In one room at USEF’s 2024 annual meeting, USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor discussed weighty topics such as whether there should be horse sport at all and if horses enjoyed taking part in such activity. In another room, Connemara officials expanded their bigoted inspections to a bigger pool of Connemaras (halfbreds). The differences couldn’t be more stark.

I have asked for two decades, “Where is the research that shows the effects of the American Connemara Pony Society forcing Connemaras to have thick legs?” The silence has been deafening. In early 2024, I decided to do my own research.

Dear US Equestrian, I am deeply disappointed that you have not followed your own directive to affiliates to do the right thing. You have allowed inspectors in the American Connemara Pony Society to alter the Connemara breed standard when they use it in inspections, employing a word trick, so they can approve or give premium status to stallions, including their own, that otherwise would fail an inspection based on the real breed standard.

What if it told the world that there’s no way one can anoint a Connemara as premium by watching it mostly stand still for 12 minutes with a brief walk and trot?

A steep drop in ACPS membership reflects the failed direction taken by top officials over a 20-year period. For perspective, compare the ACPS numbers to American Morgan Horse Association membership.

The longtime logo for the American Connemara Pony Society has appeared on ACPS official literature since at least 1966. But the Connemara in the logo looks exactly like the refined ponies – show hunter-quality ponies – that are now shunned by the breed organization.

Kerrymor Farm has put together a history of the early years of the American Connemara Pony Society that readers of this website should find interesting.

The current list of ACPS-approved Connemaras in America includes many bad ponies, some dangerous, in my opinion. The list also contains some nice ponies, but there’s no way for someone to trust the list, given the bad ones.

Enough with the lies about the Connemara pony being a distinct breed of coarse white ponies that roamed the mountains of Ireland for centuries and were jumping machines. Irish author and horseman Nicholas O’Hare laid bare the lies in his 2002 book, “The Modern Connemara: The Search for Performance.”

Irish horseman Michael J. O’Malley is credited with saving the Connemara pony as a distinct breed in the early 1900s. In a little more than a century, his story has been falsely rewritten from a Connemara lover fighting for what was on the inside of the pony (spirit) to someone fighting for what was on the outside (coarseness).

If the ACPS wants to foster healthy and so-called premium Connemaras, it should encourage and reward Connemaras that have no neck definition and show some rib.

Where will climate change leave the American Connemara in 2050, three decades from now? How will climate change affect horses in general?

For starters, this is your chance to decide how history will judge you.

Legendary U.S. equestrian Denny Emerson, 76, posted advice to struggling breed societies, particularly Connemara and Morgan groups, on his Facebook page Sept. 29, 2017, suggesting time is of the essence to preserve the breeds.

Irish Connemara officials have lifted the ban on registering blue-eyed cream stallions in Ireland, so the United States has followed suit, according to a post Jan. 22, 2016, by the American Connemara Pony Society.

The banner across the top of the American Connemara Pony Society website says: “Connemaras do it all!”

On July 19, 2015, I watched several Connemara inspections in St. Louis, Mo., by the American Connemara Pony Society.

Once again, I return to the topic of hatred and bias, as the world continues to evolve quickly in accepting diversity, but the American Connemara Pony Society not so much. More

I received a letter in May 2015 from an organization that helps troubled youth through its horse program.

Ireland’s overwhelming approval of gay marriage on May 23, 2015, seems a bit out of character for a country known for its rejection of diversity.

America still has a pigmentation issue, according to Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press on May 3, 2015.

Two video clips of Dundrum are a treat to watch.

So you want to buy a Connemara, and you’re asking yourself if you should pay attention to the inspections program?

Officials in the American Connemara Pony Society make many claims about their inspections program, but the only question that matters is: Is the program saving the Connemara?

Many people look at breeds as if they have always existed.

Someone recently suggested that I use the term “grinch” to refer to Connemara inspectors who hate the Connemaras that look like Little Heaven.

The American Connemara Pony Society’s web page on inspections tries to justify the program with 4,539 words.

All indications are that horse discrimination based on appearance will die with the elderly generation that has tried so hard to keep diversity at bay.

A new site dedicated to animals should serve notice to the American Connemara Pony Society that bullying behavior in the form of inspections to force horses to look a certain way will not stand the test of time.

Surveys appears to be gaining ground in the horse world, at least in many circles. Horse groups are ramping up their efforts to get feedback to improve and survive.

Breed standards encourage exaggerated conformation, according to Wayne Cavanaugh, president of the United Kennel Club, who was interviewed by veterinarian Karen Becker on Aug. 5, 2013, for the website Healthy Pets.

An Associated Press story published on Dec. 20, 2013, looked at the changing appearance of today’s Santa Claus.

In a CBS television show called “Lucky Dog,” dog trainer Brandon McMillan tries to find a new home for shelter dogs by taking in one dog per week, working with it at his Lucky Dog Ranch and placing it in a home where it will do well.

The most overlooked factor in the argument over what constitutes a Connemara is time.

The American Connemara Society is taking its lead on breed inspections from an Ireland that was, not the country that remains today.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, let’s look at Ireland’s treatment of Connemaras against the backdrop of its treatment of its favorite son, the former U.S. president.

Robert Redford discussed the toxic environment in Washington in an interview with CNN on October 16, 2013, as he promoted a new movie.

I’m curious why officials in the American Connemara Pony Society are working so hard to keep breed inspections that have not proven to create better Connemaras or make the breed more popular.

In yet another sobering look at the life of kids today, CNN published an article October 11, 2013, describing the onslaught of bullying that children face on social media sites.

The 2013 meeting of the American Connemara Pony Society has come and gone, and nothing appears to have changed with inspections.

Horses have long provided a sanctuary for children at a fragile stage in life.

USEF has asked its affiliates to examine their practices to ensure they are in line with a world in which there is no hiding from public scrutiny; affiliates should proceed as if their actions are being recorded by an NBC camera crew 24/7 with no editing.

What should Connemara owners take away from the Texas cloning lawsuit, in which a jury ruled against a ban on cloned horses in the American Quarter Horse Association?

It’s only a matter of time until the courts strike down Connemara breed inspections for the same reason that a federal jury ruled against a cloning ban in the American Quarter Horse Association: It’s an illegal, monopolistic practice.

A jury in a federal court in Texas has ruled that the American Quarter Horse Association violated state and federal antitrust laws by banning cloned horses from its registry.

Of all the posts I’ve written about Connemara inspections, this is the most important, because it looks at the practices of the American Connemara Pony Society against the backdrop of its national federation, the United States Equestrian Federation.

The late President John F. Kennedy made his “Report to the American People on Civil Rights” on June 11, 1963.

The New York Times posted an article on June 3, 2013, under the headline “Why young people don’t vote Republican.”

The Washington Post published an article June 1, 2013, on why the Boy Scouts of America finally voted to end its discrimination against gay scouts.

A recent study on how much weight horses can carry comfortably has illustrated yet again why Connemaras should not be forced to remain 14-2 hands and under.

I listened to two college commencement speeches given on May 11, 2013 — one by former President Bill Clinton and another by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

Charles Darwin was a British scientist in the 19th century whose research led him to theorize that survival and reproduction were the prime motivations for all species.

I wish Connemara inspectors could have been in the room in February 2013 when the chief scientist with the RSPCA in Australia asked a conference of horsemen if humans are justified in asking a horse to do something it doesn’t want to do.

How did this inspections process go from a simple vote for voluntary inspections to a Hitler-like weeding out of conformation that is not a flaw?

In 2005, a Connemara inspector made some comments to me about my horse that would have been considered racially biased and bigoted if she were speaking about a human.

One of my many issues with breed inspections and breed standards has been the lack of people who have been willing to go public and say these practices are wrong.

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

To the inspectors of the American Connemara Pony Society: I am one of the many Connemaras you have failed at an inspection.

This discrimination is bizarre behavior in the 21st century, a time when bullying has become especially unacceptable and the diversity of the nation has changed along with its definition of beauty.

CBS generously ran the classic Christmas special “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” twice in 2012, allowing me to do some much-needed fact-checking.

In 2005, when I first raised huge concerns about how the Connemara inspections process was taking shape in America, ACPS board members pointed to Ireland as the reason for the creation of U.S. inspections.

You can’t be a bigot and evolved in the same breath.

I often wonder how long it will be before Connemara officials in America are willing to admit they were wrong to create inspections that intentionally discriminate against horses that are Connemaras by blood and have every right to equal treatment and inclusion in the society?

the American Connemara society pays for the expenses of people who have been deemed inspectors to travel to cities to bully horses.

Allowing so-called inspectors to fail horses that weren’t to their liking and exclude them has always felt to me like the breed society was turned over to a bunch of adolescents. As it turns out, that comparison is more accurate than I thought.

One cannot debate whether breed standards for horses and dogs are ethical without looking at the bigger picture of how animals fit into society.

The Connemara society reminds me of the Republican party: completely blind to the fact that its future base will be a diverse population that doesn’t take kindly to discrimination.

I find myself quoting people under the age of 20 more often than not when it comes to bullying.

