Connemara ponies ride out the recession with two days of respectable sales in Clifden

The Connemara Pony Show was a showcase for a resilient breed that's a living embodiment of Irish heritage, writes EILEEN BATTERSBY

Prices were down at the Saturday and Sunday sales following this year’s Connemara Pony show, but were respectable considering the problems the recession is causing the horse market. One mare which might have made up to €7,000 a year ago went for €3,500.

The show itself had gone well. It was raining everywhere else last Thursday: the southeast was under water; the roads in the east were flooded; in the midlands, windshield wipers were conceding victory to the downpour. Yet in the famous show grounds in Clifden in Connemara, the sun was smiling on the big-hearted ponies at the 85th Connemara Pony Show.

Recession Ireland might have paralysed the sport horse and thoroughbred markets, but the Connemara pony, well used to dealing with Atlantic storms, appears able to deal with anything man or nature can throw. A gentleman from Lyons in France said it all: “I buy something like this one, or that one there which I like very much, and I can ride him, so can my wife and my daughter.”

The two he had pointed out were not for sale. The entries in the show classes were so big that, as one woman, who admitted to “looking seriously even if I have to borrow the money”, put it: “You really would need several pairs of eyes. There’s a lot to see.” Visitors were also aware that for the first time, the weekend sales were spanning two days with 485 ponies and foals on offer.

Ballyowen Maybelle Molly arrived in the show ring to a hero’s welcome. The European Pony Championships showjumping gold medallist was led by a man carrying an Irish flag, as her rider, Kellie Allen, is abroad, but Sillogue Darkie, another member of Ireland’s silver-medal-wining team, trotted in with his rider, Michael Duffy. Sillogue Darkie has accumulated almost 1,000 jumping points. The victory parade of these two ponies put the performance aspect of the Connemara pony into a European context.

The quality in the various classes was obvious, but some ponies have something extra. Such a pony is the nine-year-old stallion Currachmore Cashel, known to his friends as Padraig, and bred by his owner Eamonn Burke. The 2008 All-Ireland Supreme Champion of Champions, twice winner of the stallion class at the Dublin Horse Show, and last year’s Supreme Champion at the RDS, Currachmore Cashel arrived at Clifden with three previous Clifden stallion-class victories. He is a friendly character, whose only fault – and it’s no fault – is being relaxed. So far this season he has covered 97 mares and, jogging back to his stable, a big number one on the door, he looks far from exhausted.

As expected, he retained his stallion title and also won supreme champion. Even more impressive was his victory in the progeny class in which he appeared with two of his two-year-old colt sons. It was no contest; the trio won, while one of those two-year-old colts, Letterdyfe Rira, won the two-year-old colt class ahead of two of his half-brothers, both by Currachmore Cashel, who had also sired the first two foals in the filly class.

None of this seemed to overwhelm the stallion, who enjoys posing for the cameras. According to Joe Burke, the owner’s son, Padraig knows his place; his mother, Tolka Bridge, is 37, and “is still the boss”. Taking reserve champion behind Currachmore Cashel was veteran show mare April Rose, who is now 16.

Tom Reilly’s eight-year-old mare Misty was surveying the streets of Clifden as he led her to the horsebox. “Now there’s a good riding horse,” a woman observed.

Buyers were on the look out for big ponies like her at the sales. Prices may have been down, but were still higher than the figures currently being paid for thoroughbreds, Irish Draughts and sport horses. Buying a Connemara pony involves buying versatility, intelligence and temperament. As a girl with a sixth-place rosette announced “and lots of fun”.