TWO constants of the west are stories of emigration and a bond with the horse. For returned emigrant Robbie Fallon, his story involves the Connemara pony and the renowned Cashelbay prefix, a giant-sized nod to his homeplace.

“I grew up in Cashel,” he said. Looking at photographs of Connemara ponies in shop windows, when they went shopping in Clifden sparked off his interest in ponies and after working odd jobs, topped off by money from his father Joe, he bought his first pony, Spencer’s Dream, for £80. She was left with his uncle in Athenry when the 19-year-old Robbie followed the path of thousands of other Connemara immigrants to Boston.