CONNEMARA

The one everyone wants

The remaining M&M is, some would argue, the best — a good-looking, surefooted, sturdy, sweet-tempered all-rounder. The Connemara comes from the rugged west coast of Ireland, where one misplaced hoof would have sent it tumbling to instant death on the rocks below. Its origins go back some 2,500 years to the time when Celtic warriors brought their dun-coloured ponies to Ireland to draw war chariots and carts along the beaches and river plains of their new-found home. Some of these escaped and survived in the wild. Much later, the farmers of the region, scratching a meagre living, would capture a pony and tame it — preferably a mare, which could give them a foal to sell. Those great mares, bred to selected stallions, give us the modern Connemara — the native breed that everyone wants to own. But will it triumph at the inaugural SEIB Mountain and Moorland Search for a Star final at Your Horse Live? Only time will tell.