FAQ’s Section
GENERAL
Who is behind Ashbrook Stud?
The origins of the stud go back to the early 1950′s in Aill Fhraoigh, Moycullen when Sean Mac Lochlainn, Tom’s father, started to breed Connemara ponies for the overseas market. Tom, who now – and for many years – lives in New Inn, set up his own small stud in the nearby townland of Ashbrook, where he and his sons Macdara and Brian maintain a herd. Tom, who was president of the CPBS from 2005-2008, one time vice-Chair of the International Committee of Connemara Pony Societies (ICCPS), now sits on the CPBS’ Marketing Committee. The website itself is designed, built and maintained by me, Éamonn, another of his sons.
Where do you get your news, information and other content?
Everywhere and Anywhere. Tom is obviously the primary source of almost all the news and every other type of content, but we also recieve items from readers and friends of the Connemara worldwide. We’re particularly delighted with this, as it helps us both to keep our content fresh, but also to help us move toward being a useful and accessible source of information for Connemara Pony lovers everywhere.
Can I send in something to put up on the website?
Certainly you can. We’d love to have it! As long as it doesn’t constitute commercial advertisement for a business, we will include any news items, photo collections, articles, etc. you want to share. The more the merrier. We would of course have to adapt it to fit within the structure of the website (i.e. “I want this in big letters accross the entire front page, please” is a no no.) but otherwise please send it in! (Potential Advertisers please see FAQ ‘Can I advertise on your site?’)
How do I contact you by letter or by ‘phone?
Our full contact details are listed on the ‘Contact Us’ page here.
I’ve noticed a mistake on the website. Can you change it?
I’ve got a suggestion for a change to the website…
Please let me know if you spot something amiss. We’d much prefer to take the time to solve a problem than to leave it unsolved and still a problem. Likewise with any suggestions you may have for improving the site – the more advice, the better the site will become. You can e-mail me here or use the link which will always be at the top right of the page.
Can I advertise on your site?
If it’s a show, an event, or something toward the general good, then there shouldn’t be a problem – in fact we appreciate all of these notices as useful to our readers. If it’s for commercial purposes, then please contact us via our contact page address for consideration.
I would like to use one of the photo’s on your site. Are they free to use?
If you want to use one of our photo’s, there shouldn’t be a problem. The only thing is, you don’t know which photo’s are ours and which are just used with the permission of the original photographer. Therefore, as a rule of thumb, if you want to use something from this site, just e-mail us and we’ll let you know if it’s possible or not. The graphics used on the site have been created solely for this site and may not be used elsewhere.
TECHNICAL
The website no longer fits inside my screen.
The times, I’m afraid, they are a’ changin’. While Version 1 did resize automatically to fit your screen, Version 3 is a far more complex beast and to achieve the same would simply take too much time as to be impractical. In my defense, the vast majority of websites being designed now are, as this is, for the larger resolution of 1024 X 768 – so you may need to think of resizing that screen or your problem is only going to get worse.
To do so:
Return to your desktop,
Right click on a blank area of the screen,
Select ‘Properties’. This will open a new window where you can adjust the various display settings of your monitor.
Select ‘Settings’, there you will find a small slide rule where you can adjust the resolution of the screen to a higher value. If you are on 800 X 600 and the slide rule doesn’t go any higher, then I’m afraid your monitor needs to be upgraded to achieve those higher resolutions. In the meantime, there should be a scrollbar at the bottom of your screen to enable you to scroll to the right for that missing content.
I cant make a comment – all the input boxes are really small!
You’re probably using Internet Explorer on Windows whilst also running some form of third-party Windows skinner such as Windows Blinds. Many of these conflict with IE’s way of displaying various forms of Form items – buttons and input boxes and such. This is not the web-site’s fault, nor, for once, Internet Explorer’s. You can either a)Stop using Windows Blinds (or whichever), b)Stop using Internet Explorer, or c)Override the X Blinds styling. The latter is probably the most convenient:
To do so:
Go to the toolbar at the top of Internet Explorer’s screen, select ‘Tools’.
Select ‘Internet Options’.
Go to ‘Advanced’. You should now see a big long list of various options with tick boxes beside them.
Scroll down to the ‘Browsing’ section of the list, find where is says ‘Enable visual styles on buttons and controls in webpages’. Un-tick this box.
This should solve your problem. If not, then it’s back to options ‘a’ or ‘b’…
On some pages the design seems to break apart, what’s happening?
You browser is out of date or you are using a non-mainstream browser. Ashbrookstud.ie has been tested thoroughly and should work perfectly on all up-to-date versions of all the major browsers – Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome. If you feel this is not the issue, please do let us know.
