Connemara inspections require nothing but give the appearance of accomplishing something

I was discussing Connemara inspections with a family member recently, and we both wondered why Connemara inspections have become the No. 1 item on the agenda of the American Connemara Pony Society when so many other activities seem more productive.

Why have Connemara shows not taken off in the past two decades instead? In the 1970s and 1980s, there were shows scattered across the country; we attended them all with our horses, from Woodstock, Vt., to St. Louis, Mo., to Ventura, Calif. The number of shows appears to have declined, not increased. And there is no huge prize money available at these shows for Connemaras as there is for the big Connemara classes at the Dublin show in Ireland.

Why have Connemara riding clinics not been promoted? Why are people not meeting to ride?

Why are we not seeing Connemara names all over the place in the open show world any more?

Instead, the favorite pastime of this society is to gather at locations across the country to do the following:

Owners in the area bring their horses unclipped and without tack (not sure the horses were even bathed at the inspection I saw) to be reviewed standing in place, though horses have to trot in hand once as part of the process, so I can’t say the horses can be lame.

Inspectors have their air fare and hotel rooms covered to attend, and they get a trip to hang out with their friends, where they only need to bring their clipboards. To become an inspector one merely must meet the minimum requirement of “judging” practice inspections. There’s a list of ethical rules inspectors should adhere to, but one inspector appeared to violate several in the mid-2000s, and she’s still an inspector, so perhaps those are guidelines as opposed to requirements. The inspectors don’t have to ride or show their horsemanship in any manner. In fact, they don’t have to be horsemen at all.

Inspectors on inspection day walk around the horses quickly and then meet in a closed room and make decisions out of the sight of public scrutiny. They don’t have to justify their actions or discuss the reasons for passing or failing a horse. They are basically accountable to no one.

As stress goes, the whole thing would rate about a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 for all parties involved.

Those who put their horses up for the inspections have to pay a fee, which covers the free trip for the inspectors. If their horses pass the inspection, they get to advertise that they have a premium horse that is worthy of much more money than the uninspected horse, though, in my opinion, that is not the case.

My guess is this whole thing was designed for a horse society that has very few people who can train their horses, much less get their horses to perform at a level that would allow for inspections to require the horses to jump or complete a course.

The last two Connemara horse shows I went to included:

–Connemara foals in attendance for conformation classes that ran around the show completely unrestrained and untrained in a display of lack of horsemanship unlike anything I had ever seen. If the show had been in a metropolitan area on a weekday rather than a rural area on a really hot weekend, those foals likely would have been hit by traffic and killed.

–Connemara riders unable to hold their horses properly for a conformation class. The judges, yes, the JUDGES, had to instruct them how to do so properly.

–Connemara riders unable to get their horses into a canter and then unable to pick up the correct lead in a flat class.

–I’m not sure I actually saw anyone jump a fence at the one show. A handful of people did so at the other show.

So, given that display of horsemanship at regional horse shows sponsored by the breed and attended by many of the longtime board members, I can only conclude that there are almost no people left in this breed today who can actually perform with their horses. There used to be. Perhaps we’ve all gotten too old.

Thus, if the breed is going to gather and do anything, having judges stand around with clipboards and “judge” horses doing nothing makes sense.

The thing is, horses have to make a living in this world just like everyone else, particularly now when money is so scarce and owning horses has gotten considerably more expensive. Horses have to do something. Their options are to perform in Western or English disciplines in the ring or be ridable for trail, pleasure or farm work, but, for the most part, they have to be trained.

Attaching the word “premium” to a horse that can do nothing is hypocritical at best.

I saw an online ad for a Connemara in Ireland for $1.

I know of a Connemara in the US for sale today for $850.

And I’ve certainly been on the receiving end of emails where people just asked me to take Connemaras for free, often more than one at a time.

That would suggest to me that nobody wants these horses.

What are we accomplishing here?

Nothing.

And that may be the intention.

Perhaps, we have a society now with members whose horses have been trained to do nothing, so we have created an activity where those involved can do nothing but still feel like they have accomplished something.