I believe in my lifetime that breed standards and inspections will be banned, because courts will outlaw the practice of forcing breeders to create animals that match a set of criteria written on paper by people who basically are just being bullies.

Did Steve Jobs let Bill Gates tell him how to run his business?

By now, anyone who follows the news has heard Wisconsin anchor Jennifer Livingston turn the tables on the viewer who called her fat in an email.

A “Huffington Post” article captured the frustration of US gymnast Gabby Douglas hours after she won the individual gold medal in London in August 2012.

Allbreedpedigree.com shows that inspectors who repeatedly fail horses that “remind then of Thoroughbreds” are hypocrites.

“If you want to see a bunch of Connemara breeders almost come to blows, start a discussion about whether Little Heaven and Texas Hope were good or bad for the breed.”

A British study of Thoroughbred foundation mares suggests that they descend from native Irish mares, including Connemaras and Irish Draught mares, and mares native to the British Isles, more than horses from the Middle East and Asia, as originally thought.

I haven’t been very shy about arguing that people should not put themselves above animals.

I keep seeing the word stigma in news reports, and I think it’s time to look at this word in relation to breed standards.

Famed horse writer Walter Farley’s “Little Black, a Pony” delivers the not-so-subtle message that we shouldn’t prejudge something based on appearance.

Frustration over breed standards appears to be building, based on feedback I’m getting from around the world, and I was sent an interesting article on the topic that was published in the June 2012 issue of Ireland’s Horse Review, a monthly sport horse newspaper.

In December 2010, The New York Times did a sobering story on the plight of horses in Ireland today.

A post on Psychology Today from December 2009 looks at human motivation. Author Robert Evans Wilson Jr. says humans are motivated by their status as a pack animal.

Peer pressure is a formidable force. It makes people agree to do things that they would not do on their own.

There is a pattern between the language on websites that decry the use of bullying and those that herald the use of breed standards.

The debate over whether breed societies can set breed standards for animals really is a larger debate about where humans and animals fall in the universal pecking order and whether humans should “own” animals.

America’s perception of the ideal beauty has changed from a white woman such as Christie Brinkley in 1991 to a mixed race or darker woman such as Angelina Jolie today.

Alison Skipper, one of the two vets who failed six of 15 Best of Breed winners at the Crufts dog show in Britain in March 2012, has aired her thoughts on the experience after coming under fire.

The well-known veterinarian pulled no punches in attacking breed standards in a reply to a poor woman who just wanted to know why her sister’s Persian cats had constant tearing in their eyes.

As victories go, this one is hollow. But, let’s not ignore any movement when it comes to breed standards.

CNN is running a series on beauty, and one of the reports centers on a documentary called “Miss Representation.”

I continue to search for scientific evidence that a thicker, shorter cannon bone makes for a better horse, because, otherwise, it would seem odd or irresponsible that Connemara societies the world over would be requiring cannon bones of a certain width and length for a Connemara to pass an inspection.

Intentionally making horses carry around heavy cannon bones is the opposite of what nature intended, and research seems to refute the American Connemara Pony Society’s message that big cannon bones are better.

An article titled “A New Direction for Kennel Club Regulations and Breed Standards” published in 2007 in the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association addresses veterinarians’ role in the increasing “welfare predicament” of purebred dogs.

Once again, another highly respected group has come out against breed standards based on appearance.

A Stanford law professor is finally laying the groundwork in the human world for what may lead to the end of appearance bias.

I was researching whether there actually was more than one way to peel a banana to fact-check an article I was copy editing, and I came across this article by J. Howard Baker, an assistant professor of computer information systems and a guy who makes a lot of sense.

Bullying means “to affect by means of force or coercion,” according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

If you haven’t seen the 2008 British documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” whether you’re a horse breeder, a dog breeder or just an animal lover in general, you should watch it.

If you want to pass an inspection by the American Connemara Pony Society, you will need to add at least an inch to the cannon bone circumference standard of 7 to 8 inches. The ACPS chooses to ignore that breed standard and is giving premium and approved status to Connemaras of pony height with 9- to 10-inch cannon bones.

First posted on Facebook in February 2009: To all Connemara lovers in America: The last time I spoke out against Connemara inspections in 2005, I received two reactions: Those in favor of inspections criticized me outright or ostracized me.

In one room at USEF’s 2024 annual meeting, USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor discussed weighty topics such as whether there should be horse sport at all and if horses enjoyed taking part in such activity. In another room, Connemara officials expanded their bigoted inspections to a bigger pool of Connemaras (halfbreds). The differences couldn’t be more stark.

I have asked for two decades, “Where is the research that shows the effects of the American Connemara Pony Society forcing Connemaras to have thick legs?” The silence has been deafening. In early 2024, I decided to do my own research.

Dear US Equestrian, I am deeply disappointed that you have not followed your own directive to affiliates to do the right thing. You have allowed inspectors in the American Connemara Pony Society to alter the Connemara breed standard when they use it in inspections, employing a word trick, so they can approve or give premium status to stallions, including their own, that otherwise would fail an inspection based on the real breed standard.

What if it told the world that there’s no way one can anoint a Connemara as premium by watching it mostly stand still for 12 minutes with a brief walk and trot?

A steep drop in ACPS membership reflects the failed direction taken by top officials over a 20-year period. For perspective, compare the ACPS numbers to American Morgan Horse Association membership.

The longtime logo for the American Connemara Pony Society has appeared on ACPS official literature since at least 1966. But the Connemara in the logo looks exactly like the refined ponies – show hunter-quality ponies – that are now shunned by the breed organization.

Kerrymor Farm has put together a history of the early years of the American Connemara Pony Society that readers of this website should find interesting.

The current list of ACPS-approved Connemaras in America includes many bad ponies, some dangerous, in my opinion. The list also contains some nice ponies, but there’s no way for someone to trust the list, given the bad ones.

Enough with the lies about the Connemara pony being a distinct breed of coarse white ponies that roamed the mountains of Ireland for centuries and were jumping machines. Irish author and horseman Nicholas O’Hare laid bare the lies in his 2002 book, “The Modern Connemara: The Search for Performance.”

Irish horseman Michael J. O’Malley is credited with saving the Connemara pony as a distinct breed in the early 1900s. In a little more than a century, his story has been falsely rewritten from a Connemara lover fighting for what was on the inside of the pony (spirit) to someone fighting for what was on the outside (coarseness).

If the ACPS wants to foster healthy and so-called premium Connemaras, it should encourage and reward Connemaras that have no neck definition and show some rib.

Where will climate change leave the American Connemara in 2050, three decades from now? How will climate change affect horses in general?

For starters, this is your chance to decide how history will judge you.

Legendary U.S. equestrian Denny Emerson, 76, posted advice to struggling breed societies, particularly Connemara and Morgan groups, on his Facebook page Sept. 29, 2017, suggesting time is of the essence to preserve the breeds.

Irish Connemara officials have lifted the ban on registering blue-eyed cream stallions in Ireland, so the United States has followed suit, according to a post Jan. 22, 2016, by the American Connemara Pony Society.

The banner across the top of the American Connemara Pony Society website says: “Connemaras do it all!”

On July 19, 2015, I watched several Connemara inspections in St. Louis, Mo., by the American Connemara Pony Society.

Once again, I return to the topic of hatred and bias, as the world continues to evolve quickly in accepting diversity, but the American Connemara Pony Society not so much. More

I received a letter in May 2015 from an organization that helps troubled youth through its horse program.

Ireland’s overwhelming approval of gay marriage on May 23, 2015, seems a bit out of character for a country known for its rejection of diversity.

America still has a pigmentation issue, according to Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press on May 3, 2015.

Two video clips of Dundrum are a treat to watch.

So you want to buy a Connemara, and you’re asking yourself if you should pay attention to the inspections program?

Officials in the American Connemara Pony Society make many claims about their inspections program, but the only question that matters is: Is the program saving the Connemara?

Many people look at breeds as if they have always existed.

Someone recently suggested that I use the term “grinch” to refer to Connemara inspectors who hate the Connemaras that look like Little Heaven.

The American Connemara Pony Society’s web page on inspections tries to justify the program with 4,539 words.

All indications are that horse discrimination based on appearance will die with the elderly generation that has tried so hard to keep diversity at bay.

A new site dedicated to animals should serve notice to the American Connemara Pony Society that bullying behavior in the form of inspections to force horses to look a certain way will not stand the test of time.

Surveys appears to be gaining ground in the horse world, at least in many circles. Horse groups are ramping up their efforts to get feedback to improve and survive.

Breed standards encourage exaggerated conformation, according to Wayne Cavanaugh, president of the United Kennel Club, who was interviewed by veterinarian Karen Becker on Aug. 5, 2013, for the website Healthy Pets.

An Associated Press story published on Dec. 20, 2013, looked at the changing appearance of today’s Santa Claus.

In a CBS television show called “Lucky Dog,” dog trainer Brandon McMillan tries to find a new home for shelter dogs by taking in one dog per week, working with it at his Lucky Dog Ranch and placing it in a home where it will do well.

