Our Ponies - Present
Lanburn Legacy
Lanburn Lakeland Rose
Glencarrig Dolly
Spinway Blackthorn x Lanburn Lismore b.2024
( Green Lines x Blue Lines)
Legacy aka Mikki is our miracle foal. It took 4 years for her mother, the last of Bob & Margaret's blood line, to hold her pregnancy. At the age of 25 Lanburn Lismore did us proud and gave us a beautiful filly foal. We will be forever grateful to Jo and Richard Williams for her, and of course, Casper.
Mikki is 100% unique. By that, I mean there are no Grandchildren from Lanburn Leemoy left to continue the line other than Mikki. Talk about a gene pool rescue. Leemoy was undervalued as a stallion when he was alive, in my opinion, as he suffered from 'bay pony' syndrome. There were attempts to keep bay ponies out of the show ring at one point and yet the grey cannot survive without the bay or harder colours.
Legacy will remain with us as our next generation brood mare here at Lanburn Connemaras.
Spinway Blackthorn x Dun An Oir Rosalind b.2024
(Green Lines x Red Lines)
Lakeland Rose aka Sassy is the first foal out of DAO Rosalind since I bought her during Covid.
Sassy amazes everyone including ourselves, when she moves. Her trot is phenomenal, totally natural. She has the most naturally uphill trot I have ever seen in a Connemara pony. Like her mother Rosie, who has an amazing 9" overtrack at walk which is totally unheard of and usually only seen in warmbloods. One judge even said about her as a foal that she had exceptional hind legs.
Sass, with Mikki will stay with us to be our next generation brood mares.
Glencarrig Knight x Templebready Penny 2012-
(Blue x Red Lines)
(Blue x Red Lines)
Following Ellie’s tragic loss in 2013, which affected Dad quite badly, Dad felt he wanted to replace Els as she had never had a surviving foal. So we went to the Curran’s in the August of 2013 and saw this lovely yearling belonging to Patrick Curran, in Moycullen.
Dolly arrived in December 2013 and her first outing with us was the South East Area Connemara Show where she won her class, was Youngstock Champion and went Reserve Supreme as a 2yr old. She was also 2nd at South of England that same year and in a very strong class. As a 3yr old I only took her out once due Dad’s unexpected death. Dolly won her class and went Youngstock Champion again winning the Trophy at the South East Area BCPS Show that had donated in Memory of Dad, but due to a windy day ‘blip’ in her performance failed to get a rosette in the Championship as she had done the previous year as a 2 year old.
Dolls has made up into a beautiful mare and I am certain Dad would have been delighted and champing at the bit for me to take her out to a show at every opportunity! Sam Roberts kindly broke her in for me in 2016, we know that she will have a ridden career at some point, but there's no hurry, she will have her day. Due to our interminable planning problems over the past 8 years since Dad's death, Dolls has been maturing quietly in her field but has recently been presented in the BCPS Virtual Show in May and won the class of 28 entries under Julia Woods with a mark of 17.5 out of 20.
Dolly had a beautiful foal, Lanburn Lionheart s.Spinway Blackthorn in 2021 who has now gone off to an excellent breeding home.
The same pairing had another colt in 2022, Lanburn Lucky Blue Charm, also stunning and whom, for now I would like to keep but am open to offers. He should go on to be a cracking Class 1 and potentially a great working hunter pony.
Dun An Oir Rosalind
Pillar Rock
Lanburn Lismore
Callowfeenish Mairtin x Dangan Cailin b.2008
(Red x Blue Lines)
On 7th November 2020, Rosie suddenly came onto our radar. She is one of the very few remaining breeding mares by Callowfeenish Mairtin (Abbeyleix Owen x Wireless Wave) and I had been looking for her for a long time. A call came, out of the blue, from my friend Laura in Ireland. Laura had spotted a Callowfeenish Mairtin mare in the Online Mullingar Sales, Ireland. Sadly all she could do was sit and watch as the mare went under the hammer to a dealer. But undeterred we came up with a plan! Laura hunted down the buyer, who fortunately, was willing to sell her. Laura managed to broker a deal for us and I bought Rosie over the phone, unseen 'on a wing and a prayer', with foal at foot!!!
Laura's Dad, James, got in his lorry and drove 90 minutes there and went to collect it for me and back 90 minutes home. Just amazing! It was a dream come true. Laura McWeeney and I made an incredible team along with her amazing father.
We are hoping to produce lots of Canal Village Poachers as he has been an exemplary pony and been a credit to the breed. We intend to revive this wonderful bloodline known for its intelligence, type, movement and laid-back temperament. Her dam’s line has 3 generations of Dangan ponies. Gen 4 includes Rebel Wind, Breath of Spring, Carna Dun, Carna Bobby and Ballydonagh Kate with a dash of Killyreagh Kim in gen 3. This line is famous for providing the breed with Mervyn Kingsmill. Rosie is indeed a very special lady. Rosie is expecting a foal by Spinway Blackthorn in early May 2023, this will be very exciting for us to see the results of my breeding purchases of 'old type' mares, bringing those old lines forward to continue and expand the gene pool for the Connemara Pony.
