Stud visit to Glenormiston

It feels a bit strange to look at weanling foals and Connemaras in their winter woollies in the middle of July. Or to see fields full of eucalyptus trees, koalas and birds that look nothing like those we have in Sweden. On the other hand the winter coats were not very wooly, the "winter temperatures" were comfortable 20 degrees during the days and if you have traveled to the other side of the globe you have to be prepared things are not quite the same as at home.

It was while on a combined conference visit and holiday trip in Australia that I had the opportunity to visit Sue Clark and her Connemaras at the Glenormiston stud. Sue has bred Connemaras for close to 30 years and after a move a number of years earlier, when the suburbs of Brisbane were getting too close, the stud is now located about an hours drive north west of Brisbane. After several years of contact over email I now finally had the opportunity to meet Sue in real life when my boyfriend and I came driving from the north towards Sydney.

Sue's Connemara interest began already as a child when she saw pictures of Golden Arrow and Heather's Own in a horse books. When she later, as an adult, bought a horse it was an arabian mare that she covered with a Connemara stallion as Connemaras were so rare. When the foal was born it was so much more sensible than it's mother Sue decided that the one and only breed for here was the Connemara.

Sue's first Connemara was the stallion Domo Cavallo Praize (by Connemara Park Peter out of Kirtling Haze). As foundation mares she bought Australian, British, Irish and after the international Connemara festivals in Denmark also Danish mares, and the stallions Abbeyleix Finbar (by Ballydonagh Rob out of Finola of Leam) and Øxenholm Gideon (by Øxenholm Godot out of Ardnasillagh Treasure) were later added to the stud. when the foundation mares retired and were replaced by their daughters the stud introduced new blood in the shape of Castle Baron (by Abbeyleix Owen out of Castle Dame).

Our tour of the stud started with the stallions. Senior of the stud is 28-year-old Praize. Sue told me that she was really looking for a filly when she saw Praize with his breeder. The filly had not been what Sue was looking for, but Praize completely captured her with his charm she ended up buying a stallion rather than a filly. Praize has been the ultimate family pony and has been competed by Sue's children in both show jumping and eventing, and among his progeny is a son competing successfully in show jumping among horses. Praize was recovering from a difficult foot injury and was a bit lacking in condition. There was no mistaking that he must have been a very nice pony in his heydays and Sue hoped he would put on some weight once the rain had come and the grass started to grow.

That the presence of rain, or lack there of, played an enormous role was easy to understand after seeing Sue's fields. To a Swede it was amazingly dry although Sue ensured that they actually did have received some rain this summer and thus had grass. Normally it was during the summer that the rain fell and during the past rain seasons there had been very little rain which was reflected in the empty dams and dry creeks.

A few years ago Sue's Danish stallion, Gideon, died, but the third of the stud's foundation sires, Finbar, was still alive and well at 25 years of age. Since his sire is by Carna Bobby he is a 3/4 brother of the famous stallions Leam Bobby Finn and Coosheen Finn, and he carried his years with ease. Finbar is the sire of several champions and Sue said that his daughters make wonderful broodmares who had good offspring regardless of which stallion they were covered with.

Next we continued to Castle Baron, or Henry as he is called after his breeder. Henry had a wonderful type and also moved well. His full siblings Castle COuntess, Castle Comet and Castle Urchin have been very successful in Ireland and the UK and Henry was not far behind his siblings. At the beginning of the year he was the first Connemara ever to be Supreme Champion Pony at the Australian Pony Stud Book Society's show in Queensland. Sue was of course very happy to own such a nice stallion as Henry, in particular as he had given her nice foals too. It is lucky, she said, that he is bay. If he had been grey I could never have afford to buy him.

Having said hello to Glenormiston Fionnuala (by Abbeyleix Finbar out of Øxenholm Tiffany) who went in a field of her own, and the foals that had not yet been sold, we continued to have a look at the brood mares. They were all together, some 10 -15 ponies, in a big field and came trotting towards us when Sue honked the horn, a new way to call for horses for me. Of the original foundation mares only 22-year-old Øxenholm Tiffany (by Rory Ruadh out of Ardnasillagh Treasure) was left. Tiffany was the leader of the herd and hated dogs with a passion. Something that came handy as dingoes were not unusual around the stud. On several occasions Sue had seen Tiffany chase off dingoes. In addition to her dog chaser talents Tiffany had also been a very good brood mare. Several of her daughters have been in hand champions and a son has been exported to the US.

The remainder of the mares were home bred or progeny of the stud's stallions. It was a collection of very nice typey mares who were grazing in the field. Most of the mares were white greys as both Praize and Finbar are homozygous for the grey allele, and soon it was difficult to keep apart the mares and their pedigrees. It was, however, easy to recognize Finbar in his daughters. The latest addition to the herd was two daughters of Gideon who had earlier been at a riding school*. I need brood mares about as much as I need a broken bone, Sue joked, but was they had been cheap and she had few Gideon daughters she had been unable to resist the temptation.

When we had finished looking at the brood mares the fillies were next in line, a group sociable individuals who took turns in chasing each other off so that they would be the ones to be cuddled. Some were for sale and others Sue was keeping, at least for now. Her problem was, however, that she wouldn't have any suitable stallion for Henry's daughters once they were old enough to be covered, so maybe the were to be sold after all. We finished in the gelding field. There we found young ponies due to be sold and two thoroughbred part breds which Sue's daughter had competed in eventing up to international level, but who were now retired.

When we were done with the geldings I was somewhat overwhelmed with al the ponies I had seen and the boyfriend was beginning to look a bit weak. I asked Sue how many ponies she had and she laughed and said: too many. Nevertheless it was a pleasure gorge oneself in the sights of all these wonderful ponies and it was nice to come to the conclusion that a Connemara is a Connemara, also on the other side of the world.

� Jenny Hagenblad, 2003

* I think these were Glenormiston Rosslea and Glenormiston Scarteen, the two duns in the photo.

All photos from Glenormiston