The most overlooked factor in the argument over what constitutes a Connemara is time.

The American Connemara Society is taking its lead on breed inspections from an Ireland that was, not the country that remains today.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, let’s look at Ireland’s treatment of Connemaras against the backdrop of its treatment of its favorite son, the former U.S. president.

Robert Redford discussed the toxic environment in Washington in an interview with CNN on October 16, 2013, as he promoted a new movie.

I’m curious why officials in the American Connemara Pony Society are working so hard to keep breed inspections that have not proven to create better Connemaras or make the breed more popular.

In yet another sobering look at the life of kids today, CNN published an article October 11, 2013, describing the onslaught of bullying that children face on social media sites.

The 2013 meeting of the American Connemara Pony Society has come and gone, and nothing appears to have changed with inspections.

Horses have long provided a sanctuary for children at a fragile stage in life.

USEF has asked its affiliates to examine their practices to ensure they are in line with a world in which there is no hiding from public scrutiny; affiliates should proceed as if their actions are being recorded by an NBC camera crew 24/7 with no editing.

What should Connemara owners take away from the Texas cloning lawsuit, in which a jury ruled against a ban on cloned horses in the American Quarter Horse Association?

It’s only a matter of time until the courts strike down Connemara breed inspections for the same reason that a federal jury ruled against a cloning ban in the American Quarter Horse Association: It’s an illegal, monopolistic practice.

A jury in a federal court in Texas has ruled that the American Quarter Horse Association violated state and federal antitrust laws by banning cloned horses from its registry.

Of all the posts I’ve written about Connemara inspections, this is the most important, because it looks at the practices of the American Connemara Pony Society against the backdrop of its national federation, the United States Equestrian Federation.

The late President John F. Kennedy made his “Report to the American People on Civil Rights” on June 11, 1963.

The New York Times posted an article on June 3, 2013, under the headline “Why young people don’t vote Republican.”

The Washington Post published an article June 1, 2013, on why the Boy Scouts of America finally voted to end its discrimination against gay scouts.

A recent study on how much weight horses can carry comfortably has illustrated yet again why Connemaras should not be forced to remain 14-2 hands and under.

I listened to two college commencement speeches given on May 11, 2013 — one by former President Bill Clinton and another by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

Charles Darwin was a British scientist in the 19th century whose research led him to theorize that survival and reproduction were the prime motivations for all species.

I wish Connemara inspectors could have been in the room in February 2013 when the chief scientist with the RSPCA in Australia asked a conference of horsemen if humans are justified in asking a horse to do something it doesn’t want to do.

How did this inspections process go from a simple vote for voluntary inspections to a Hitler-like weeding out of conformation that is not a flaw?

In 2005, a Connemara inspector made some comments to me about my horse that would have been considered racially biased and bigoted if she were speaking about a human.

One of my many issues with breed inspections and breed standards has been the lack of people who have been willing to go public and say these practices are wrong.

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

To the inspectors of the American Connemara Pony Society: I am one of the many Connemaras you have failed at an inspection.

This discrimination is bizarre behavior in the 21st century, a time when bullying has become especially unacceptable and the diversity of the nation has changed along with its definition of beauty.

CBS generously ran the classic Christmas special “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” twice in 2012, allowing me to do some much-needed fact-checking.

In 2005, when I first raised huge concerns about how the Connemara inspections process was taking shape in America, ACPS board members pointed to Ireland as the reason for the creation of U.S. inspections.

You can’t be a bigot and evolved in the same breath.

I often wonder how long it will be before Connemara officials in America are willing to admit they were wrong to create inspections that intentionally discriminate against horses that are Connemaras by blood and have every right to equal treatment and inclusion in the society?

the American Connemara society pays for the expenses of people who have been deemed inspectors to travel to cities to bully horses.

Allowing so-called inspectors to fail horses that weren’t to their liking and exclude them has always felt to me like the breed society was turned over to a bunch of adolescents. As it turns out, that comparison is more accurate than I thought.

One cannot debate whether breed standards for horses and dogs are ethical without looking at the bigger picture of how animals fit into society.

The Connemara society reminds me of the Republican party: completely blind to the fact that its future base will be a diverse population that doesn’t take kindly to discrimination.

I find myself quoting people under the age of 20 more often than not when it comes to bullying.

I believe in my lifetime that breed standards and inspections will be banned, because courts will outlaw the practice of forcing breeders to create animals that match a set of criteria written on paper by people who basically are just being bullies.

Did Steve Jobs let Bill Gates tell him how to run his business?

By now, anyone who follows the news has heard Wisconsin anchor Jennifer Livingston turn the tables on the viewer who called her fat in an email.

A “Huffington Post” article captured the frustration of US gymnast Gabby Douglas hours after she won the individual gold medal in London in August 2012.

Allbreedpedigree.com shows that inspectors who repeatedly fail horses that “remind then of Thoroughbreds” are hypocrites.

“If you want to see a bunch of Connemara breeders almost come to blows, start a discussion about whether Little Heaven and Texas Hope were good or bad for the breed.”

A British study of Thoroughbred foundation mares suggests that they descend from native Irish mares, including Connemaras and Irish Draught mares, and mares native to the British Isles, more than horses from the Middle East and Asia, as originally thought.

I haven’t been very shy about arguing that people should not put themselves above animals.

I keep seeing the word stigma in news reports, and I think it’s time to look at this word in relation to breed standards.

Famed horse writer Walter Farley’s “Little Black, a Pony” delivers the not-so-subtle message that we shouldn’t prejudge something based on appearance.

Frustration over breed standards appears to be building, based on feedback I’m getting from around the world, and I was sent an interesting article on the topic that was published in the June 2012 issue of Ireland’s Horse Review, a monthly sport horse newspaper.

In December 2010, The New York Times did a sobering story on the plight of horses in Ireland today.

A post on Psychology Today from December 2009 looks at human motivation. Author Robert Evans Wilson Jr. says humans are motivated by their status as a pack animal.

Peer pressure is a formidable force. It makes people agree to do things that they would not do on their own.

There is a pattern between the language on websites that decry the use of bullying and those that herald the use of breed standards.

The debate over whether breed societies can set breed standards for animals really is a larger debate about where humans and animals fall in the universal pecking order and whether humans should “own” animals.

America’s perception of the ideal beauty has changed from a white woman such as Christie Brinkley in 1991 to a mixed race or darker woman such as Angelina Jolie today.

Alison Skipper, one of the two vets who failed six of 15 Best of Breed winners at the Crufts dog show in Britain in March 2012, has aired her thoughts on the experience after coming under fire.

The well-known veterinarian pulled no punches in attacking breed standards in a reply to a poor woman who just wanted to know why her sister’s Persian cats had constant tearing in their eyes.

As victories go, this one is hollow. But, let’s not ignore any movement when it comes to breed standards.

CNN is running a series on beauty, and one of the reports centers on a documentary called “Miss Representation.”

I continue to search for scientific evidence that a thicker, shorter cannon bone makes for a better horse, because, otherwise, it would seem odd or irresponsible that Connemara societies the world over would be requiring cannon bones of a certain width and length for a Connemara to pass an inspection.

Intentionally making horses carry around heavy cannon bones is the opposite of what nature intended, and research seems to refute the American Connemara Pony Society’s message that big cannon bones are better.

An article titled “A New Direction for Kennel Club Regulations and Breed Standards” published in 2007 in the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association addresses veterinarians’ role in the increasing “welfare predicament” of purebred dogs.

Once again, another highly respected group has come out against breed standards based on appearance.

A Stanford law professor is finally laying the groundwork in the human world for what may lead to the end of appearance bias.

I was researching whether there actually was more than one way to peel a banana to fact-check an article I was copy editing, and I came across this article by J. Howard Baker, an assistant professor of computer information systems and a guy who makes a lot of sense.

Bullying means “to affect by means of force or coercion,” according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

If you haven’t seen the 2008 British documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” whether you’re a horse breeder, a dog breeder or just an animal lover in general, you should watch it.

If you want to pass an inspection by the American Connemara Pony Society, you will need to add at least an inch to the cannon bone circumference standard of 7 to 8 inches. The ACPS chooses to ignore that breed standard and is giving premium and approved status to Connemaras of pony height with 9- to 10-inch cannon bones.

First posted on Facebook in February 2009: To all Connemara lovers in America: The last time I spoke out against Connemara inspections in 2005, I received two reactions: Those in favor of inspections criticized me outright or ostracized me.

In one room at USEF’s 2024 annual meeting, USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor discussed weighty topics such as whether there should be horse sport at all and if horses enjoyed taking part in such activity. In another room, Connemara officials expanded their bigoted inspections to a bigger pool of Connemaras (halfbreds). The differences couldn’t be more stark.

I have asked for two decades, “Where is the research that shows the effects of the American Connemara Pony Society forcing Connemaras to have thick legs?” The silence has been deafening. In early 2024, I decided to do my own research.