Moy Johnny's Pride x Baile Sleibh b.2008
(Red x Purple Lines)
Daisy has been with us a year now. She is a very sweet mare with not a mean bone in her but is still quite shy but has learnt to trust me. We are hoping to back her for whp this year before she goes off to stud. The funny thing about Rosie and Daisy is that they eat 'anything', compared to the rest. They demolished a hedge during the dry summer which had taken 14 years to grow and eventually had to put an electric fence up to save said hedge. Rosie has had a few clearance jobs and she leaves things all very neat and tidy even down to the detail.
We tried twice with AI last year to get Daisy in foal, all looked perfect both times but she didn't take so she will need to go for natural service.
We have achieved our aim for now, which was to import 2 older mares from very old blood lines. This lovely mare came up at Clifden Sales on the 27th October 2021. Daisy's sire is the late Moy Johnny's Pride who was bred by the late Johnny Lee. Mum and Dad knew him very well as he was the son of Jim Lee who we bought our foundation mare, Nettina, from back in 1971.
Moy Johnny's Pride is by The Kid who the late Joe Gorham snr bought to bring his tremendous bone to stock, he was sold to Italy where he represented his country in show jumping. He certainly passed on this attribute to Daisy because she has limbs like tree-trunks, as you can see; something that is sadly lacking in the Connemara Pony of today.
The offspring from this lady should be very beneficial to the Connemara gene pool as there are few Moy Johnny's Pride (s. The Kid) offspring left. Daisy has a great 'Looking out to sea' expression, regularly surveying new objects and surroundings that are obviously totally alien to her.
I'm not sure I can say that this is an improvement in comparison to looking out over the magnificent scenery at Ballyconneely and the Atlantic ocean from the Roundstone peninsula. But she has certainly made herself at home now.
Lanburn Leemoy x Milford Gipsy Moth 1998-Date
(Blue x Blue Lines)
'Miffy' was the last foal out of Milford Gipsy Moth, who had been an exemplary wife and match for Lanburn Leemoy. They spent many years running out together all year round. They truly loved each other.
Lismore is a lovely pony, standing 13.3hh. She is full sister to Lanburn Lacewing, Ladybird, Liberty Belle, Limerick and Lanburn Lieutenant. Miffy hasn't been shown but was on loan to Tyan Stud for 2 years as a brood mare, having a colt foal in 2005 - Tyan McCauley by MacCloonisle, that has gone on to be a superb jumper.
Her other colt, now gelded, is Lanburn Laddy (2009) by Atlantic Ace.
Miffy's temperament is superb and is very much the pet of the stud, although also clearly the Matriach too.
Miffy has been down to Jo & Richard Williams' Kativa Stud in Monmouth for 2 years to have some personal time with Caspar aka Spinway Blackthorn which has paid off as she is expecting a foal at the beginning of May '23. She is such a trooper, she walked on their lorry with me at her side and travelled 5 hours to Wales like she had been doing it all her life and then couldn't wait to walk into the trailer for her 5 hour journey home again. She was very excited to be home too. That is what temperament is all about.
Canal Village Poacher
Callowfeenish Mairtin x Village Colleen b.1995
(Red x Red Lines)
The fabulous, amazing Poacher, aka Mossie, is retired now. He has several medical conditions that are very carefully treat and care for. Cushings, EMS and Melanomas. He received a course of treatment with Oncept for his melanomas, which is a drug licensed in the US but not here, so it cost a lot of money importing and only a few people in the country can administer it in a special trekkie type injector. We were very lucky that Dr Philip Ivens from Buckingham Equine Hospital, came down every 6 months to give him a dose, having had the loading dose back in September 2018. The drug appears to have slowed them down.
Our last trip out competing was to the NPS Dressage Champs at Addington was in 2012, having qualifed at East Soley second time out for both Prelim and Novice. We worked very hard with John Lassetter and won the Novice Championship Connemara Section.
- BCPS 1st Gelding Class
- Reserve Non Breeding Champion
- BCPS Reserve Veteran Champion
- 2nd NPS TopSpec Dressage Final Addington - 66.1%
- 1st Novice Dressage SEA
- NPS TopSpec Dressage Qualifier
- 1st & Conn In Hand Champ New Forest & Hants
- 1st BCPS Gelding & Non-breeding Res Champ
- 1st BCPS Novice Dressage
- 1st BCPS Prelim Dressage
- Winner Shipton Sea Image Trophy Dressage
- Champion Open Ridden Area 24
- Res M&M In-Hand Champ NFPE Show
Poach has been the most amazing pony to ride, every time I get off him I thank him for letting me ride him. I must just mention that his breeder Padraig Hynes bought an Elevator Bridle for Poacher especially to compete in the Dressage Finals. He hates any other bridle now!! Mossie had a severe bout of laminitis in 2021 and it took a year for him to recover. The rotation of his off-fore pedal bone was dramatic and it nearly cost him his life but for superb treatment by Dr Pauline Williams, myself and Bobby Craig, Farrier. The rotation has corrected by some miracle.