To breed means “to think in generations”. Such a small population as this breed of Connemara is a big responsibility for a breeder to handle the gene pool. Following the analysis of the Feely-Report by the International Committee of Connemara Pony Societies (ICCPS), it appears that the Connemara Pony breed is challenged by two problems. Firstly, the survival of the traditional type of breed is under threat, and secondly, the genetic diversity of the breed is diminishing. Adequate genetic diversity is vital for the long-term health and viability of any population.

Aims of our breeding program:

- to avoid mating of related ponies: normally the stallions used for breeding are often closely related to each other and therefore tend to be of similar ancestry or breeding lines. From a genetic diversity perspective it is advantageous to have access to a pool of stallions for breeding that are less related to each other to bestow a variety of genes to the future generations.

- consolidation of breeding type and diminishing the Welsh Cob, Thoroughbred, Irish Draught and Arab genes in the pedigree of Connemaras.

- to avoid the mating of ponies, who carry a genetic disposition for the summer eczema (a kind of multifactorial metabolic disease) in their breeding lines.

To achieve these aims we pay utmost attention when selecting stallions for our program.

Colours:

A good horse has no colours – so the saying goes. But my personal favourite colour in a pony is yellow but of course the quality of ponies does not depend on their colour.