Dear US Equestrian, I am deeply disappointed that you have not followed your own directive to affiliates to do the right thing. You have allowed inspectors in the American Connemara Pony Society to alter the Connemara breed standard when they use it in inspections, employing a word trick, so they can approve or give premium status to stallions, including their own, that otherwise would fail an inspection based on the real breed standard.

What if it told the world that there’s no way one can anoint a Connemara as premium by watching it mostly stand still for 12 minutes with a brief walk and trot?

A steep drop in ACPS membership reflects the failed direction taken by top officials over a 20-year period. For perspective, compare the ACPS numbers to American Morgan Horse Association membership.

The longtime logo for the American Connemara Pony Society has appeared on ACPS official literature since at least 1966. But the Connemara in the logo looks exactly like the refined ponies – show hunter-quality ponies – that are now shunned by the breed organization.

Kerrymor Farm has put together a history of the early years of the American Connemara Pony Society that readers of this website should find interesting.

The current list of ACPS-approved Connemaras in America includes many bad ponies, some dangerous, in my opinion. The list also contains some nice ponies, but there’s no way for someone to trust the list, given the bad ones.

Enough with the lies about the Connemara pony being a distinct breed of coarse white ponies that roamed the mountains of Ireland for centuries and were jumping machines. Irish author and horseman Nicholas O’Hare laid bare the lies in his 2002 book, “The Modern Connemara: The Search for Performance.”

Irish horseman Michael J. O’Malley is credited with saving the Connemara pony as a distinct breed in the early 1900s. In a little more than a century, his story has been falsely rewritten from a Connemara lover fighting for what was on the inside of the pony (spirit) to someone fighting for what was on the outside (coarseness).

If the ACPS wants to foster healthy and so-called premium Connemaras, it should encourage and reward Connemaras that have no neck definition and show some rib.

Where will climate change leave the American Connemara in 2050, three decades from now? How will climate change affect horses in general?

For starters, this is your chance to decide how history will judge you.

Legendary U.S. equestrian Denny Emerson, 76, posted advice to struggling breed societies, particularly Connemara and Morgan groups, on his Facebook page Sept. 29, 2017, suggesting time is of the essence to preserve the breeds.

Irish Connemara officials have lifted the ban on registering blue-eyed cream stallions in Ireland, so the United States has followed suit, according to a post Jan. 22, 2016, by the American Connemara Pony Society.

The banner across the top of the American Connemara Pony Society website says: “Connemaras do it all!”

On July 19, 2015, I watched several Connemara inspections in St. Louis, Mo., by the American Connemara Pony Society.

Once again, I return to the topic of hatred and bias, as the world continues to evolve quickly in accepting diversity, but the American Connemara Pony Society not so much. More

I received a letter in May 2015 from an organization that helps troubled youth through its horse program.

Ireland’s overwhelming approval of gay marriage on May 23, 2015, seems a bit out of character for a country known for its rejection of diversity.

America still has a pigmentation issue, according to Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press on May 3, 2015.

Two video clips of Dundrum are a treat to watch.

So you want to buy a Connemara, and you’re asking yourself if you should pay attention to the inspections program?

Officials in the American Connemara Pony Society make many claims about their inspections program, but the only question that matters is: Is the program saving the Connemara?

Many people look at breeds as if they have always existed.

Someone recently suggested that I use the term “grinch” to refer to Connemara inspectors who hate the Connemaras that look like Little Heaven.

The American Connemara Pony Society’s web page on inspections tries to justify the program with 4,539 words.

All indications are that horse discrimination based on appearance will die with the elderly generation that has tried so hard to keep diversity at bay.

A new site dedicated to animals should serve notice to the American Connemara Pony Society that bullying behavior in the form of inspections to force horses to look a certain way will not stand the test of time.

Surveys appears to be gaining ground in the horse world, at least in many circles. Horse groups are ramping up their efforts to get feedback to improve and survive.

Breed standards encourage exaggerated conformation, according to Wayne Cavanaugh, president of the United Kennel Club, who was interviewed by veterinarian Karen Becker on Aug. 5, 2013, for the website Healthy Pets.

An Associated Press story published on Dec. 20, 2013, looked at the changing appearance of today’s Santa Claus.

In a CBS television show called “Lucky Dog,” dog trainer Brandon McMillan tries to find a new home for shelter dogs by taking in one dog per week, working with it at his Lucky Dog Ranch and placing it in a home where it will do well.

The most overlooked factor in the argument over what constitutes a Connemara is time.

The American Connemara Society is taking its lead on breed inspections from an Ireland that was, not the country that remains today.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, let’s look at Ireland’s treatment of Connemaras against the backdrop of its treatment of its favorite son, the former U.S. president.

Robert Redford discussed the toxic environment in Washington in an interview with CNN on October 16, 2013, as he promoted a new movie.

I’m curious why officials in the American Connemara Pony Society are working so hard to keep breed inspections that have not proven to create better Connemaras or make the breed more popular.

In yet another sobering look at the life of kids today, CNN published an article October 11, 2013, describing the onslaught of bullying that children face on social media sites.

The 2013 meeting of the American Connemara Pony Society has come and gone, and nothing appears to have changed with inspections.

Horses have long provided a sanctuary for children at a fragile stage in life.

USEF has asked its affiliates to examine their practices to ensure they are in line with a world in which there is no hiding from public scrutiny; affiliates should proceed as if their actions are being recorded by an NBC camera crew 24/7 with no editing.

What should Connemara owners take away from the Texas cloning lawsuit, in which a jury ruled against a ban on cloned horses in the American Quarter Horse Association?

It’s only a matter of time until the courts strike down Connemara breed inspections for the same reason that a federal jury ruled against a cloning ban in the American Quarter Horse Association: It’s an illegal, monopolistic practice.

A jury in a federal court in Texas has ruled that the American Quarter Horse Association violated state and federal antitrust laws by banning cloned horses from its registry.

Of all the posts I’ve written about Connemara inspections, this is the most important, because it looks at the practices of the American Connemara Pony Society against the backdrop of its national federation, the United States Equestrian Federation.

The late President John F. Kennedy made his “Report to the American People on Civil Rights” on June 11, 1963.

The New York Times posted an article on June 3, 2013, under the headline “Why young people don’t vote Republican.”

The Washington Post published an article June 1, 2013, on why the Boy Scouts of America finally voted to end its discrimination against gay scouts.

A recent study on how much weight horses can carry comfortably has illustrated yet again why Connemaras should not be forced to remain 14-2 hands and under.

I listened to two college commencement speeches given on May 11, 2013 — one by former President Bill Clinton and another by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

Charles Darwin was a British scientist in the 19th century whose research led him to theorize that survival and reproduction were the prime motivations for all species.

I wish Connemara inspectors could have been in the room in February 2013 when the chief scientist with the RSPCA in Australia asked a conference of horsemen if humans are justified in asking a horse to do something it doesn’t want to do.

How did this inspections process go from a simple vote for voluntary inspections to a Hitler-like weeding out of conformation that is not a flaw?

In 2005, a Connemara inspector made some comments to me about my horse that would have been considered racially biased and bigoted if she were speaking about a human.

One of my many issues with breed inspections and breed standards has been the lack of people who have been willing to go public and say these practices are wrong.

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

To the inspectors of the American Connemara Pony Society: I am one of the many Connemaras you have failed at an inspection.

This discrimination is bizarre behavior in the 21st century, a time when bullying has become especially unacceptable and the diversity of the nation has changed along with its definition of beauty.

CBS generously ran the classic Christmas special “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” twice in 2012, allowing me to do some much-needed fact-checking.

In 2005, when I first raised huge concerns about how the Connemara inspections process was taking shape in America, ACPS board members pointed to Ireland as the reason for the creation of U.S. inspections.

You can’t be a bigot and evolved in the same breath.

I often wonder how long it will be before Connemara officials in America are willing to admit they were wrong to create inspections that intentionally discriminate against horses that are Connemaras by blood and have every right to equal treatment and inclusion in the society?

the American Connemara society pays for the expenses of people who have been deemed inspectors to travel to cities to bully horses.

Allowing so-called inspectors to fail horses that weren’t to their liking and exclude them has always felt to me like the breed society was turned over to a bunch of adolescents. As it turns out, that comparison is more accurate than I thought.

One cannot debate whether breed standards for horses and dogs are ethical without looking at the bigger picture of how animals fit into society.

The Connemara society reminds me of the Republican party: completely blind to the fact that its future base will be a diverse population that doesn’t take kindly to discrimination.

I find myself quoting people under the age of 20 more often than not when it comes to bullying.

I believe in my lifetime that breed standards and inspections will be banned, because courts will outlaw the practice of forcing breeders to create animals that match a set of criteria written on paper by people who basically are just being bullies.

Did Steve Jobs let Bill Gates tell him how to run his business?

By now, anyone who follows the news has heard Wisconsin anchor Jennifer Livingston turn the tables on the viewer who called her fat in an email.

A “Huffington Post” article captured the frustration of US gymnast Gabby Douglas hours after she won the individual gold medal in London in August 2012.

Allbreedpedigree.com shows that inspectors who repeatedly fail horses that “remind then of Thoroughbreds” are hypocrites.

