Pony of the Decade MKII
The Pony of the Decade poll has been slightly altered since we launched it on New Year’s Day. Don’t worry – votes already cast are still there, and the poll is very much up and open for business, but there were one or two bumps along the road which we were not prepared for. It became clear that some measures had to be introduced and changes made (which we have done) and we’re now posting details of these changes so that everyone is satisfied that everything is above board!
- The first was the re-selection of some of the pics in our Pony of the Decade gallery, as well as adjusting the comments therein, in response to some very welcome feedback we recieved. I’d also like to thank Sabine Droege from Germany for a simply wonderful photo of Jessica Rose that completed our gallery of the top ponies (below).
- Secondly, and rightly, we changed the comments we had made to these photos to a more equitable and even format to make sure that no pony was viewed as being particularly favoured*. That was not ever the case. Bear in mind I was putting up these photo’s at 11:50 on New Year’s Eve – time was of the essense!
- Lastly, and most seriously, it became apparent very quickly that two particular visitors were either abusing the spirit of the poll, or simply did not understand the concept, and were not voting for five ponies once but rather voting for one or two ponies again, and again, and again. We can tell if votes are coming from the same IP address (i.e. the same computer). Therefore we have decided that all of the votes cast by these two users be reduced to one selection each, and the ponies ranks changed to reflect this. We have also introduced a measure to help restrict people’s voting – if you have already voted, the poll will not give you the option of voting immediately again.**
So, to be clear:
We want everyone that votes to select FIVE ponies – not just one – before they click ‘Vote’. You can only click the ‘Vote’ button once. The ultimate aim in the end, really (despite the title) is to see what the top five, or even ten, ponies of the past decade were – there will always be arguments about who’s exactly number one. In the end, they are all genuine champs anyway!
* A big thanks to JP for the feedback on the photo’s and comments.
** Yes, I know exactly how to get around this too but let’s not be too harsh. I can always just block the IP address, but who want’s to stem enthusiasm?
Hi,
I was trying to vote but only 13 of the ponies are showing up in the poll with a box to check for voting…if that makes sense….
Happy New Year!
Margot
Hi Margot, sorry you’re having trouble – Poll seems to be working fine here so I’m not sure what the problem is…
Try emptying your browser cache and then refreshing the page. To do this in Internet Explorer, press Ctrl+Shift+Delete and make sure that the ‘Cookies’ box is checked. Then press delete.
On Firefox, go to Tools => Options => Advanced => Network Tab => Clear Now.
That there is some conflict happening with your cache is the only solution I can think of, and the above should resolve it. See how you get on and get back to me if it doesn’t work.
Happy New Year to you and yours,
Éamonn
Hi Eammon and Tom,
Virtually impossible to select just 5 as I know and love almost all the ponies on your list!!! It’s a great idea and I’m flattered to have our boy included as well as his 3 siblings.
Happy New Year from sunny Australia – please send your rain this way
Sue
@Sue,
Same to you Sue!
Not rain but ice this time I’m afraid…
How we appreciate these well-known ponies who have contributed greatly to the Connemara Pony breed, as performance ponies and as typey, strong, foundation stock. I could vote “for” every one! The captions under each photograph were concise and informative. Thank you for sharing further knowledge of these outstanding ponies in this “fun” exercise! Happy New Year to all!
Joanie Webster
Hi Tom And Eammon, What a fun idea susan sent me this on and it is 38′ here and the horses are hiding in the shade and going swimming this evening!! so this is a good way to spend a half hour out of the heat on a day off! kind regards karen holloway
38 degrees! I’d collapse in 38 degrees – I collapse in 20 degrees as it is! Put it this way, thanks to a freezing fog, the back door of my house was frozen shut this morning. Ever have to defrost your house? ;)
Thanks to Tom and Eammon for devising this online voting for “Pony of the Decade”. Via email, I have shared this interesting voting opportunity with many Connemara pony enthusiasts around the world! It will be fun to see the results. As you say, ALL these Connemara ponies are Champions!!
Already, we are one week into the New Year! I hope everyone will have a happy, healthy, peace-filled, prosperous New Year. God willing, I will see you in March and August!
Susan McConnell, USA
Thanks Susan! Good to hear from you!
dissapointed not to see TEMPLEBREADY FEAR BUI on th list.
Dan, sorry about that – we did ask people since mid December to submit options, but there were bound to be a few that slipped through…
Hi Dan,
I agree, Fear Bui is definitely one that could have been included. I’m actually a big fan of the performance stallions and particularly like Fear Bui’s breeding as the Winter connection is very rare and very special.
If you’d like to send a photograph and list some of his progeny and achievements, we’d love to do a feature on him on the site. We’d be particularly interested in some half-breds by him, as they are terrific ambassadors for the pure breds
Tom.
