HAVING been forced to cancel their big August sale and facing some backlash from disappointed buyers and sellers, Connemara Pony Sales bounced back last weekend with the rescheduled two-day sale and recorded the highest price in a number of years at the venue.

On their 30th year in business, the sale introduced online bidding through the Mart Eye platform and while some online buyers were in fact onsite, the process went well and 35 of the 155 ponies sold went to online buyers. The total clearance rate at the sale was 67%.

Following a lively exchange between an online bidder and Clifden regular Kieran Egan at the ring, Lot 83, the four-year-old Currachmore Cashel gelding Cornfield Rocky was knocked down for the top price of €10,200 on Saturday.

Consigned to the sale by Brenda McCully from Northern Ireland, the gelding, who is broken and riding, instantly caught the attention of buyers and went from an opening bid of €2,000 to on the market at €6,200 in a matter of minutes.

Bidding between the two buyers went back and forth until the hammer eventually fell in favour of Egan from Ballinasloe. Egan also purchased the sale-topper at the venue back in February when paying €7,200 for a six-year-old gelding.

The next best price of the sale was achieved on Sunday when Lot 151, Aidan Anderson’s Earl Robin, was sold to Sandra Sommerville from Northern Ireland. The six-year-old gelding by Earl Robin went on the market at €5,500 and was eventually knocked down to Sommerville for €6,600.

Hanna Taylor from the UK signed for Lot 244, the seven-year-old gelding Kilclammon Supreme owned by Peadar Murphy, at €6,300. The Burning Daylight gelding completed three Eventing Ireland events at EI90 and EI100 this season under Kilian Murphy. Local breeder and producer Liam Diamond bought Lot 203, the Poetic Kelly gelding Poetic Licence from Jean Morton for €5,700.

Niall Daly was active and bought two four-year-olds – Lot 8 (Oisin Hazy Robuck) and Lot 102 (Ivy House Sapphire) – for €5,500 and €5,400 respectively.

“We were very pleased. We had some challenges on the day to comply with the Covid regulations but the provision of a marquee and a video link to assist remote bidding and online bidding took some pressure off the sales ring,” a spokesperson said.

The four-day October sale takes place from October 23rd to 26th.