“If you want to see a bunch of Connemara breeders almost come to blows, start a discussion about whether Little Heaven and Texas Hope were good or bad for the breed.”

A British study of Thoroughbred foundation mares suggests that they descend from native Irish mares, including Connemaras and Irish Draught mares, and mares native to the British Isles, more than horses from the Middle East and Asia, as originally thought.

I haven’t been very shy about arguing that people should not put themselves above animals.

I keep seeing the word stigma in news reports, and I think it’s time to look at this word in relation to breed standards.

Famed horse writer Walter Farley’s “Little Black, a Pony” delivers the not-so-subtle message that we shouldn’t prejudge something based on appearance.

Frustration over breed standards appears to be building, based on feedback I’m getting from around the world, and I was sent an interesting article on the topic that was published in the June 2012 issue of Ireland’s Horse Review, a monthly sport horse newspaper.

In December 2010, The New York Times did a sobering story on the plight of horses in Ireland today.

A post on Psychology Today from December 2009 looks at human motivation. Author Robert Evans Wilson Jr. says humans are motivated by their status as a pack animal.

Peer pressure is a formidable force. It makes people agree to do things that they would not do on their own.

There is a pattern between the language on websites that decry the use of bullying and those that herald the use of breed standards.

The debate over whether breed societies can set breed standards for animals really is a larger debate about where humans and animals fall in the universal pecking order and whether humans should “own” animals.

America’s perception of the ideal beauty has changed from a white woman such as Christie Brinkley in 1991 to a mixed race or darker woman such as Angelina Jolie today.

Alison Skipper, one of the two vets who failed six of 15 Best of Breed winners at the Crufts dog show in Britain in March 2012, has aired her thoughts on the experience after coming under fire.

The well-known veterinarian pulled no punches in attacking breed standards in a reply to a poor woman who just wanted to know why her sister’s Persian cats had constant tearing in their eyes.

As victories go, this one is hollow. But, let’s not ignore any movement when it comes to breed standards.

CNN is running a series on beauty, and one of the reports centers on a documentary called “Miss Representation.”

I continue to search for scientific evidence that a thicker, shorter cannon bone makes for a better horse, because, otherwise, it would seem odd or irresponsible that Connemara societies the world over would be requiring cannon bones of a certain width and length for a Connemara to pass an inspection.

Intentionally making horses carry around heavy cannon bones is the opposite of what nature intended, and research seems to refute the American Connemara Pony Society’s message that big cannon bones are better.

An article titled “A New Direction for Kennel Club Regulations and Breed Standards” published in 2007 in the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association addresses veterinarians’ role in the increasing “welfare predicament” of purebred dogs.

Once again, another highly respected group has come out against breed standards based on appearance.

A Stanford law professor is finally laying the groundwork in the human world for what may lead to the end of appearance bias.

I was researching whether there actually was more than one way to peel a banana to fact-check an article I was copy editing, and I came across this article by J. Howard Baker, an assistant professor of computer information systems and a guy who makes a lot of sense.

Bullying means “to affect by means of force or coercion,” according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

If you haven’t seen the 2008 British documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” whether you’re a horse breeder, a dog breeder or just an animal lover in general, you should watch it.

If you want to pass an inspection by the American Connemara Pony Society, you will need to add at least an inch to the cannon bone circumference standard of 7 to 8 inches. The ACPS chooses to ignore that breed standard and is giving premium and approved status to Connemaras of pony height with 9- to 10-inch cannon bones.

First posted on Facebook in February 2009: To all Connemara lovers in America: The last time I spoke out against Connemara inspections in 2005, I received two reactions: Those in favor of inspections criticized me outright or ostracized me.

In one room at USEF’s 2024 annual meeting, USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor discussed weighty topics such as whether there should be horse sport at all and if horses enjoyed taking part in such activity. In another room, Connemara officials expanded their bigoted inspections to a bigger pool of Connemaras (halfbreds). The differences couldn’t be more stark.

I have asked for two decades, “Where is the research that shows the effects of the American Connemara Pony Society forcing Connemaras to have thick legs?” The silence has been deafening. In early 2024, I decided to do my own research.

Dear US Equestrian, I am deeply disappointed that you have not followed your own directive to affiliates to do the right thing. You have allowed inspectors in the American Connemara Pony Society to alter the Connemara breed standard when they use it in inspections, employing a word trick, so they can approve or give premium status to stallions, including their own, that otherwise would fail an inspection based on the real breed standard.

What if it told the world that there’s no way one can anoint a Connemara as premium by watching it mostly stand still for 12 minutes with a brief walk and trot?

A steep drop in ACPS membership reflects the failed direction taken by top officials over a 20-year period. For perspective, compare the ACPS numbers to American Morgan Horse Association membership.

The longtime logo for the American Connemara Pony Society has appeared on ACPS official literature since at least 1966. But the Connemara in the logo looks exactly like the refined ponies – show hunter-quality ponies – that are now shunned by the breed organization.

Kerrymor Farm has put together a history of the early years of the American Connemara Pony Society that readers of this website should find interesting.

The current list of ACPS-approved Connemaras in America includes many bad ponies, some dangerous, in my opinion. The list also contains some nice ponies, but there’s no way for someone to trust the list, given the bad ones.

Enough with the lies about the Connemara pony being a distinct breed of coarse white ponies that roamed the mountains of Ireland for centuries and were jumping machines. Irish author and horseman Nicholas O’Hare laid bare the lies in his 2002 book, “The Modern Connemara: The Search for Performance.”

Irish horseman Michael J. O’Malley is credited with saving the Connemara pony as a distinct breed in the early 1900s. In a little more than a century, his story has been falsely rewritten from a Connemara lover fighting for what was on the inside of the pony (spirit) to someone fighting for what was on the outside (coarseness).

If the ACPS wants to foster healthy and so-called premium Connemaras, it should encourage and reward Connemaras that have no neck definition and show some rib.

Where will climate change leave the American Connemara in 2050, three decades from now? How will climate change affect horses in general?

For starters, this is your chance to decide how history will judge you.

Legendary U.S. equestrian Denny Emerson, 76, posted advice to struggling breed societies, particularly Connemara and Morgan groups, on his Facebook page Sept. 29, 2017, suggesting time is of the essence to preserve the breeds.

Irish Connemara officials have lifted the ban on registering blue-eyed cream stallions in Ireland, so the United States has followed suit, according to a post Jan. 22, 2016, by the American Connemara Pony Society.

The banner across the top of the American Connemara Pony Society website says: “Connemaras do it all!”

On July 19, 2015, I watched several Connemara inspections in St. Louis, Mo., by the American Connemara Pony Society.

Once again, I return to the topic of hatred and bias, as the world continues to evolve quickly in accepting diversity, but the American Connemara Pony Society not so much. More

I received a letter in May 2015 from an organization that helps troubled youth through its horse program.

Ireland’s overwhelming approval of gay marriage on May 23, 2015, seems a bit out of character for a country known for its rejection of diversity.

America still has a pigmentation issue, according to Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press on May 3, 2015.

Two video clips of Dundrum are a treat to watch.

So you want to buy a Connemara, and you’re asking yourself if you should pay attention to the inspections program?

Officials in the American Connemara Pony Society make many claims about their inspections program, but the only question that matters is: Is the program saving the Connemara?

Many people look at breeds as if they have always existed.

Someone recently suggested that I use the term “grinch” to refer to Connemara inspectors who hate the Connemaras that look like Little Heaven.

The American Connemara Pony Society’s web page on inspections tries to justify the program with 4,539 words.

All indications are that horse discrimination based on appearance will die with the elderly generation that has tried so hard to keep diversity at bay.

A new site dedicated to animals should serve notice to the American Connemara Pony Society that bullying behavior in the form of inspections to force horses to look a certain way will not stand the test of time.

Surveys appears to be gaining ground in the horse world, at least in many circles. Horse groups are ramping up their efforts to get feedback to improve and survive.

Breed standards encourage exaggerated conformation, according to Wayne Cavanaugh, president of the United Kennel Club, who was interviewed by veterinarian Karen Becker on Aug. 5, 2013, for the website Healthy Pets.

An Associated Press story published on Dec. 20, 2013, looked at the changing appearance of today’s Santa Claus.

In a CBS television show called “Lucky Dog,” dog trainer Brandon McMillan tries to find a new home for shelter dogs by taking in one dog per week, working with it at his Lucky Dog Ranch and placing it in a home where it will do well.

The most overlooked factor in the argument over what constitutes a Connemara is time.

The American Connemara Society is taking its lead on breed inspections from an Ireland that was, not the country that remains today.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, let’s look at Ireland’s treatment of Connemaras against the backdrop of its treatment of its favorite son, the former U.S. president.

Robert Redford discussed the toxic environment in Washington in an interview with CNN on October 16, 2013, as he promoted a new movie.

I’m curious why officials in the American Connemara Pony Society are working so hard to keep breed inspections that have not proven to create better Connemaras or make the breed more popular.

