Stoneybrook Finn MacCool
Dressage4Kids
HIT on the Hudson Showgrounds
Saugarties NY
2013
by Jennifer

Sometimes your best friend is a guardian angel in disguise

QUOTE: For the LOVE of Horses

our Miss Shorty Chelsea 21 years old and Finny

https://dressage4kids.org/

This is the flagship event of Dressage4Kids, Inc. (Lendon Gray Youth Dressage Festival) conducted in July or August. Instituted in 1999, the festival offers individual and team competition for riders from ages 4 through 25. Division championships feature a three-phased competition: a written test, an individual dressage test, and an equitation ride. Divisions offered are Introductory through Fourth, FEI Pony, Junior and Young Rider and Para Equestrian. Riders may also assemble teams. Prix Caprilli (dressage ride incorporating jumps), Dressage Trail and Musical Freestyle are offered, as are other competitive and fun activities.


The Connemara Pony is a pony breed originating in Ireland. They are known for their athleticism, versatility and good disposition. The breed makes excellent show ponies.

The Connemara region in County Galway in western Ireland, where the breed first became recognized as a distinct type, is a very harsh landscape, thus giving rise to a pony breed of hardy, strong individuals. Some believe that the Connemara developed from Scandinavian ponies that the Vikings first brought to Ireland. Another source was likely the Irish Hobby, a now-extinct breed established prior to the 13th century. Legend, however, says that galleons from the Spanish Armada ran aground in 1588, and the Andalusians on board were set loose. The Spanish horses bred with the native stock, refining the local ponies.
For additional strength and stamina, Arabian blood was added in the 18th century. They were also crossed with Hackneys and Thoroughbreds. Too much crossbreeding began to dilute the pony bloodlines, so the Connemara Pony Breeders' Society, worked to preserve the breed type. The stud book was established in 1926. Today, Connemaras are bred worldwide in Ireland and Britain, as well as on the European continent, North America, Australasia, and South Africa.
The Connemara Pony Breeders Society was established in 1923 and set out to ensure the "preservation and improvement of the Connemara Pony" as the native breed of Ireland. The society runs an annual pony show and has been doing so since its founding. The annual show allows the assembly of the largest collection of Connemara Ponies worldwide and is used to buy and sell ponies from Ireland and abroad.