Clifden laps up cream of Connemara pony breed

In Connemara they say it's the day when summer begins to fade and the first shadows of autumn loom somewhere behind the hills.

There is no precise date for the Connemara Pony Show in Clifden but it's always the third Thursday in August.

It's a venerable event now.

This year's was the 83rd show organised by the Connemara Pony Breeders' Society and it attracted the largest ever entry to the showpiece event of the year for Connemara pony owners - 540 of the best specimens of the breed.

Fine Gael TD Pádraic McCormack officially opened this year's show and then went on to win first prize in the category for "six varieties of vegetables" which included parsnips, carrots and potatoes.

He grows them nearby at his summer home in Ballyconneely. McCormack said he was delighted to retain the title from the previous year.

There are claims that the Connemara is Ireland's only native pony and there is general agreement that the present-day stock is excellent.

Connemara vet and author Maurice Scannell said the Connemara ponies live longer nowadays because of improved care and feeding.

However, he added that the ponies were also growing bigger and that might present a problem.

The official height limit for a Connemara pony is 14.2 hands but nowadays many of them are shooting past that.

The traditionalists want the limit set tight.

A few generations ago, the average Connemara pony was 13.2 hands but better quality of life has given him four more inches in height.

In addition, prosperity in Ireland means more people can now afford to keep, feed and nurture more Connemara ponies.

Overseas, there are Connemara Pony Society branches in 17 countries. But even though the Connemara pony has now criss-crossed the world, the annual show in Clifden is one of the great traditional local events.

It is the day when Connemara communities come together - men like Máirtín Seoige, the lone inhabitant of Inis Bearrachain in the south Connemara Gaeltacht, and Gabriel Keady from the Sky Road in Clifden.

Gabriel first attended the 11th show in 1935 and has never missed a show since.

The morning and early afternoon featured the main stallion events and the premier award went to Clonbeirne Boy, an eight-year-old owned by Fred Gannon from Gortgarrow, Clonbeirne in east Galway.

The winning three-year-old stallion at the show was Castleside JJ Junior, owned by Michael Rabbette from Ballyheane in Castlebar, taking first prize.

This stallion also won the loose jumping event at the show, proving that its heritage is among the best. He is by Castleside JJ, who hailed from the renowned Westside Moira.

The aficionados say you can hardly beat a lineage like that. Another Castlebar owner, Patrick Joyce, had the winning two-year-old stallion, Maghera Fadda Lad.

By autumn, the Connemara Pony Breeders' Society hopes to have completed a project compiling information on every Connemara pony in Ireland on its website.

As a reasonable summer day drifted into the evening, all sights were set on the Championship of the Show. In the event, the laurels for the best pony went to a nine-year-old mare, Castle Urchin, owned and bred by Henry O'Toole from Clifden.