In yet another sobering look at the life of kids today, CNN published an article October 11, 2013, describing the onslaught of bullying that children face on social media sites.

The 2013 meeting of the American Connemara Pony Society has come and gone, and nothing appears to have changed with inspections.

Horses have long provided a sanctuary for children at a fragile stage in life.

USEF has asked its affiliates to examine their practices to ensure they are in line with a world in which there is no hiding from public scrutiny; affiliates should proceed as if their actions are being recorded by an NBC camera crew 24/7 with no editing.

What should Connemara owners take away from the Texas cloning lawsuit, in which a jury ruled against a ban on cloned horses in the American Quarter Horse Association?

It’s only a matter of time until the courts strike down Connemara breed inspections for the same reason that a federal jury ruled against a cloning ban in the American Quarter Horse Association: It’s an illegal, monopolistic practice.

A jury in a federal court in Texas has ruled that the American Quarter Horse Association violated state and federal antitrust laws by banning cloned horses from its registry.

Of all the posts I’ve written about Connemara inspections, this is the most important, because it looks at the practices of the American Connemara Pony Society against the backdrop of its national federation, the United States Equestrian Federation.

The late President John F. Kennedy made his “Report to the American People on Civil Rights” on June 11, 1963.

The New York Times posted an article on June 3, 2013, under the headline “Why young people don’t vote Republican.”

The Washington Post published an article June 1, 2013, on why the Boy Scouts of America finally voted to end its discrimination against gay scouts.

A recent study on how much weight horses can carry comfortably has illustrated yet again why Connemaras should not be forced to remain 14-2 hands and under.

I listened to two college commencement speeches given on May 11, 2013 — one by former President Bill Clinton and another by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

Charles Darwin was a British scientist in the 19th century whose research led him to theorize that survival and reproduction were the prime motivations for all species.

I wish Connemara inspectors could have been in the room in February 2013 when the chief scientist with the RSPCA in Australia asked a conference of horsemen if humans are justified in asking a horse to do something it doesn’t want to do.

How did this inspections process go from a simple vote for voluntary inspections to a Hitler-like weeding out of conformation that is not a flaw?

In 2005, a Connemara inspector made some comments to me about my horse that would have been considered racially biased and bigoted if she were speaking about a human.

One of my many issues with breed inspections and breed standards has been the lack of people who have been willing to go public and say these practices are wrong.

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

To the inspectors of the American Connemara Pony Society: I am one of the many Connemaras you have failed at an inspection.

This discrimination is bizarre behavior in the 21st century, a time when bullying has become especially unacceptable and the diversity of the nation has changed along with its definition of beauty.

CBS generously ran the classic Christmas special “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” twice in 2012, allowing me to do some much-needed fact-checking.

In 2005, when I first raised huge concerns about how the Connemara inspections process was taking shape in America, ACPS board members pointed to Ireland as the reason for the creation of U.S. inspections.

You can’t be a bigot and evolved in the same breath.

I often wonder how long it will be before Connemara officials in America are willing to admit they were wrong to create inspections that intentionally discriminate against horses that are Connemaras by blood and have every right to equal treatment and inclusion in the society?

the American Connemara society pays for the expenses of people who have been deemed inspectors to travel to cities to bully horses.

Allowing so-called inspectors to fail horses that weren’t to their liking and exclude them has always felt to me like the breed society was turned over to a bunch of adolescents. As it turns out, that comparison is more accurate than I thought.

One cannot debate whether breed standards for horses and dogs are ethical without looking at the bigger picture of how animals fit into society.

The Connemara society reminds me of the Republican party: completely blind to the fact that its future base will be a diverse population that doesn’t take kindly to discrimination.

I find myself quoting people under the age of 20 more often than not when it comes to bullying.

I believe in my lifetime that breed standards and inspections will be banned, because courts will outlaw the practice of forcing breeders to create animals that match a set of criteria written on paper by people who basically are just being bullies.

Did Steve Jobs let Bill Gates tell him how to run his business?

By now, anyone who follows the news has heard Wisconsin anchor Jennifer Livingston turn the tables on the viewer who called her fat in an email.

A “Huffington Post” article captured the frustration of US gymnast Gabby Douglas hours after she won the individual gold medal in London in August 2012.

Allbreedpedigree.com shows that inspectors who repeatedly fail horses that “remind then of Thoroughbreds” are hypocrites.

“If you want to see a bunch of Connemara breeders almost come to blows, start a discussion about whether Little Heaven and Texas Hope were good or bad for the breed.”

A British study of Thoroughbred foundation mares suggests that they descend from native Irish mares, including Connemaras and Irish Draught mares, and mares native to the British Isles, more than horses from the Middle East and Asia, as originally thought.

I haven’t been very shy about arguing that people should not put themselves above animals.

I keep seeing the word stigma in news reports, and I think it’s time to look at this word in relation to breed standards.

Famed horse writer Walter Farley’s “Little Black, a Pony” delivers the not-so-subtle message that we shouldn’t prejudge something based on appearance.

Frustration over breed standards appears to be building, based on feedback I’m getting from around the world, and I was sent an interesting article on the topic that was published in the June 2012 issue of Ireland’s Horse Review, a monthly sport horse newspaper.

In December 2010, The New York Times did a sobering story on the plight of horses in Ireland today.

A post on Psychology Today from December 2009 looks at human motivation. Author Robert Evans Wilson Jr. says humans are motivated by their status as a pack animal.

Peer pressure is a formidable force. It makes people agree to do things that they would not do on their own.

There is a pattern between the language on websites that decry the use of bullying and those that herald the use of breed standards.

The debate over whether breed societies can set breed standards for animals really is a larger debate about where humans and animals fall in the universal pecking order and whether humans should “own” animals.

America’s perception of the ideal beauty has changed from a white woman such as Christie Brinkley in 1991 to a mixed race or darker woman such as Angelina Jolie today.

Alison Skipper, one of the two vets who failed six of 15 Best of Breed winners at the Crufts dog show in Britain in March 2012, has aired her thoughts on the experience after coming under fire.

The well-known veterinarian pulled no punches in attacking breed standards in a reply to a poor woman who just wanted to know why her sister’s Persian cats had constant tearing in their eyes.

As victories go, this one is hollow. But, let’s not ignore any movement when it comes to breed standards.

CNN is running a series on beauty, and one of the reports centers on a documentary called “Miss Representation.”

I continue to search for scientific evidence that a thicker, shorter cannon bone makes for a better horse, because, otherwise, it would seem odd or irresponsible that Connemara societies the world over would be requiring cannon bones of a certain width and length for a Connemara to pass an inspection.

Intentionally making horses carry around heavy cannon bones is the opposite of what nature intended, and research seems to refute the American Connemara Pony Society’s message that big cannon bones are better.

An article titled “A New Direction for Kennel Club Regulations and Breed Standards” published in 2007 in the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association addresses veterinarians’ role in the increasing “welfare predicament” of purebred dogs.

Once again, another highly respected group has come out against breed standards based on appearance.

A Stanford law professor is finally laying the groundwork in the human world for what may lead to the end of appearance bias.

I was researching whether there actually was more than one way to peel a banana to fact-check an article I was copy editing, and I came across this article by J. Howard Baker, an assistant professor of computer information systems and a guy who makes a lot of sense.

Bullying means “to affect by means of force or coercion,” according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

If you haven’t seen the 2008 British documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” whether you’re a horse breeder, a dog breeder or just an animal lover in general, you should watch it.

If you want to pass an inspection by the American Connemara Pony Society, you will need to add at least an inch to the cannon bone circumference standard of 7 to 8 inches. The ACPS chooses to ignore that breed standard and is giving premium and approved status to Connemaras of pony height with 9- to 10-inch cannon bones.

First posted on Facebook in February 2009: To all Connemara lovers in America: The last time I spoke out against Connemara inspections in 2005, I received two reactions: Those in favor of inspections criticized me outright or ostracized me.

In one room at USEF’s 2024 annual meeting, USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor discussed weighty topics such as whether there should be horse sport at all and if horses enjoyed taking part in such activity. In another room, Connemara officials expanded their bigoted inspections to a bigger pool of Connemaras (halfbreds). The differences couldn’t be more stark.

I have asked for two decades, “Where is the research that shows the effects of the American Connemara Pony Society forcing Connemaras to have thick legs?” The silence has been deafening. In early 2024, I decided to do my own research.

Dear US Equestrian, I am deeply disappointed that you have not followed your own directive to affiliates to do the right thing. You have allowed inspectors in the American Connemara Pony Society to alter the Connemara breed standard when they use it in inspections, employing a word trick, so they can approve or give premium status to stallions, including their own, that otherwise would fail an inspection based on the real breed standard.

What if it told the world that there’s no way one can anoint a Connemara as premium by watching it mostly stand still for 12 minutes with a brief walk and trot?

A steep drop in ACPS membership reflects the failed direction taken by top officials over a 20-year period. For perspective, compare the ACPS numbers to American Morgan Horse Association membership.

