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 7 shares how a supportive group of horse friends kept her afloat during difficult times, surprised her with a Connemara filly, and permanently changed the trajectory of her riding and showing careers.
By Sharon Jantzen
“You won’t stop riding,” my friend Beverly insisted after losing my “adoptive mom’s” 20-year-old retired Connemara/Thoroughbred cross, Dreamer’s Kiss-Me-Kate (Katie), in 2015, whom I had journeyed with since the first ride toward my USDF Bronze Medal. This was also just three months before I sat with my dad as he left this earth. To keep me in the saddle, Beverly offered me the use of her gaited Rocky Mountain horse, Carrera. I was grateful.
A gaited horse has a different way of going, and I had strict instructions: “No trotting!” Carrera, who had little training and knew no aids, gaited leaning to the right, cross-cantered, and had a hard time doing a circle. So, I did what I knew and applied dressage principles to this Rocky Mountain gaited horse. Eventually, she went in a balanced manner, didn’t cross-canter, and could handle a circle. We even dabbled in mounted archery and relished in the beauty of trial rides with Beverly. I enjoyed riding Carrera, but I missed trotting.
Accepting the reality that I wouldn’t be owning a horse again, I learned how to be content with being horseless. Well, that all changed with an out-of-the-blue phone call. It was June of 2019, just after our West Coast Connemara Show (WCCS), where my daughter and “adoptive mom,” Charlene O’Neil (founder of the WCCS and whose Connemara I rode in the early years of the show) had all helped. Darian Hall of Rosewood Connemaras called to offer me a gift. She said, “I’d like to give you a filly!”
“What?” I replied, stunned.
“Yes, I have a filly I’d like you to have,” Darian repeated her offer. “You need to get back into Connemaras!”
“Yes!!… No!!! I can’t keep a horse,” my more practical side was speaking. Yet, I couldn’t say no. “Yes, I’ll make it work! Now I have to talk with my husband.”
Rosewood Whisper (Tre Awain Cavan O’Conor x Rosewood Twilight) arrived in May 2020, two days after her second birthday and two weeks before our last daughter graduated from homeschool. Eighteen years of homeschooling three kids (while training and competing with Katie in the earlier years) came to an end. Little did I know that Darian was right – I needed to get back into Connemaras.
I messed around with Whisper, doing all the “first” things with her. Our first ride was in August of 2021, when she was three. The next day, on our second ride, she bucked me off. After five more months of groundwork, I got a younger and braver young man, Chris, to ride her… and she bucked him off. However, once he understood how to apply groundwork to the saddle (specifically, the buck diffuse mode), they were off and running. Soon, I trotted for the first time on Whisper in a lesson with my coach, Karen Cornelius. It had been nearly twelve years since I last trotted. It was great to feel the trot rhythm again and so special to be trotting on my very own pony.
My return to the sandbox, entering at A, happened in July 2022 at the West Coast Connemara Show. This time, I was riding my very own pony, a reality I hadn’t thought possible since owning my first Connemara and competing in combined training while in college. Whisper and I rode Introductory A and B, and she was a star, scoring 73.44% for test A and 67.197% for test B.
Last spring, we cantered for the first time in a show, riding Training Level Tests 1 and 2. Whisper, again, was a star and such a joy the whole weekend. We also came home with the Connemara Reserve Dressage High Score award (68.276%) from the 2023 West Coast Connemara Show that summer. Whisper takes everything in stride, while occasionally adding her own sass and opinions.
This show season, we’re moving up to First Level and enjoyed a weekend with Heidi Gaian at the California Dressage Society Adult Amateur Clinic. This was where we did our first long diagonal in a lengthened trot. Whisper just powered up and floated across the diagonal. I was squealing with delight.
Our goal this season is to qualify for and compete at the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Regional Dressage Championship at First Level. Whisper continues enjoying everything we ask of her. My friend and fellow Connemara enthusiast, Emily Robertson, rides Whisper over fences and in the hunter and jumper classes at the West Coast Connemara Show. Emily appreciates Whisper’s can-do attitude and has also done a few combined tests and one-day events with her. Whisper is just as happy out on the trail with others as she is simply hand-walking by my side when that is all I can do with the time I have to get her out. Riding Whisper and just being with her truly feeds my soul, and yes, I do enjoy trotting.
Connemaras attract the most wonderful people, and my way of giving back in appreciation for the gift of Whisper is to be on the Board of Governors for the American Connemara Pony Society. Not only do these ponies do it all, but their people do, too. My life is richer because of my Connemara family connections. I am truly thankful for the gift of Whisper – and for trotting.
