THIS year’s CPBS Spring Weekend featured educational clinics, industry expert speakers, a special broodmare sale and the much-anticipated stallion parade. Saturday’s activities began with a trip to the newly-opened Connemara Pony Heritage Centre in the Connemara National Park, where visitors were warmly welcomed by Cathy Snow, Martin Coyne and the Connemara Pony Enya. Visitors received an informative talk from Cathy on the new heritage centre, the meaning behind it and future plans for it.

Saturday began with the inaugural Special Sale of Breeding Mares, which is covered in more detail on page 96. The activity around the Connemara Pony Sales newly-built arena continued into the afternoon, where HSI-accredited coach Peter O’Toole ran a show jumping clinic, which catered for all.

The first day’s activities concluded in the Station House Theatre with educational talks by Dr Aurore Le Breton, who presented on the topic of ‘Preparing your mare for foaling and covering’, and Dr Kieran O’Brien, who delivered a talk on ‘Keeping your ponies healthy’. Both presentations were livestreamed on the CPBS Facebook page and both presentations will be available under the ‘Education’ tab of the CPBS website in the coming days.

Sunday began wet and windy, which did not deter the weekend’s two youngest participants and their ponies from taking part in Róisín Gannon’s young handlers’ clinic on the Showgrounds. Róisín gave them invaluable advice, tips and tricks ahead of the showing season. Farrier Bryan O’Halloran’s demonstration on how shoes are made drew a crowd of all ages. He had multiple different shoes on display and discussed the history behind shoeing ponies and the importance of remedial farriery.

As the sun came out, so did the stallions for the annual Stallion Parade. Forty stallions were catalogued and 23 paraded. These included the recently awarded Class 1 stallions from earlier in the week, while other stallions presented were more seasoned and established.