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?
Here, a rider from Region 9 explains how she came to own a mare related to a special Connemara from her past, and the challenges and successes they have experienced since.
By Amy Marrich
In the summer of 2016, I began my search for a new partner after losing my first Connemara to colic, and my warmblood had been long relegated to “husband horse” duties. When I put the call out for a new horse, it was simple: no greys and no mares. But the answer that kept coming back to me was: “You really need to go see this mare down in Florida.” Needless to say, I first went to try a gelding in Virginia before deciding to head to Florida.
I twisted an ankle the week I planned to go, but I had already booked the flight, so I threw on a brace and went to Florida. I had visited the mare’s sire, W.H. Topgun, as a yearling while passing through Ocala and had really liked him. On her dam side, Balmullo’s Matilda and her grandsire, Seven Hill’s Grey Ghost, were known to throw good movers. Then, there was her great grandsire, Concord River Roaringwater Bay, who I had evented some in college and who had sired the gelding I’d lost.
I had the opportunity to try Kate (then known as Smokin’ Kate) at the Florida Horse Park, first watching her go around in the ring. She shied at some banners on the side of the ring, but had forgotten about them the next time she passed. I hopped on her myself in a field – bad ankle and all – to walk, trot, and canter her. The next day, I rode her again at her home farm, hopped over a few cross-country fences, and made an offer.
When I brought her to Texas, I changed her registered name to Penny Lane, and we started to build our partnership over the first year, competing at a few schooling shows. The next year, we started showing at USDF-recognized shows at Training Level, doing everything by myself with a great support system at home. In 2017, we finished the year as the US Equestrian Federation (USEF) Horse of the Year Reserve Champion for Purebred Connemara Dressage, sixth at the National Dressage Pony Cup (NDPC) at the Kentucky Horse Park, and Reserve Champion at the Southwest Dressage Championships in the Pony Training division.
In 2018, we made the journey to Lamplight Equestrian Center for the NDPC Annual Show, where we placed third at Training Level and eleventh at First Level in the Adult Amateur division. We also finished fourth at Training Level and fifth at First Level in the Adequan®/USDF All-Breed Awards for the American Connemara Pony Society (ACPS) Open division. Lastly, we finished as USEF National Champion for Purebred Connemara Dressage.
2019 was spent outside the competition ring, preparing for the move up to Second Level with a plan of debuting in the spring of 2020, while I was also traveling for work. Unfortunately, then the world shut down for COVID, and it wasn’t meant to be in 2020 either.
2021, however, was a year to remember, as we made our Second Level debut and had quite the year. We had a great ride at NDPC, finishing third, and then knocked it out of the park at the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 9 Dressage Championships, also finishing third and earning a wild card invitation to ride at the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®. The weather at Finals was all over the place, and when you’re by yourself, watching riders being led to and from the rings, it wasn’t hard to realize I have the best pony in the world. While she did get lunged one day due to the wind, she walked around like a unicorn and took sixth in our warm-up class, though nerves got the better of me in our championship class. She finished the year in third for USEF Purebred Connemara Dressage.
We debuted at Third Level in 2022, and it showed us how much work and training we had to do to undo my hunter way of doing things. The hard work and the return to basics really paid off, and in 2023, this ex-hunter princess earned her USDF Bronze Rider Medal on a pony she’d trained up the levels with a great trainer at home and some great clinicians over the years! I also put together a Second Level freestyle to the soundtrack of The Hobbit, and we placed fourth for our freestyle at the 2023 GAIG/USDF Region 9 Dressage Championships.
So far in 2024, I have continued to clean up my basics, become more balanced, and move off my seat more, with the goal of earning my Fourth Level scores towards my Silver Medal. Around traveling for work, I am hoping we’ll get out there later this year and then move on to Prix St. Georges next year – not bad for an ex-hunter princess on a little 14.1-hand mare, both learning it all together!