The longtime logo for the American Connemara Pony Society has appeared on ACPS official literature since at least 1966. But the Connemara in the logo looks exactly like the refined ponies – show hunter-quality ponies – that are now shunned by the breed organization.

Kerrymor Farm has put together a history of the early years of the American Connemara Pony Society that readers of this website should find interesting.

The current list of ACPS-approved Connemaras in America includes many bad ponies, some dangerous, in my opinion. The list also contains some nice ponies, but there’s no way for someone to trust the list, given the bad ones.

Enough with the lies about the Connemara pony being a distinct breed of coarse white ponies that roamed the mountains of Ireland for centuries and were jumping machines. Irish author and horseman Nicholas O’Hare laid bare the lies in his 2002 book, “The Modern Connemara: The Search for Performance.”

Irish horseman Michael J. O’Malley is credited with saving the Connemara pony as a distinct breed in the early 1900s. In a little more than a century, his story has been falsely rewritten from a Connemara lover fighting for what was on the inside of the pony (spirit) to someone fighting for what was on the outside (coarseness).

If the ACPS wants to foster healthy and so-called premium Connemaras, it should encourage and reward Connemaras that have no neck definition and show some rib.

Where will climate change leave the American Connemara in 2050, three decades from now? How will climate change affect horses in general?

For starters, this is your chance to decide how history will judge you.

Legendary U.S. equestrian Denny Emerson, 76, posted advice to struggling breed societies, particularly Connemara and Morgan groups, on his Facebook page Sept. 29, 2017, suggesting time is of the essence to preserve the breeds.

Irish Connemara officials have lifted the ban on registering blue-eyed cream stallions in Ireland, so the United States has followed suit, according to a post Jan. 22, 2016, by the American Connemara Pony Society.

The banner across the top of the American Connemara Pony Society website says: “Connemaras do it all!”

On July 19, 2015, I watched several Connemara inspections in St. Louis, Mo., by the American Connemara Pony Society.

Once again, I return to the topic of hatred and bias, as the world continues to evolve quickly in accepting diversity, but the American Connemara Pony Society not so much. More

I received a letter in May 2015 from an organization that helps troubled youth through its horse program.

Ireland’s overwhelming approval of gay marriage on May 23, 2015, seems a bit out of character for a country known for its rejection of diversity.

America still has a pigmentation issue, according to Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press on May 3, 2015.

Two video clips of Dundrum are a treat to watch.

So you want to buy a Connemara, and you’re asking yourself if you should pay attention to the inspections program?

Officials in the American Connemara Pony Society make many claims about their inspections program, but the only question that matters is: Is the program saving the Connemara?

Many people look at breeds as if they have always existed.

Someone recently suggested that I use the term “grinch” to refer to Connemara inspectors who hate the Connemaras that look like Little Heaven.

The American Connemara Pony Society’s web page on inspections tries to justify the program with 4,539 words.

All indications are that horse discrimination based on appearance will die with the elderly generation that has tried so hard to keep diversity at bay.

A new site dedicated to animals should serve notice to the American Connemara Pony Society that bullying behavior in the form of inspections to force horses to look a certain way will not stand the test of time.

Surveys appears to be gaining ground in the horse world, at least in many circles. Horse groups are ramping up their efforts to get feedback to improve and survive.

Breed standards encourage exaggerated conformation, according to Wayne Cavanaugh, president of the United Kennel Club, who was interviewed by veterinarian Karen Becker on Aug. 5, 2013, for the website Healthy Pets.

An Associated Press story published on Dec. 20, 2013, looked at the changing appearance of today’s Santa Claus.

In a CBS television show called “Lucky Dog,” dog trainer Brandon McMillan tries to find a new home for shelter dogs by taking in one dog per week, working with it at his Lucky Dog Ranch and placing it in a home where it will do well.

The most overlooked factor in the argument over what constitutes a Connemara is time.

The American Connemara Society is taking its lead on breed inspections from an Ireland that was, not the country that remains today.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, let’s look at Ireland’s treatment of Connemaras against the backdrop of its treatment of its favorite son, the former U.S. president.

Robert Redford discussed the toxic environment in Washington in an interview with CNN on October 16, 2013, as he promoted a new movie.

I’m curious why officials in the American Connemara Pony Society are working so hard to keep breed inspections that have not proven to create better Connemaras or make the breed more popular.

In yet another sobering look at the life of kids today, CNN published an article October 11, 2013, describing the onslaught of bullying that children face on social media sites.

The 2013 meeting of the American Connemara Pony Society has come and gone, and nothing appears to have changed with inspections.

Horses have long provided a sanctuary for children at a fragile stage in life.

USEF has asked its affiliates to examine their practices to ensure they are in line with a world in which there is no hiding from public scrutiny; affiliates should proceed as if their actions are being recorded by an NBC camera crew 24/7 with no editing.

What should Connemara owners take away from the Texas cloning lawsuit, in which a jury ruled against a ban on cloned horses in the American Quarter Horse Association?

It’s only a matter of time until the courts strike down Connemara breed inspections for the same reason that a federal jury ruled against a cloning ban in the American Quarter Horse Association: It’s an illegal, monopolistic practice.

A jury in a federal court in Texas has ruled that the American Quarter Horse Association violated state and federal antitrust laws by banning cloned horses from its registry.

Of all the posts I’ve written about Connemara inspections, this is the most important, because it looks at the practices of the American Connemara Pony Society against the backdrop of its national federation, the United States Equestrian Federation.

The late President John F. Kennedy made his “Report to the American People on Civil Rights” on June 11, 1963.

The New York Times posted an article on June 3, 2013, under the headline “Why young people don’t vote Republican.”

The Washington Post published an article June 1, 2013, on why the Boy Scouts of America finally voted to end its discrimination against gay scouts.

A recent study on how much weight horses can carry comfortably has illustrated yet again why Connemaras should not be forced to remain 14-2 hands and under.

I listened to two college commencement speeches given on May 11, 2013 — one by former President Bill Clinton and another by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

Charles Darwin was a British scientist in the 19th century whose research led him to theorize that survival and reproduction were the prime motivations for all species.

I wish Connemara inspectors could have been in the room in February 2013 when the chief scientist with the RSPCA in Australia asked a conference of horsemen if humans are justified in asking a horse to do something it doesn’t want to do.

How did this inspections process go from a simple vote for voluntary inspections to a Hitler-like weeding out of conformation that is not a flaw?

In 2005, a Connemara inspector made some comments to me about my horse that would have been considered racially biased and bigoted if she were speaking about a human.

One of my many issues with breed inspections and breed standards has been the lack of people who have been willing to go public and say these practices are wrong.

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

To the inspectors of the American Connemara Pony Society: I am one of the many Connemaras you have failed at an inspection.

This discrimination is bizarre behavior in the 21st century, a time when bullying has become especially unacceptable and the diversity of the nation has changed along with its definition of beauty.

CBS generously ran the classic Christmas special “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” twice in 2012, allowing me to do some much-needed fact-checking.

In 2005, when I first raised huge concerns about how the Connemara inspections process was taking shape in America, ACPS board members pointed to Ireland as the reason for the creation of U.S. inspections.

You can’t be a bigot and evolved in the same breath.

I often wonder how long it will be before Connemara officials in America are willing to admit they were wrong to create inspections that intentionally discriminate against horses that are Connemaras by blood and have every right to equal treatment and inclusion in the society?

the American Connemara society pays for the expenses of people who have been deemed inspectors to travel to cities to bully horses.

Allowing so-called inspectors to fail horses that weren’t to their liking and exclude them has always felt to me like the breed society was turned over to a bunch of adolescents. As it turns out, that comparison is more accurate than I thought.

One cannot debate whether breed standards for horses and dogs are ethical without looking at the bigger picture of how animals fit into society.

The Connemara society reminds me of the Republican party: completely blind to the fact that its future base will be a diverse population that doesn’t take kindly to discrimination.

I find myself quoting people under the age of 20 more often than not when it comes to bullying.

I believe in my lifetime that breed standards and inspections will be banned, because courts will outlaw the practice of forcing breeders to create animals that match a set of criteria written on paper by people who basically are just being bullies.

Did Steve Jobs let Bill Gates tell him how to run his business?

By now, anyone who follows the news has heard Wisconsin anchor Jennifer Livingston turn the tables on the viewer who called her fat in an email.

A “Huffington Post” article captured the frustration of US gymnast Gabby Douglas hours after she won the individual gold medal in London in August 2012.

Allbreedpedigree.com shows that inspectors who repeatedly fail horses that “remind then of Thoroughbreds” are hypocrites.

“If you want to see a bunch of Connemara breeders almost come to blows, start a discussion about whether Little Heaven and Texas Hope were good or bad for the breed.”

A British study of Thoroughbred foundation mares suggests that they descend from native Irish mares, including Connemaras and Irish Draught mares, and mares native to the British Isles, more than horses from the Middle East and Asia, as originally thought.

I haven’t been very shy about arguing that people should not put themselves above animals.

I keep seeing the word stigma in news reports, and I think it’s time to look at this word in relation to breed standards.

