The Winter 1980 issue of the American Connemara Pony Society News was labeled as Autumn 1979 and Volume 9, No. 4, which would have been the last issue of 1979, but ACPS Secretary Betty O’Brien clarified at the start of her column that the issue was the Winter 1980 issue. Either there was no Autumn 1979 issue or she forgot to update the folio.

We don’t have an Autumn 1979 issue, but we’re missing several issues, so that is not indicative of what happened.

O’Brien’s column

O’Brien said a new category of membership, the supporting membership, had been created for those who were no longer actively involved in the society (only 23 years old at this point) but who wished to continue to support the work of the society and the breed. This was a nonvoting membership.

She then chided members for forcing her to remind them over and over that their membership fees were due. She said she usually sent reminders to individuals, in addition printing reminders in the newsletter, but this process was expensive and time-consuming. She said: “I should be most grateful if those of you who have not paid by the time the News comes out would please do so without waiting for an individual reminder. How about right now.”

We wonder why people were dragging their feet on paying. Senior membership was $15 and life membership was $150. Even in 1980, those were not crazy amounts of money.

Marian Molthan, MD, takes over as ACPS president

Also on the newsletter cover was a column from the new ACPS president, Marian Molthan, MD, of Phoenix, Arizona, who had attended the annual meeting held in conjunction with the St. Louis National Charity Horse Show in October 1979 while also bringing her stallion, Spring Ledge Irish Whiskey. Whiskers was trained across a range of disciplines (endurance, hunters, eventing, driving) and was a genuinely nice and unflappable Connemara.

In Doc’s column, she thanked the ACPS meeting and show organizers and then gave a tip of the hat to Lynfields Kiltuck for winning the conformation championship and Round Robin’s Indestructible, with child rider Deirdre Heekin, for winning the performance championship.

Referring to Indy and Deirdre, Doc said: “It is great to see a cheerful junior beat the stuffings out of the oldsters and the pros. That’s what it’s all about!”

She included a sentence on Custusha’s Cashel Rock, who was at the show, saying “Go West, young man,” likely referring to owners Mel and Helen King moving Rocky to the West Coast from Massachusetts.

Then, Doc turned to the ACPS’ goals for the future, saying: “Let us all breed better ponies and get them to nice new homes. Let us breed for the whole pony: body, head, neck, legs – straight legs, and temperament.

“There is plenty of room for all of the subtypes of the Connemara. The three-day horse, the show champion, the gentle kid’s pony, the endurance horse, the intermediate-level rider’s pleasure hack or the field hunter. Let us get our lovely ponies out where people see them and want one.

“Most people who want a horse or pony want one right now. Somehow, we must solve the problem of matching the customer to the desired pony. The small breeder always has a bunch of lovely ponies, but each is the wrong age, sex, size or color for the particular customer.

“So call your other regional breeders, find the customer a pony fast or the customer will not wait. He will go and buy an Appaloosa instead. If you have a pony for sale, fill out three small file cards: name, address, sex, price, floor, degree of training, anticipated best use. Send one to me, one to Betty O’Brien and one to your regional chairman (obviously, this was all before the internet came into use).”

Doc also suggested a point system for performance in various areas to keep track of competitors’ medals at shows, mileage for endurance rides, etc., and she asked for a  volunteer to track the points.

This seems to be the first mention of the idea of annual achievement awards handed out based on points and other milestones. Let the record show that Doc proposed this idea in January 1980.

And then Doc took issue with the ACPS’ ban on blue-eyed creams: “Let’s consider the removal of the restriction of registration of blue-eyed creams so as to encourage the breeding of better ponies, regardless of color. After all, if you get a cream colt, he’ll make a fine using horse as a gelding, and if you get a filly, just breed her to a bay for the best colored pony of all — a buckskin.”

The ACPS had implemented the ban on blue-eyed creams on Jan. 1, 1967. The ban wasn’t removed until 2016, some 36 years after Doc started the movement to get rid of it in 1980.

By the way, we never saw a blue-eyed cream at Doc’s Foxglove Farm in Arizona. It doesn’t appear that she was arguing for one of her own Connemaras. She was a pediatric cardiologist arguing for good science and against petty discrimination.

ACPS mission statement

The ACPS continued to print its mission on Page 2: “The objects of the American Connemara Pony Society will be to assist in the importation, registration, breeding, training, exhibiting and general use of Connemaras within the United States and to keep the members of the society informed concerning activities in the Connemara field.”

This is the second time we’ve printed this version of the ACPS mission, which had dropped a loyalty clause to Ireland and England from the mission statement printed in the first stud book in 1959.

Neither mission statement ever said anything about excluding Connemaras as part of its goal.

Ads for Connemaras

Mel and Helen King took out a full-page ad with a collage of drawings of Custusha’s Cashel Rock to thank the Keough family of Massachusetts and those who worked for them for training Rocky for three years and to pay tribute to the late Paddy Keough, who died in August 1979 while showing Rocky in hand.

There were a lot of “for sale” ads in this issue but few display ads had photos, and, honestly, they needed photos. The four display ads without photos were for a 15-hand gray full-bred mare, a 15.1-hand dark brown full-bred gelding, a 15.1 1/2-hand dun full-bred gelding, and 14.1-hand bay full-bred gelding. You want to see these Connemaras, don’t you?

Two display ads did have photos (see gallery):

Timberlea’s Easter Joy (by Far Above’s Shannon out of Far Above’s Bonny Leenane), a 15-2 hand dark bay mare born in 1975, was offered for sale by Timberlea Farms in Girard, Pennsylvania. The ad said she had been worked on the lunge line but was not under saddle yet, with excellent conformation and an excellent disposition. Kerrymor Farm bought Easter eventually. We are not sure if it was at this moment in time. She was a character, routinely crossing her front legs when standing around. She did well in both hunters and jumpers and had one foal for us, though it was a challenging delivery, and we’re not sure she ever had another foal. She was a wonderful mare.

The other ad with a photo was for Rimon Simon, a 5-month old bay colt by Hideaway’s Greystone-Alex out of Rhythm in Rome. He was offered as a combined training or dressage prospect. Not seeing a permanent registration for this one. Perhaps Rimon Simon was a halfbred. The seller was in Pennsylvania.

Then, there were seven classified ads for Connemaras for sale, listings similar to newspaper classified ads.

And, finally, Secretary O’Brien ran four wanted ads. It is unclear if these were general requests she received and decided to share with members, as she had in the Fall 1978 issue, or prospective owners who had actually placed ads in the newsletter.

And, finally, there were four small winning photos from an ACPS photography contest. The captions said who took the photo, not who the Connemara was, and one photo was taken in Ireland of an unknown pony. The photos have no historical value now (and aren’t very good, in our opinion). We left them out.