit. Interesting to read about a golden Horse Head, lost for 1,400 years, and recently found as part of a Treasure Trove of Anglo-Saxon Gold from the seventh century. It is now part of a huge display from the Hoard which will take place at the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent, England, from Feb 13th to March 7th. Perhaps a precursor of the Irish Hobby, a medieval ancestor of the Connemara Pony.??
AN CAPAILLIN
Before we know it the new ‘ Capaillin’ will be available, in early January 2010. Editor Ruth Rogers has done an amazing job–to have everything ready and the magazine out so early in the year. It will cost €15 and the very pleasing punch line is that –wait for it- it will be posted FREE to all CPBS members. So make sure to get your membership subscription in to the society early in the New Year.
CONNEMARA PONY SPRING FESTIVAL:
The Spring colt Inspections will take place towards the end of March. The Colt Inspection centres are in Mullingar on Wed. March 24th. Claregalway Thursday 25th. Clifden on Friday 26th.
Fillies will not be forgotton as their Inspection is Monday 29th in Claregalway.
Further Filly Inspections will be held in April as follows: Ennis 6th April, Mallow 7th April, Mullingar 13th April, Ecclesville 14th April, Sligo 15th april, Claremorris 19th April, Ballinasloe 20th April. Inspections in various centres in Connemara are planned for the 27th, 28th, and 29th April.
A SALE of Connemara Ponies will take place in the Clifden Mart on Saturday March 27th and the grand finale of the Festival will be the very popular Stallion Parade on Sun day 28th.. And that’s not all, as the days and nights will be filled with talks and exhibitions.
BARTLEY O’SULLIVAN LECTURE: Pat Lyne is sure to draw a capacity crowd on the Saturday with a Lecture on the Arabian influence in the Connemara pony. This will be the 2nd Annual Bartley O’Sullivan lecture: many of you will remember the 1st lecture in ‘09, the presentation given by Elizabeth Petch on the Thoroughbred influence in the Pony, which is now available in print, costing Ten Euro and available from the Breeders Society. Bartley O’Sullivan was Hon.Sec. jointly with Michael O’Malley of the newly formed Breeders Society in 1923, until his death in 1960. A dedicated hard working enthusiast of the Connemara Pony all his life, Bartley O’Sullivan was the main man behind the organisation of all Society Events and Shows for 37 years. A true and faithful servant he is remembered now each year by the Bartley O’Sullivan Lecture. Pat Lyne’s contribution on Saturday 27th March, where she will apply her vast fund of knowledge and experience to a description and explanation of the Arab blood in the heritage of today’s Connemara Pony, is not to be missed.
For further information go to www.cpbs.ie
I am happy to use any news items you may send me on Connemara ponies or events connected with Connemaras. Also if you see incorrect or missing names of people or ponies please email and they will be corrected. ps. If you would like to purchase books signed by the author as seen at www.marne.ie please contact niamhodoc@eircom.net Books “Galway Show, The Story- 1892 – 2000″, “A Way with Horses” and “Connemara Pony Handbook” are each available at the special Niamh’s Weblog price of only 12 Euro plus postage. Also available in shops in Galway and Connemara.
 WWW.MARNE.IE
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IRISHTOWN BEAUTY by Abbeyleix Fionn – Irishtown Diana (1980 – 2009).
 Irishtown Beauty wins her 4/5 yr.old mare class in Clifden 1994. photo Enda Noone Bred by Emer Fitzpatrick in Irishtown, Westmeath, Irishtown Beauty lived with the Sweeney family in Bunowen, Ballyconneely Co. Galway for sixteen years before she passsed away quietly in her field in February ’09.
 John Sweeney at Clifden Show in 1983 Noel remembers that his father Sean kept about seven working ponies and mares on the farm- either for road work with the County Council, or for carting seaweed from the shore for the land, and kelp to the pier at Bunowen for transport to Scotland as well as saving hay, taking turf from the bog and ploughing the small fields or gairdíns. Noel Sweeney continues the pony tradition and refers to his late lamented multiple prize-winning Irishtown Beauty as being of such a calm and laid-back temperament that you could almost bring her into the house to feed and bath her.! She travelled to Clifden quite often up to 2005 and she won her mare class nearly every time shown, about six mare Classes in all
 Connemara Supreme Champion, RDS Dublin 1997 Noel tells how she knew on the morning of a Show that she was going to be on display, calmly walking on her own up the ramp and loading herself into the open trailer for her day out. Once arrived at the showgrounds Beauty stepped out like the prize pony she was, presence personified, to parade around the ring with arched neck and head held proudly to accept yet another trophy for the Sweeney family. Irishtown
Beauty’s breeding went back to some of the well-known bloodlines in Connemara, Finola of Leam, The Admiral, Wise Sparrow and with Carna Bobby on both her sire’s and dam’s sides, with thoroughbred blood in from the likes of part-breds Hillside Sylvia and Cashel Kate added to the mix. She was backed for riding but breeding was her main job and many of her ten progeny are showring winners or have been sold abroad. Her record of Showing successes reads like a long litany.
 Melissa, Shane & Noel receive Ballyconneelly Supreme trophy from Ann Conroy They included the Supreme Championships at Galway County in ‘97 and later in that year she continued her winning ways in Dublin to take her mare Class and the RDS Supreme Connemara Championship. The Claddaghduff Championship came her way twice: at Roundfort and Corrandulla in ‘05 she scored again and carried off a Ballyconneely hat-trick by taking the top honours there three times.
Progeny Irishtown Beauty took the newly introduced Progeny Class in Clifden in 2004, flanked by a son and daughter, Clonberne Boy and Derrygimbla Beauty ( Ard Conneely)
 Bunowen Beauty won Ballyconneely Championship 2000 & Padraig Hynes Her first foal, Bunowen Beauty, took the foal Championship in Clifden in ’95 and the Clifden Supreme in 2000 beating her dam in the final reckoning. [ Curiously enough Noel Sweeney discovered that a much earlier pony of the same name, Bunowen Beauty, had been shown by his father John for an uncle at Carna show in 1926 or ’27 ].
 Errismore Beauty wins her 2yr.old Class at Clifden with Noel Sweeney Another daughter Errismore Beauty (Village Boy) has a good track record, having taken the yearling filly Class in Clifden, and won mare classes at Cashel and three times at Maam.
 Clonberne Boy takes Red in the Stallion Class with Fred Gannon 2007 Irishtown Beauty bred well with Village Boy, and a son, Clonberne Boy, a full brother to Errismore Beauty, took the Stallion Class honours in ’07 for owner Fred Gannon.
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