The Summer 1978 issue (Vol. 8, No. 3) of the American Connemara Pony Society News was eight pages.

ACPS Secretary Betty O’Brien and President Peter Goltra reminded members that the annual meeting would be Sept. 16, 1978, in Lexington, Kentucky, in conjunction with the “World Championships.”

A little research reveals that this competition would be the FEI Eventing World Championships, which left Europe for the first time in 1978 to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.

The ACPS’ general membership meeting was set for 9 p.m. on a Saturday night at the University of Kentucky Faculty Club, with a dinner at 7:30 p.m. and cash bar open at 6:30 p.m. The dinner cost $9.

Goltra’s column noted that the committee meetings would be held Friday night, and everyone was welcome. He said he made an unbreakable promise that the general meeting would end by 11 p.m. Saturday night, presumably so everyone would be awake the next day for the final day of competition.

O’Brien’s column included two other topics. She noted that an article on Connemaras in issue No. 8 of the new publication Equus magazine had increased her mail considerably, as people sought information on where they could buy a Connemara. Equus started publishing in November 1977.

Survey results

And O’Brien looked at results of the latest survey she sent members, asking what they intended to do with their Connemaras. Survey cards were included with the Winter 1978 issue, two issues earlier. The cards asked owners to respond to the question: My plans in 1978 for my Connemaras are …

She provided the responses by percentage:

Showing: 68 percent.

Eventing: 25 percent.

Pleasure, or noncompetitive trail: 22 percent.

Breeding: 20 percent.

Fox hunting: 20 percent.

Schooling: 14 percent.

Driving, competitive trail or endurance riding, 8 percent.

General Pony Club activity: 8 percent.

Dressage: 8 percent.

Sales preparation: 6 percent.

Teaching horsemanship: 6 percent.

She did not say how many owners responded. She noted that each respondent engaged in an average of more than two activities.

Competition news

Connemaras listed as finding success in local competition included Red Ridge Super Star, owned by Sean O’Connor of Glastonbury, Connecticut; Neolani, owned by Supt. Roy O’Byrne, of Queensville, Ontario; Duv Luca, owned by Lisa Herring, of Lexington; Aven’s Golden Ruby, owned by Melanie Jacobi, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; and RBR Miss Patrice, owned by Patricia Ervin, of Morgan Hill, California.

There was a short article on the successful career of Round Robin’s Indestructible (by An Tostal out of Sun Cloud), a gray gelding born in 1964 and showing in a range of disciplines. Indy, a large pony, was bred by Mrs. Bruce (Charlotte) Read and had been purchased by Kenneth P. Heekin of Evansville, Indiana. Daughter Sarah rode Indy first, and then daughter Deirdre.

In the article, Mrs. Heekin (Barbara, we believe) was quoted as saying, “In the early ’70s, Indy was competing with large horses in the working hunter over fences classes. Not until 1974 and 1975 did we have any large pony classes in this area.” Then, the article listed Indy’s many honors, including top ribbons year after year at some venues. Shows also included Pony Club and horse trial competitions.

Mrs. Heekin noted that Indy was given the name Indestructible because his dam gave birth after jumping a fence onto a road, and he survived.

Indy and Deirdre appear below as the third horse/rider in a photo of a Connemara hunter class during the night program at the St. Louis National Charity Horse Show in 1979. There’s more information on the National below. Indy ultimately moved up to second place when that class was pinned.

American Model Connemara Pony Society

Patty Gray of Tennessee reported that she had started the American Model Connemara Pony Society, designed to allow owners of model Connemaras (statues) to join and attend free shows for model horses. She said the club had 26 members, with 136 purebreds and seven halfbreds registered. A monthly newsletter had 17 subscribers.

This is all news to us, despite the fact that we collected Breyer horses back in the day. Not sure if one had to have Connemara statues made custom or members just converted existing horse statues to Connemaras. Given that there is almost no information on this club online, it seems to have been short-lived.

We found a flyer online in which Gray announced that she had started the society. She said (with some light editing for readability): The American Model Connemara Pony Society is a brand new club exclusively for Connemaras. Unsure of just what a Connemara is? It’s a breed of pony originating in Ireland, and these ponies have wonderful dispositions and are primarily popular as hunters, although they excel in other phases of showing, as well. They resemble small Thoroughbreds in conformation and usually run from 12 to 15 hands. They’re becoming increasingly popular in the real horse world and are just now coming into their own in the model horse world. Do you own a Connemara? Great! This is the place for you. If not, get yourself one and join the fun!

Connemaregistics

The newsletter section with registration data, titled Connemaregistics, included a list of eight new stallions registered with the ACPS. Their registrations were published the next year, in 1979, in Stud Book XV, along with three more stallions. It was an interesting time in the ACPS, because registrations fell off dramatically in 1978 and 1979. Only 36 fullbred Connemaras were registered in 1978 and 53 in 1979, down considerably from 126 in 1971 and even 88 in 1977.  But there were several stallions.

