A HERD of Connemara Ponies with some of the oldest and rarest breeding lines will be up for grabs at next week’s Ballyerk Performance Connemara Pony online dispersal sale.

The sale has come about due to the upcoming retirement of Patrick Blake after 23 years in breeding and will be hosted by MartBids next Thursday and Friday.

The dispersal provides an opportunity to acquire original bloodlines of the breed, some of which are no longer available anywhere else in the world, and the sale list includes over 40 mares, 60 fillies, 35 stallions, six colts and one gelding.

Bloodlines

Mr Blake said he would love to sell the ponies as a herd to improve the chances of protecting the bloodlines and hopes to find a buyer with that in mind.

“If they see the herd and what the ponies have done in terms of performance and winning, they could see it would be a good investment,” he said.

“Every line of performance pony from over the past 30 years is there so it’s a unique opportunity, perhaps the last, to acquire all that is good in the Connemara and carry on the work of the past 100 years.

“What is happening is a couple of stallions have been used by the vast majority so some lines have been neglected and it would be such a pity to lose them.

“A lot of people see a pony as a means to make money and don’t appreciate what they have but there are people who appreciate breeding and performance and would want to add to it – I’m that way and that’s the buyer we are hoping to find.”

Blake hopes to “wash his wellingtons” and put his feet up after the sale.

Stallions

The resident stallions carry the oldest breeding including Carna Dun, Carna Bobby, Little Joe, Joyces Cuckoo, Kilgreaney Lad, MacDara, Thunderbolt, Smokey Duncan, Ashfield Bobby Sparrow, and Ashfield Sparrow. The sire of this year’s foals out of the grey mares is Creaga Hero (Oisin x Windy Day), sire of Ballyerk Dun and Dusted, the CPBS Highest Performance Pony of the Year 2021.

These mares ran this summer with the stallion Goldthorn Foxglove (Prince of Thieves x Loobeen Larry mare), who is half-brother to Boulabeha Little Princess, who won the 2022 and 2023 Clifden Puissance Championship, clearing 1.65m.

The sire of the foals out of the bay mares is Erne Valley Deucalion (Gwennic di Goariva x West Bella) a three-quarters sibling to Cornfest Fred, who was part of the Irish pony team that won the European gold medal 2022.

Champions

Other ponies from this Thurles farm include Ballyerk Black Beauty who won a two-star at Ballindenisk International in 2022 and Ballyerk Comet who was ranked sixth in the USA Pony of the Year 2022. Both of these ponies were sired by Joyces Cuckoo.

The breeding of the ponies on this farm is unique as no outside mares were covered with the resident stallions. The original resident stallion, Clonfert Boy, was by Little Joe (Carna Dun) who was closely related to the Irish international show jumping pony Dundrum via Little Heaven.

The European gold medal champion Connemara pony Ashfield Bobby Sparrow is also well-represented by two colts, Blackmoor Flash and Blackmoor Hurricane out of the Ashfield Bobby Sparrow mare Blackmoor Epona, a full-sister to Cuffesgrange-For-Sure who represented Ireland internationally on a number of occasions.

The sale will run as a timed auction on the MartBids platform from Thursday, October 12th to Friday evening, October 13th. For further information visit the Ballyerk Ponies Facebook page or see advert on facing page.