Recognised by the European Commission and the Department of Agriculture as Ireland’s third native equine breed, alongside the Irish Draught and Connemara pony, the breed is now being recognised for its suitability as a child’s riding pony.

The Kerry Bog Pony Co-operative Society, established in 2005, holds the official studbook and the register is maintained by Horse Sport Ireland. There are four classes in the studbook.

Class one conforms exactly to the breed standard while class two is for ponies that are too big or too small, but otherwise conform to the breed standard. Class three contains ponies who failed the inspection on the grounds of unsoundness, colour, temperament or other reasons, while class four is for ponies that have not been inspected.

Four inspection days were held by the Kerry Bog Pony Co-operative Society this year, three in Ireland and one in Dorset, Britain.

The final inspection for this year took place two weeks ago in Blessington, Co Wicklow, where 20 ponies were examined by Isabel Reynolds and Ashley Stephens.

According to the breed standard, the typical Kerry Bog Pony stands 11.2hh for stallions and between 10hh and 11hh for geldings and mares.

They can be any strong whole colour and are generally black and brown, although at the inspections there were greys, liver chesnuts and roans being presented. Among the breed’s obvious features are its dished head, strong neck and rounded muscular shoulder. They are very powerful and have great strength relative to their size.

Speaking about the standard last Saturday, Isabel Reynolds said: “Overall the standard was high. There were some very smart eye-catching ponies that were true to type.

“The majority of ponies were well handled and, in my opinion, those that had the work put into them would be suitable for a number of disciplines such as driving, riding and some potential lead-rein ponies.”

All in all, it was a good day for the studbook, with 15 ponies being up-graded to class one, two up to class two and three up to class three.

The judges failed to agree on an outright winner for the prize for best turned-out so it was divided between Gay Keogh’s Little Crazy Horse, a two-year-old Silver Bog Smartie gelding that Gay will make a riding pony, and James Naan’s two-year-old Knowhead Polo-sired palomino stallion, Rickmore Viking.

The stallion was also awarded the highest inspection mark on the day.