Connemara - buying from Ireland??

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Honey65

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Hi

Looking to buy a connemara pure / cross for my 13 year old daughter. She has been riding for a few years and is a technically capable rider. She was jumping around 50cm. In the summer she lost her confidence with a New Forest loan pony who was overly eager to jump, lacked breaks, and had no manners on the ground.

She is now regaining her confidence with lovely cob pony. He is capable of jumping 1m and has fab confidence and breaks but his owner will be taking him back in a couple of months so I think now is the time to buy.

I want her to continue to regain her confidence but also buy a pony who will last a few years. I'm lucky enough to have a budget of £5k and I'm thinking of buying a connemara.

Could anyone advise on breed and producers / what I should be looking for? I've bought several horses for myself and it's always been hard work travelling every weekend to far away places to find they are not as described. I have friends very close to https://www.irishsportequine.com/ so thinking of a potential shopping visit - I can't imagine buying unseen like some do. Anyone got any experience of them?
 
The dealer you link to tend to sell very green but carefully videoed ponies that would be unlikely to be the confidence giving pony you are looking for, with that budget you will find a nice pony nearer to home that you can try a couple of times, check references properly and get it vetted before bringing it home.

I would not go to Ireland on a buying trip looking for what you need, you may get lucky but children tend to fall for ponies on the day without having the experience to say no which is why looking near home so you can go back a second time is invaluable in my experience, I have had to pick up the pieces all too often.
 
I’ve just bought a Connie yearling from Ireland unseen and bought my adult Connie from Ireland 10years ago.
There is a fb page you can join if you put an ad up for what you are looking for.
They do tend to crack on with them in Ireland so a lot are green. I do love connies tho. They can be sharp but hearts of gold 😍
 
as much as I love my connie, why do you not just look for a confidence giving jumping pony of the right height for your daughter and go for the right temperament rather than a specific breed.

You may well end up with a connemara anyway but there are lots of good ponies of various types of breeding that would do the job
 
If you buy from that dealer, be prepared to factor in some extra money. There have been many instances of horses from there requiring different things after purchase and while they are nice horses, the owners had the experience and the cash to get issues sorted. The pony is pretty much guaranteed to be much greener than it looks in the video. You have a decent budget so I would stay closer to home. I'd also say, that there's been threads on here where the general consensus is that they can be extremely sharp so I'd open up the search to other breeds and types.
 
MotherOfChickens said:
If you buy from that dealer, be prepared to factor in some extra money. There have been many instances of horses from there requiring different things after purchase and while they are nice horses, the owners had the experience and the cash to get issues sorted. The pony is pretty much guaranteed to be much greener than it looks in the video. You have a decent budget so I would stay closer to home. I'd also say, that there's been threads on here where the general consensus is that they can be extremely sharp so I'd open up the search to other breeds and types.
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I do love my connies but yep I can certainly vouch for their sharpness!!!
 
Why can't you buy a connie in the UK? There are certainly very nice ponies in Ireland but as already stated most will be quite green or will have been hurriedly broken to sell. Have a look at some of the bigger UK studs, not all connies are sharp but you do need to do your homework and make sure the pony ha sufficient miles on the clock, has a good competition record. Also need to ensure its been tested for HWSD and its properly vetted. Many of the Irish connies are sold in the UK still with the original Irish vetting certificate they had when they went through one of the sales rings in Ireland. I've a few Irish bred connies, and have always found it safer to buy unbroken, there does seem to have been a subtle change in temperament in some of the bloodlines in more recent times. The BCPS has a sales list on its website, may be worth looking at that.
 
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If you’re looking for a confidence giver I wouldn’t be buying off a video from Ireland! I’d be looking at any breed that can do the job and viewing it on a few occasions in a few situations. I travel to Ireland every 6 weeks or so to buy one or two so have a good understanding of the production work that is done.
 
Hmm I'm not sure I'd go for a Connemara if I wanted my 13 year old to regain confidence. They are a bit like Shetlands - they need a job, and the fact that they both have "pony" in their names doesn't necessarily mean they are suitable for children :)

A trip to Clifden in August can be huge fun, but for buying something for your needs, I would look closer to home and buy a good, known, confidence giving pony that your daughter can really enjoy.
 
A lot of connies are devils at taking advantage of kids who aren't 100% on the ball. I would never personally buy one as a confidence giver for a child, you see a lot of them running rings around kids at times. They are super all rounders, but they do best with tougher kids who can kick them on when they are trying to pull a fast one!
 
paddi22 said:
A lot of connies are devils at taking advantage of kids who aren't 100% on the ball. I would never personally buy one as a confidence giver for a child, you see a lot of them running rings around kids at times. They are super all rounders, but they do best with tougher kids who can kick them on when they are trying to pull a fast one!
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Better still with adults!
 
Another that wouldn't buy a connie for an underconfident child.

My 2 best ponies have been connies - fab hunting ponies but both could be sharp and need quite firm handling as youngsters.

Having said that, an older 'been there and done it' model may suit better, but that can be said of any breed.

Good luck in your search.
 
