The 1976 Autumn Issue (Vol. 6, No. 3) of the American Connemara Pony Society News was eight pages.

AHSA recognition

Secretary Elizabeth O’Brien reported that the ACPS had achieved tentative recognition from the American Horse Shows Association (now the United States Equestrian Federation). She said the society would have to wait until the AHSA’s annual meeting in January 1977 to learn whether and to what extent Connemaras had been included in the AHSA 1977 Rule Book.

She also said the Directory of Connemara Breeders was in its final stages of production. We’re not sure we ever had that publication. We are fairly convinced that the stallions’ promotional sheets we had were part of a Stallion Directory. We still have the sheets and posted them online, but whatever binder they were in is gone.

The president’s address to members said the annual meeting in 1976 — timed to coincide with the Summer Olympic Games in Montreal — was a success, but the writer provided few details. Equestrian events actually were held in Bromont, Quebec, an hour from Montreal. The ACPS held a five-day meeting, billed as the first international conference, and drew a large number of attendees. ACPS members stayed at the Hotel Jay in Vermont and traveled by yellow school bus to Bromont each day. The president suggested in her address that the society should hold future meetings timed with such events and running three or four days long (our comment would be few people who work can take off that kind of time, much less leave their horses for that long). There were no specifics on anything else, but the newsletter noted elsewhere that the minutes of the meeting had already been mailed to members. Perhaps that mailing included more on the Olympics.

Other items

This newsletter provided results from Connemara classes at Woodstock and Elmira.

The owners of two stallions reported that they had been gelded.

Owner Lydia Grew reported the death of *Clonkeehan Easter Lily, 20. The mare was imported by J. Carter of Philadelphia and acquired by Grew in 1972. Easter Lily produced 10 foals.

Dr. Molthan’s ride

A story and photo provided coverage of Dr. Marian Molthan’s adventure on The Great American Horse Race, riding Dorothy Lyons’ dun mare, Spring Ledge Bridgette, and ponying her own gray mare, OH Heather Buck’s Roan. Doc finished ninth, receiving part of the cash prize.

Bridgette was by Whitewood Galway Bay out of Whitewood Good Friday. She was a half sister of Springledge Taffy (same dam). Heather was by Camus John out of Oak Hill’s Heather Buck.

The ponies look taller in the photo than they were. Heather’s height at registration was 13.1 hands. She was probably 14 hands at full height. Bridgette was 13.2 at registration and, again, taller at full height, but still a pony.

The Daily Journal of Kankakee, Illinois, summarized the nuts and bolts of the 3,500-mile race, saying it began on May 31, 1976, which was Memorial Day, in Frankfort, New York, and finished 99 days later on Labor Day in Sacramento, California. The prize money ended up being $50,000, with $25,000 to the winner and the rest divided among second through 10th place finishers. Ninety-three competitors started the race; 38 finished. The winner was a mule named Lord Fauntleroy.

The ACPS newsletter included a photo showing Doc riding Bridgette, with Heather by their side, in Wyoming, and noted that Doc had to scratch Heather in Nevada due to poor shoeing.

The story quoted a report from Doc, in which she said they started slowly in the race, then built up to 11th place in Iowa. Bridgette bumped a tendon, and they had to drop back to 20th. Doc said they took it easy through the Midwest. With 500 miles to go, she had two sound ponies, trotting faster and faster as time went on, with the best eight legs in camp.

Doc said the event itself suffered management problems. The original manager spent all the money before the ride started. The trail boss and chief vet quit shortly after the race started due to lack of funds. Management abandoned the ride in Hannibal, Missouri. The riders spent many days sitting around in campsites waiting for the problems to be resolved.

Finally, the riders took over the financing and management. All the “fancies” were cut (Winnebego vet rigs and portable johns), but the race moved forward, and the riders were back on the trail and planned to be in Sacramento in early September.

She said they had been camping in fairgrounds, parks, highway rest stops and on the edge of ranches.

Our relationship with Dr. Molthan

Doc was a pediatric cardiologist in Phoenix, after being raised in Pennsylvania and educated at Smith College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She started practicing in Phoenix in 1962. Her obituary said she was chief of pediatric cardiology at the Children’s Rehabilitation Services Program and later at Good Samaritan Hospital, as well as serving the Indian Health Services.

She very much fit the look of an Arizona ranch owner, though she could throw on a tweed skirt and blend right in with any Ivy Leaguer when needed.

We knew her for years, as we kept our horses at her Foxglove Farm in Laveen, Arizona, after we moved to Arizona in 1985.

Doc was fearless, but we were blown away by reading all of this. We knew she had finished the Tevis Cup, America’s toughest endurance ride at 100 miles, 10 times herself, and sometimes others rode with her on her Connemaras. She never mentioned this 1,000-mile ride. In fact, we’re not sure how a cardiologist takes off more than three months to do it.

Doc died in October 2004.

The first horse that Joan McKenna Jr. rode at Doc’s farm was Spring Ledge Bridgette in early 1985, when we visited Arizona to see if we thought moving there would work. Doc had purchased Bridgette by then. She took four of our family members on a trail ride through the desert at the foot of South Mountain Park. Joan Jr. had no idea she was riding such royalty. Bridgette was adorable and a joy to ride. Probably the last horse Joan Jr. saw at Doc’s before moving back to St. Louis, Missouri, was Heather on Heather’s 30th birthday in 1994. She was cantering around the field north of Doc’s farm with a rider.