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 8 shares how the Connemara cross she once described as a “handful” blossomed into a multitalented show horse, a kind, patient lesson pony, and a priceless therapy pony.
By Carolyn McEvitt
The year was 1994, and the month was early April. It was a cloudy and overcast day as my husband and I made the seven-hour trip from Glastonbury, Connecticut, to Avon, New York. We were on our way to see a coming-two-year-old filly that I was interested in purchasing. The filly was one of three other youngsters I planned to visit on this horse-shopping venture. She was the first stop on our trip, and she became the standard by which I judged the remaining prospects.
C.K.C. Katie was born May 17th, 1992, on the Coyne Dairy Farm in Avon, NY. The farm is in the Genesee Valley and is home to over one thousand registered Holsteins. To this day, Katie has never been afraid of cows thanks to her early life with them! Katie’s breeder, Carol Kingston Coyne (hence the C.K.C. in Katie’s name), had advertised Katie and her yearling sibling, Trinity, in the classifieds section of the American Connemara Pony Society’s breed magazine as Connemara half breeds. Katie interested me more than Trinity, simply because she was a year older.
The Connemara stallion Hideaway’s Erin Go Bragh, standing at Hideaway Farm in New York, sired both fillies. This fact was another reason for my wanting to see these youngsters. My desire was to find an equine partner who would excel at eventing, which meant my mount would need to compete in three phases: dressage, stadium jumping, and cross-country. Go Bragh was an accomplished event horse, and Katie’s dam was a Thoroughbred mare named Feather in My Cap.
Carol had Katie in training with a young woman who did a lovely job of teaching Katie the basics of standing tied, wearing a saddle, bridling, carrying a rider, lunging, bathing, and more. Nothing stressful; just the basics. So, Carol brought me to see Katie at the trainer’s barn, a short distance from the dairy farm.
When I first saw the filly, I was taken by her loveliness and by her self-assured “I rule the world” attitude. It was love at first sight, but I did not want to admit that to myself, since I had others yet to see. Still, I left a deposit with Carol, telling her I would tell her my decision after seeing the other youngsters on my list. Carol got my decision two days later!
C.K.C. Katie has now been my partner for 30 years. In the beginning, she was quite a handful, just full of herself. She was the “boss hoss” of the herd from day one.
There were moments when I questioned my sanity. One such moment was when, as a two-year-old, she decided to spring over a five-foot stall door to follow me and my old gelding on a trail ride! If I had not turned back, she would have taken the paddock gate as well. After all, she was accustomed to the acres of freedom the dairy farm gave her, and how dare anybody deprive her of that? To this day, she tolerates her stall only long enough to consume her feed. All my stalls now have bars on them.
Then, there was the time I did a bit of foxhunting with her. Her first meet had me, once again, questioning my soundness of mind. Katie thought it was great sport to gleefully try to catch the Master of the Hounds; all the while, I fervently tried to keep her behind the red coat, desperately wishing I had put an Irish martingale on her.
As Katie matured, however, she became my rock – my dependable, ever-ready pony. Not much worried Katie. We could enter a dressage ring in any condition, and she would just go about her test with that “all business” attitude.
Katie was especially focused on the jumping phases; it was what she loved more than anything. The dressage part was just okay with her, and she always did well, but her heart belonged to the fences. She was my dirt bike on the cross-country courses; I often needed to bring her down to a trot to avoid time penalties. We competed successfully through Training Level, and she could have easily done the higher levels, but I did not have the guts or heart to train her for those speeds and heights.
To my surprise, Katie’s maturity also came with her adaptability and enjoyment in becoming a lesson pony. She was so patient and tolerant of Pony Clubbers and 4-Hers as they learned their bandaging skills, practiced deworming with applesauce syringes, calculated body weights, took vital signs, rasped hooves, analyzed conformation, and braided her wild mane and tail, among other unmounted education. Many youth riders took their first fences on Katie, and practiced their first emergency dismounts from her saddle. Katie taught them how to trust and be connected to their mount.
As a therapeutic riding pony, Katie worked with children and adults with ADHD, ODD, OCD, anxiety, prosthetics, blindness, and insecurity. It was amazing to see how gentle and careful she was with each student. She understood what each person needed from her, and did her best to help them.
One of the best incentives the American Connemara Pony Society offers its members is its ACPS Achievement Awards program. The purpose of this program “is to encourage and reward purebred and half-bred Connemaras for participating successfully in a variety of disciplines to showcase the versatility, talents, and athleticism of the Connemara Pony.”
For each discipline that a pony excels in, they could earn a Certificate, Bronze, Silver, Gold, or an Award of Excellence. C.K.C. Katie earned four Awards of Excellence in Eventing, 4-H, Pony Club, and Therapeutic Riding, as well as awards for Dressage, In-Hand, and Trail. In 2007, C.K.C. Katie was awarded the Tre Awain Halfbred Trophy, an ACPS Performance Award given in recognition of outstanding achievement, both competitive and non-competitive, of a half-bred Connemara.
This year, C.K.C. Katie turned thirty-two on May 17th. Although Katie is sporting more grey hair, she is still sound in all three gaits, enjoys her trail rides, and is still the boss hoss in the barn. She has instructed countless adults and children, brought Pony Clubbers through their levels, taught 4-Hers their horsemanship skills, and served as a therapeutic riding pony. Most importantly, more than anything else, she has given me the best rides of my life. As they say, “Connemaras Do It All,” and Katie is no exception. I am grateful for every day she is still with me! She has truly been a gift from heaven. Éirinn go Brách!
