WE live for the breed.” This remark encapsulates the essence of Cathy Snow and Martin Coyne. Passionate promoters of all things Connemara, the region this pair hail from has fostered a lifelong dedication to the Connemara pony through both their own breeding programme at Moorland Connemara Ponies and their professional work at the newly opened Connemara Pony Heritage Centre in the Connemara National Park. Growing up, “ponies were part of the family” for Cathy. Weekends would be spent driving the roads of Ireland with her mother Bridget Snow, the esteemed breeder and judge, in search of a nice pony. In the summer of 1990, the pair came across a bay mare with a foal at foot and a yearling. The yearling filly captivated them immediately with her length of rein and movement.

“We tracked down her owner and made an offer to buy her.” Upon the successful purchase, the filly came home to the Snows who spent the winter developing and preparing her to pass the CPBS filly inspections. “We named her Moorland Juliet and in her two-year-old year she won every single show she went to,” Cathy remembers.