Midlands’ International Conference a Success
The inaugural ‘Let’s Talk Pony’ conference, organised by the Midland’s group took place before a large audience at the Bridge House Hotel, Tullamore, today. The seven presentations – ranging over a wide range of topics from hoof care, to breeding, to colour genetics – were uniformly excellent. Nina Gustafsson from Sweden gave the proceedings an international flavour. It was fascinating to hear Nina speak of the early Cloonkeehan Auratum and Carna Dun imports, and the important part that Slieve Dara, Dale Haze, and Oxenholm Marble Jr. played in providing a type corrective.
Stephania Bucca was quite brilliant on reproductive matters, emphasising the importance of using the first foaling heat for maximum fertility. Her own preference was live mating when the mare had a ten-day recovery period. A detailed analysis by David McCann gave food for thought on conformation, and while he started with the head, the organisers wisely started with the foot when farrier Jeremy Stanley left no questions unanswered on the pony’s footcare. And, by the way – he has no problem whatsoever with the white hoof! Wendy Conlon gave a very informative talk on nutrition, emphasising the importance of monitoring the condition of the mare and the avoidance of over feeding (and she never mentioned mangolds!). Barry Leek gave a technical overview of coat colour inheritance, which is always a subject of great interest to breeders of dun ponies. Barry, in fact, came gallantly to the rescue of the organisers at the last minute when Tuula Pyoria found herself ash-bound in Helsinki. Of course the future of the breed is very much in the performance arena, and none better to deal with this than Mary McCann, who spoke in detail of the efforts being made by the RDS to promote the Connemara as a working pony. As an interesting aside, Mary felt that there was a considerable market in half-bred Connemaras as foundation stock for the Irish sport horse of the future.
It was a most informative day, everybody was well fed, and proceedings were conducted in the usual friendly midland’s ambience. John Moran and his team should be well pleased.
Over the course of the coming weeks, we hope to be able to bring to you some interesting articles based on the transcripts of the event. Stay tuned!
