The captivating Connemara! We are celebrating these horses as our May Breed of the Month on YourDressage!
Did you know that dressage riders who choose a Connemara as their dressage mount are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as the American Connemara Pony Society is a participating organization?
After retiring her previous partner from competition, a rider from Region 1 tells us about the Connemara cross who stepped up to the plate, and whose unexpectedly quick success landed them a spot at the 2022 US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®.
By Jen Garutti
I met Jill McNicol of Cool Springs Farm, a Connemara breeding facility, in person at the 2018 National Dressage Pony Cup at Lamplight Equestrian Center. We had been Facebook friends for a while due to our love for the Connemara breed, and discovered that her stallion, Blue Ridge Monroe, was related to the half-bred pony mare I had at the time.
We stayed in touch over the years and then ended up sitting together at the 2019 US Equestrian Federation (USEF) Horse of the Year (HOTY) awards dinner held in 2020. We had a wonderful evening chatting and getting to know each other better. She mentioned during our conversation that she had my next horse, a 2017 Connemara cross named Cool Springs Mr. Darcy (Blue Ridge Monroe x Zaria), aka Doc, and to stay in touch.
We continued to stay connected via Facebook, and she reminded me off and on about Doc. At that point, I was still having the time of my life with my little half-bred mare, who had managed to come back from a keratoma surgery in 2020 and win two USEF HOTY awards in 2021, so a new horse wasn’t immediately at the forefront of my thoughts. Unfortunately, later in 2021, my mare had a reoccurrence of her keratoma, so I made the difficult decision to retire her from competition after that second surgery.
At that time, Doc was competing in the 4-Year-Old Young Event Horse (YEH) Championships at Fair Hill, and Jill let me know again that she thought he would be a good fit for me. As part of the YEH journey, they create vlogs of the training process leading up to the championships. It was really neat to be able to see where he had started, his progression through the training process, and how that culminated in his experience at the 4-Year-Old YEH Championships.
Doc was living with Allie Sacksen in Pennsylvania, so I traveled down to try him in December, took some video, and shared it with my dressage trainer, Lauren Chumley; after some discussion, I decided to make the move, and he came home to my farm in January 2022. Bringing a 4-year-old home to my personal farm in New Jersey, without an indoor arena nor fenced-in outdoor arena (while most trainers had flocked to Florida for the winter season), was a bold choice. We muddled through the season with some wonderful assistance from Tamara “Tea” Uzman and lessoning with Lauren when she traveled back north to teach those of us not in Florida.
Our first year was a bit of a roller coaster. Doc is really a good, kind horse that can win easily, but he often struggles with his place in the world and some big emotions. Coupling that with the fact that his body was changing and growing, he is a bit like a kid who says, “This shirt is scratchy” or “My pants fit funny,” which provided for some interesting days/rides! Nonetheless, we got out and about in the dressage ring a bit for some schooling shows. I had made a goal of simply qualifying for the 2022 Great American Insurance Group/USDF Regional Dressage Championships at Training Level. We accomplished that in just two recognized shows, which was fantastic and speaks to the quality of the Connemara crosses.
We decided to take him to Regionals to experience the whole big away-from-home show atmosphere over multiple days. It started off as a very emotional experience for him, but he grew up over the four days there and, by the end, laid down a fabulous championship test. He scored a 70% and placed sixth in a HUGE Adult Amateur Training Level class, earning a wildcard invitation to the 2022 US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® at the Kentucky Horse Park. I was totally elated and blown away. We even survived our first awards ceremony!
I hadn’t even contemplated competing at Finals, but once you qualify, you go! In Kentucky, we experienced all aspects of baby horse behavior and all aspects of weather – from hot and sunny, to freezing cold with sleet and snow, from warm and rainy, to cold and dry. It was a huge atmosphere on top of the weather swings, and was a lot for a sensitive 5-year-old. After some emotional behavior on the first two days, Doc laid down some lovely tests in the worst of weather on the third day. Unfortunately, by the time our Championship class rolled around on the fourth day, my baby horse was out of gas, and I couldn’t keep him in front of my leg, which is costly in a Championship class.
Even though it was disappointing to have a lackluster championship ride, I was thrilled with his progress and achievements for the year. Doc was awarded the American Connemara Pony Society (ACPS) Amateur High Score Award at the National Level and Finals. In addition to that, he earned his ACPS Award of Excellence in Dressage in his first season of recognized showing, and the icing on the cake was a USEF Horse of the Year Championship in the Half-bred Connemara Dressage Category. The future is really bright for this horse.
Doc is slated to be my FEI dressage horse, as well as my event horse. He has the physical talent, but after our 2022 show season, I realized that he is truly a very sensitive, emotional dude who could use some time learning how to manage and ground his emotions, in turn helping him destress and be able to focus more clearly on his work. I decided to send him to Florida with my event trainer, Meg Kepferle. She has spent a lot of time with him, working on groundwork, bringing him lots of places on the line, and giving him more life skills. He spent 2023 at her farm in New Jersey after Florida, still just working on his emotions and life skills, with me going up a few times a week to ride and lesson on him.
Doc was really starting to make good progress, so we decided another winter in Florida would be ideal for him, and I planned to travel back and forth from New Jersey to Florida frequently during the winter of 2023-2024. Unfortunately, at the end of October, I had a freak slip-and-fall accident while going out to do night check on my own farm, and was sidelined for a long time after surgery to reconstruct a very badly fractured ankle. Despite my not being able to travel, Doc had an excellent season in Florida and is continuing to work on his big emotions and attention to his work.
Since I am still rehabbing my ankle, Doc will return from Florida to Meg’s farm in New Jersey this month, and we will continue to work with him at his pace. This is a horse who loves his people and is just such a fun weirdo; I have decided to embrace the journey, learn new skills myself (groundwork), and honor his timeline. He will be turning seven this month, so hopefully, the pony side of his brain will catch up to his physical stature. Look for this dude out in the show ring later in 2024, and definitely in 2025! Go Connemaras!
