Spanish Gold
A short poem on a somewhat unusual aspect of the Connemara breed’s possible origins. The Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588 with the purpose of invading and conquering England. It was driven from its anchorage off France by an English fire ship attack, and in the ensuing battle at Gravelines the fleet was forced to abandon its rendezvous with Spain’s army. The Armada managed to regroup and withdraw north, and a return voyage to Spain was plotted, taking the fleet into the Atlantic, past Ireland.
Severe storms disrupted the fleet’s course, and many vessels were wrecked on Ireland’s north and western coasts. Of the 50 ships lost in the entire expedition, over half fell victim to our jagged coast rather than to military action. There are many tales of survivors, including horses, swimming ashore from these stricken vessels, and many like to attribute the marked Barb and Arab influence can be seen in some of our ponies today to these unfortunates. Map in Public Domain
I’ve heard men say you swam ashore,
From great doomed galleons off Leitir Mór.
You’d left your Spanish stables thinking,
Grandiose schemes of empire building.Though navigation was your boast,
You foundered on the Galway coast.
Far from your Andalusian homes,
To fortify King Philip’s throne.Men marvelled at your stylish paces,
Your tail held high, your airs and graces,
Your chiseled head and sloping quarters,
Golden Duns in inlaid halters.They were glad ’twas there you went,
(and not to Sussex or to Kent!).
You exchanged your jewelled Spanish tether,
For mountainsides of Irish heather.But on those hills you were not lonely,
mating with the native ponaidh.
You missed, no doubt, the sun drenched tropics,
But made our bloodlines more exotic.So while the Virgin Queen was jolly,
The Spanish King did rue his folly.
His dreams of conquest unfulfilled,
His equine gold on Galway’s hills.