The newsletter also reported the death of Gaelin’s Bit of Heaven, born in 1963 by *Gael Linn out of Carna Countess (by Carna Dun). She had six foals.

Classified ads

Classified ads in the newsletter included an ad for a Connemara-Thoroughbred pony, Up to Par, a 14.1 1/2 hand bay mare, 6. She was qualified for the AHSA Hunter Pony Finals. She was out of *Shamrock Peach (by Tiger Gill) by Last Beacon (Thoroughbred). The ad had a nice photo (see gallery below) but no price.

None of the other ads had photos.

Revival of St. Louis National Charity Horse Show

Our favorite part of this newsletter is a full-page ad for the return of the St. Louis National Charity Horse Show after the show had not been held for 25 years. The ad invited Connemara owners to the A-rated multi-discipline show, including a full Connemara division, set for Oct. 2-7, 1978, in the converted Queeny Park arena.

The National was first held in 1856 and is the oldest horse show in the United States west of the Mississippi. In 1904, the show gained national recognition as part of the World’s Fair in St. Louis.

Bringing it back was the idea of Kerrymor Farm’s Joe and Joan McKenna Sr., along with friend and fellow horseman, Wayne Kennedy, who was St. Louis County Parks director and had recently overseen the building of a new ice arena in St. Louis County’s Queeny Park.

We just discovered photos of a show planning meeting of the board being held in our living room. Still trying to identify all the faces. It took two years to pull off the first show in 1978.

The lineup of night classes for the revived show was designed to entertain a general audience as much as a Broadway show or sporting event. It included Roadster classes (with bikes), Arabian costume classes, hunter and jumper classes, Saddlebred classes, a media class, and, of course, Mr. Rythm (spelled without the extra h), who dazzled audiences with his dancing with owner/rider Darrel Wallen.

To skip ahead a year here, even a Connemara working hunter class sneaked into the night lineup in 1979 (and maybe other years, but we have the evidence from 1979). The class’ 21 entries (two ultimately scratched) probably gave show organizers a heart attack. That’s a lot of horses to get through for a general audience. Those first years, spectators dressed up and paid to attend the show. The stands were packed. See photos in the gallery below.

Incidentally, that 1979 Connemara class with 21 entries drew Connemaras from all over the country, including Custusha’s Cashel Rock, a Texas Hope offspring from Washington state, who won the class with rider Michael Keough; previously mentioned competitors Round Robin’s Indestructible, of Indiana, Duv Luca, of Kentucky, and Red Ridge Super Star, of Connecticut; Gilnocky Ard Righ MacDaire, of Kentucky; Spring Ledge Irish Whiskey, of Arizona; Starlight of Lakeside, of Maine; Oak Hill’s Cameron, of Kansas; Irish Lark, of Indiana; and Spring Ledge Tralee, of New Hampshire. That list excludes the scratches, also from out of state. The rest of the entries were from St. Louis.

Can you imagine 21 Connemaras today being trained enough and owners willing to travel that far for an A-rated horse show?

In 1978, the show kicked off its big return with nine Connemara breed (conformation) classes. The five Connemara performance classes were sprinkled over additional days. There were championships for both types of classes. Cross entries were permitted with other divisions.

The Connemara division was removed from the show in 1985, the same year the McKennas moved to Arizona. Not sure why the division was cut. Perhaps there just weren’t enough Connemaras trained to the level of an A-rated show to fill the division anymore. The jumps at the revived National were big and imposing, and the limited size of the ring required horses and riders to be pretty handy in the over-fences classes. It was designed for owners used to showing in A-rated shows and everything that goes with that. It was a lot. Plus, many of the kids in the photo below of the 1979 class moved on from Connemaras and riding in general. Perhaps a new generation of Connemara hunter riders didn’t materialize. The ACPS’ focus has been elsewhere for decades now (encouraging big-boned pony stallions that cross well with Thoroughbreds for eventing), and hunter shows can’t be expected to hold Connemara divisions if the trained competitors aren’t there. Remember the survey above? Sixty-eight percent of Connemara owners in 1978 said they planned to show that year.  We doubt a survey today would see a rate that high.

The National continues, now split into a hunter/jumper week and Saddlebred week at a bigger facility built for the show in Lake Saint Louis, Missouri — a tribute to the people who carried the show forward.

The National has been honored as a USEF Heritage Competition, the highest honor reserved for competitions that have been in existence for a quarter-century or more, have promoted and grown equestrian sport, and have made contributions outside the show.

The giant medallions and ribbons that lined the walls for that first show, decorations that remain a part of the show today,  were put together by founding board member and hospitality chair Kay Chandeysson, owner of a halfbred Connemara. Kay pleated the first medallions by hand in her basement, pinning each pleat with a straight pin, to get them just the way she wanted them. Later, she found someone with a ruffler, and the task moved much more quickly. She was honored by the show in 2013 for her contributions. She also took credit for getting longtime ACPS Secretary Marynell Eyles into Connemaras.