Definately stick to this country, keep checking local ads, study the videos & then a couple of viewings, travelling long distance is likely to make you have a quick rather than considered decision. For a child with confidence issues it needs to be the right horse.
Your budget is healthy, I have just shopped with the same budget. Most sellers I spoke to commented they had lots of interest but no actual viewings, or people viewed & made stupid offers.
Found my fabulous conny x, 14.2 for a bit under £4k. She has brilliant training & is every bit as described.
 
Another one who would go for the right pony rather than a specific breed.You could try looking on the pony club website to see if there is anything suitable on there.
 
Id also go for pony not breed: safe, sane jumping ponies who can both jump up to 100cm tracks AND are easy confidence giving rides are very hard to find! I am lucky enough to have one like that for my less confident daughter, but she is a Heinz 57 variety older pony sold via word of mouth. Good luck.
 
Check out Chamberlain Sports Horses. She has some incredible Connie types. They’ll be top end of your budget, but if I had the money, I would’ve snapped one up straight away! She’s in the East Midlands.
 
Like previous posters I would look at pony club ads. (That’s how I got my current horse)
I think a child will progress quicker with an experienced pony rather than a green pony from a dealer. If you can get a reference from the DC even better.
 
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Just to echo other posters, a connie from Ireland would not be my choice for a child lacking in confidence. We bought a recently imported 6yo connie last winter for my 64 yo mother who hunts twice weekly and wanted to downsize. He had been produced for sale and was going nicely and jumping well, but the foundations weren't really there. Come this summer, on some good grass and he has ended up too much for her. He's an absolute machine and just about to start BE eventing with me and I think he'll go novice (1.10m) but he was too much for an older but very competent rider. There wasn't any dishonesty on the part of the dealer, and they seemed a match at the time, but he has needed plenty of education and still needs clear boundaries and plenty of work... The best ponies my children have are the been-there-done-that ones that have every pony club t shirt going and frequently are frankly rather plain. Connies are also really expensive - £5k will buy you a brilliant coloured 14hh PC pony or possibly a 5 yo done nothing connie. Ours was well over your budget and the other 6 yo he came over with was in a different yard for £15k.
 
I put a wanted advert up on the regional pony club page and I got calls with ponies for sale in less than a day. Be specific - age, height, ability - and try the pony several times before you buy. You can't afford to get a pony that's not suitable for use, as it's your child's confidence and riding future that's at risk (let alone their safety!). I wouldn't buy from abroad, but from as close to home as possible!
 
Another who would not go to Ireland. When I went there for a horse I specified exactly what I wanted, but none specifically matched. I felt reliant on other people for local knowledge and it was a faff. It would have been all too easy to come back with the nearest thing to make the shopping trip 'worthwhile', but that one had only been backed for 6 weeks (defo NOT my spec). It was a real anticlimax to come back without one. Just as disappointing as travelling to look at one in England but with added air fare and hotels.

I helped a client buy a pony a couple of years ago, looking within a 2 hour drive of their home. The girl was not confident and we ended up agreeing to an aged (late teen), rather plain looking pony for £3,500. The girl went from a lead rein rider in her confidence to jumping round a course of fences at an unknown (to the pony) competition venue in the wind in less than a week. Well worth £3,500! It was a much loved outgrown pony that had done the job for several children already. It was not going to jump a full 1m course, it was a 70cm pony all the way, his beauty was that he could jump 70cm whilst catching the rider. But, your budget is also a bit higher so that would hopefully buy you experience and a bit more jump.
 
Plenty of nice Connemara ponies in the UK. I found mine on Horsequest in a private home and he was exactly as described. He was shown professionally as a youngster and then went on to a Pony Club home so has had a well rounded education and at 9 years old was just the right age. He does like having a job but isn't sharp like some can be.
 
Connemara's are lovely ponies, but tend to be rather more competitive than babysitter types. Anyone looking to source horses or ponies from Ireland needs to remember that we are a nation of breeders and tend to sell horses that are young and just backed, and we take a rather more robust attitude to producing them as ready for sale. If you are looking for a "finished" horse you are more likely to find one in the UK; we tend to think of anything capable of going hunting or jumping 1m as just fine, even if it doesn't steer terribly well or has a few quirks. Vettings here are thorough on the basics that really matter, I take exception to the notion that Irish vets are somehow dodgy or not as good as UK ones, that has not been my experience.
 
I love my young connie to bits and I'm in my early fifties with confidence issues! He was sold as a 3yo at Clifden to an irish dealer who broke him in and sold him to a dealer in England who continued his education. He is the easiest pony I've ever come across - however I don't know how he would be in the hands of a young adult - he might be sharper who knows?!
 
When looking for suitable ponies we didn't go looking for a connie, they found us. We've had a 13.2hh connie and a full up 14.2 connie/tb. both had come over from ireland and were being sold on by reputable dealers, both were young, green and required a lot of work and professional input to get them going well and they became super competitive ponies. I would never describe either of them as confidence givers although they did become schoolmasters for confident children when they were older. I love connies but in your shoes I'd also be looking nearer to home for the right pony rather than a specific breed.
 
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