Hello Tom and Eammon,
what a lovely idea! It is hard to choose only five, I agree, they are all wonderful ponies.
Wishing You and all visitors here a successful and happy 2010!
Regards from Bremen/Germany
having an ununsual cold and snowy winter here in the North-West
May
May, thanks for the kind sentiments! Very, very cold here too!
What a fabulous idea. So hard to choose 5 from such a stunning choice.
When is the completion of the voting. I’ll wait until Jennifer Rose shows up on the list of check boxes for the vote. As Margo mentioned, they don’t all appear for voting.
What a fun idea!
Julie
Julie, the poll continues till the end of the month, so plenty of time to update!
Happy New Year Eammon and Tom and to all of you Connemara enthusiasts out there!
What proof do we need more in order to recognize the mystic spirit of our Connemara ponies? Eammon and Tom are spending New Year’s Eve with creating this excellent new feature for the worldwide Connemara Pony Community. And isn’t it another proof in this respect that I know most of these terrific pony champs personally but unfortunately not you Eammon and Tom? On the other hand, vice versa I wouldn’t feel competent to vote here.
Thank you for submitting this opportunity to me. I’m looking forward to the results.
Kind Regards from the German sunny and snowy South Black Forest
Elke
I would like to vote but still only 13 ponies showing up Not really fair on the other 7. Thank tou
@ Margot, Gillian & Julie:
OK guys, I think I’ve solved the problem – I tested the poll (and it worked) on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome, so the only other suspects were older versions of Internet Explorer.
Turns out the poll works fine on version 8 and version 5.5 and 6 – but gets cut short with version 7. Typical! Anyway, the moral of the story is that you need to update your Internet Explorer browsers to the latest version (version 8). You can do so here. You should do this anyway to get the new internet security features. Hope this works!
Tried everything still 7 ponies not on poll— could you change the order and put missing 7 at the beggining for a couple of weeks Thank you Gillian
‘fraid not Gillian. If I go messing with the poll mid-way, I’ll have to save it as a new poll and everything, including the 300+ votes will reset to zero. And it still wouldn’t solve your problem. It should work. I’ve tested it thoroughly and very few (three?) people are having difficulty. Frankly I don’t know why the problem is there. Shorter polls in the future methinks!
hello tom and eammon,what a great idea online voting for pony of the decade.its hard to pick the best of such good ponies.i ve watched sillogue darkie progress over the last few months,and he without a doubt an outstanding horse.wishing youthe best of luck from Australia..ben
Thanks Ben! Be sure to check back in the first week of Feb. to see who comes in on top (poll ends Jan 31st). We’ll be doing a write up on the top three or so ponies as well.
A very interesting and fun poll – very difficult to choose. I’d also like to see this done with a poll for both mares and stallions separately.
This is actually something we were talking about doing sometime in the future, but we have to have a think about how we’d go about it – and who’d be in it ;)
Suggestions Welcome!
going on pigeonsites for votes is a bit unfair as these peaple have no idea about horses. [edited]
We’re always ready to educate them. ;)
Hi guys, just a quick note in response to some (unpublished) comments made:
I am aware of the practice of supporters of various ponies using online forums to drum up support for their favorite. I do assure you however that the actual votes brought in by these messages are very, very few – too few to actually affect the eventual poll results. Most votes are actually being brought in by people e-mailing each other and letting each other know about the poll.
The whole purpose of these polls – in fact, the site itself – is to foster enthusiasm and discussion for and about the breed. If people are talking about who the best ponies of the past ten years were on message boards, forums, and e-mails, then we can say that the poll has done it’s job.
I know that some would place more importance on the exact results than others, but, in the end, an online poll is merely a way of testing the waters. That’s why we look for people to nominate five ponies instead of one – is Dexter a better pony than Darkie, or Darkie a better pony than Coral Misty, simply on the difference of five or ten votes? Of course not! But their positions at the top of the list gives us an indication of the affection and esteem people have for these particular ponies. It is our intention to then reward this affection with some good write-ups on these ponies after the poll’s end.
So, in conclusion, don’t worry too much when you see a message extolling people to vote for a particular pony on our poll – it’s not doing anyone much good, and it’s certainly not doing any pony any harm. The final proofs will always rest within the ponies themselves!
Mr Bruce what makes you think pigeon men don’t know about horses??? and as stated by Eamonn those that dont can learn something, plus what makes you think none of the other people have not donethe same e-mailing others???…its hardly a life or death thing is it….mick
That’s it! Poll has closed, all votes are in. A big thank you to everyone who participated – a huge response. You can click over to our Poll Archive to see the results…