Famed horse writer Walter Farley’s “Little Black, a Pony” delivers the not-so-subtle message that we shouldn’t prejudge something based on appearance.

Frustration over breed standards appears to be building, based on feedback I’m getting from around the world, and I was sent an interesting article on the topic that was published in the June 2012 issue of Ireland’s Horse Review, a monthly sport horse newspaper.

In December 2010, The New York Times did a sobering story on the plight of horses in Ireland today.

A post on Psychology Today from December 2009 looks at human motivation. Author Robert Evans Wilson Jr. says humans are motivated by their status as a pack animal.

Peer pressure is a formidable force. It makes people agree to do things that they would not do on their own.

There is a pattern between the language on websites that decry the use of bullying and those that herald the use of breed standards.

The debate over whether breed societies can set breed standards for animals really is a larger debate about where humans and animals fall in the universal pecking order and whether humans should “own” animals.

America’s perception of the ideal beauty has changed from a white woman such as Christie Brinkley in 1991 to a mixed race or darker woman such as Angelina Jolie today.

Alison Skipper, one of the two vets who failed six of 15 Best of Breed winners at the Crufts dog show in Britain in March 2012, has aired her thoughts on the experience after coming under fire.

The well-known veterinarian pulled no punches in attacking breed standards in a reply to a poor woman who just wanted to know why her sister’s Persian cats had constant tearing in their eyes.

As victories go, this one is hollow. But, let’s not ignore any movement when it comes to breed standards.

CNN is running a series on beauty, and one of the reports centers on a documentary called “Miss Representation.”

I continue to search for scientific evidence that a thicker, shorter cannon bone makes for a better horse, because, otherwise, it would seem odd or irresponsible that Connemara societies the world over would be requiring cannon bones of a certain width and length for a Connemara to pass an inspection.

Intentionally making horses carry around heavy cannon bones is the opposite of what nature intended, and research seems to refute the American Connemara Pony Society’s message that big cannon bones are better.

An article titled “A New Direction for Kennel Club Regulations and Breed Standards” published in 2007 in the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association addresses veterinarians’ role in the increasing “welfare predicament” of purebred dogs.

Once again, another highly respected group has come out against breed standards based on appearance.

A Stanford law professor is finally laying the groundwork in the human world for what may lead to the end of appearance bias.

I was researching whether there actually was more than one way to peel a banana to fact-check an article I was copy editing, and I came across this article by J. Howard Baker, an assistant professor of computer information systems and a guy who makes a lot of sense.

Bullying means “to affect by means of force or coercion,” according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

If you haven’t seen the 2008 British documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” whether you’re a horse breeder, a dog breeder or just an animal lover in general, you should watch it.

If you want to pass an inspection by the American Connemara Pony Society, you will need to add at least an inch to the cannon bone circumference standard of 7 to 8 inches. The ACPS chooses to ignore that breed standard and is giving premium and approved status to Connemaras of pony height with 9- to 10-inch cannon bones.

First posted on Facebook in February 2009: To all Connemara lovers in America: The last time I spoke out against Connemara inspections in 2005, I received two reactions: Those in favor of inspections criticized me outright or ostracized me.

In one room at USEF’s 2024 annual meeting, USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor discussed weighty topics such as whether there should be horse sport at all and if horses enjoyed taking part in such activity. In another room, Connemara officials expanded their bigoted inspections to a bigger pool of Connemaras (halfbreds). The differences couldn’t be more stark.

I have asked for two decades, “Where is the research that shows the effects of the American Connemara Pony Society forcing Connemaras to have thick legs?” The silence has been deafening. In early 2024, I decided to do my own research.

Dear US Equestrian, I am deeply disappointed that you have not followed your own directive to affiliates to do the right thing. You have allowed inspectors in the American Connemara Pony Society to alter the Connemara breed standard when they use it in inspections, employing a word trick, so they can approve or give premium status to stallions, including their own, that otherwise would fail an inspection based on the real breed standard.

What if it told the world that there’s no way one can anoint a Connemara as premium by watching it mostly stand still for 12 minutes with a brief walk and trot?

A steep drop in ACPS membership reflects the failed direction taken by top officials over a 20-year period. For perspective, compare the ACPS numbers to American Morgan Horse Association membership.

The longtime logo for the American Connemara Pony Society has appeared on ACPS official literature since at least 1966. But the Connemara in the logo looks exactly like the refined ponies – show hunter-quality ponies – that are now shunned by the breed organization.

Kerrymor Farm has put together a history of the early years of the American Connemara Pony Society that readers of this website should find interesting.

The current list of ACPS-approved Connemaras in America includes many bad ponies, some dangerous, in my opinion. The list also contains some nice ponies, but there’s no way for someone to trust the list, given the bad ones.

Enough with the lies about the Connemara pony being a distinct breed of coarse white ponies that roamed the mountains of Ireland for centuries and were jumping machines. Irish author and horseman Nicholas O’Hare laid bare the lies in his 2002 book, “The Modern Connemara: The Search for Performance.”

Irish horseman Michael J. O’Malley is credited with saving the Connemara pony as a distinct breed in the early 1900s. In a little more than a century, his story has been falsely rewritten from a Connemara lover fighting for what was on the inside of the pony (spirit) to someone fighting for what was on the outside (coarseness).

If the ACPS wants to foster healthy and so-called premium Connemaras, it should encourage and reward Connemaras that have no neck definition and show some rib.

Where will climate change leave the American Connemara in 2050, three decades from now? How will climate change affect horses in general?

For starters, this is your chance to decide how history will judge you.

Legendary U.S. equestrian Denny Emerson, 76, posted advice to struggling breed societies, particularly Connemara and Morgan groups, on his Facebook page Sept. 29, 2017, suggesting time is of the essence to preserve the breeds.

Irish Connemara officials have lifted the ban on registering blue-eyed cream stallions in Ireland, so the United States has followed suit, according to a post Jan. 22, 2016, by the American Connemara Pony Society.

The banner across the top of the American Connemara Pony Society website says: “Connemaras do it all!”

On July 19, 2015, I watched several Connemara inspections in St. Louis, Mo., by the American Connemara Pony Society.

Once again, I return to the topic of hatred and bias, as the world continues to evolve quickly in accepting diversity, but the American Connemara Pony Society not so much. More

I received a letter in May 2015 from an organization that helps troubled youth through its horse program.

Ireland’s overwhelming approval of gay marriage on May 23, 2015, seems a bit out of character for a country known for its rejection of diversity.

America still has a pigmentation issue, according to Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press on May 3, 2015.

Two video clips of Dundrum are a treat to watch.

So you want to buy a Connemara, and you’re asking yourself if you should pay attention to the inspections program?

Officials in the American Connemara Pony Society make many claims about their inspections program, but the only question that matters is: Is the program saving the Connemara?

Many people look at breeds as if they have always existed.

Someone recently suggested that I use the term “grinch” to refer to Connemara inspectors who hate the Connemaras that look like Little Heaven.

The American Connemara Pony Society’s web page on inspections tries to justify the program with 4,539 words.

All indications are that horse discrimination based on appearance will die with the elderly generation that has tried so hard to keep diversity at bay.

A new site dedicated to animals should serve notice to the American Connemara Pony Society that bullying behavior in the form of inspections to force horses to look a certain way will not stand the test of time.

Surveys appears to be gaining ground in the horse world, at least in many circles. Horse groups are ramping up their efforts to get feedback to improve and survive.

Breed standards encourage exaggerated conformation, according to Wayne Cavanaugh, president of the United Kennel Club, who was interviewed by veterinarian Karen Becker on Aug. 5, 2013, for the website Healthy Pets.

An Associated Press story published on Dec. 20, 2013, looked at the changing appearance of today’s Santa Claus.

In a CBS television show called “Lucky Dog,” dog trainer Brandon McMillan tries to find a new home for shelter dogs by taking in one dog per week, working with it at his Lucky Dog Ranch and placing it in a home where it will do well.

The most overlooked factor in the argument over what constitutes a Connemara is time.

The American Connemara Society is taking its lead on breed inspections from an Ireland that was, not the country that remains today.

As we mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, let’s look at Ireland’s treatment of Connemaras against the backdrop of its treatment of its favorite son, the former U.S. president.

Robert Redford discussed the toxic environment in Washington in an interview with CNN on October 16, 2013, as he promoted a new movie.

I’m curious why officials in the American Connemara Pony Society are working so hard to keep breed inspections that have not proven to create better Connemaras or make the breed more popular.

In yet another sobering look at the life of kids today, CNN published an article October 11, 2013, describing the onslaught of bullying that children face on social media sites.

The 2013 meeting of the American Connemara Pony Society has come and gone, and nothing appears to have changed with inspections.

Horses have long provided a sanctuary for children at a fragile stage in life.

USEF has asked its affiliates to examine their practices to ensure they are in line with a world in which there is no hiding from public scrutiny; affiliates should proceed as if their actions are being recorded by an NBC camera crew 24/7 with no editing.

What should Connemara owners take away from the Texas cloning lawsuit, in which a jury ruled against a ban on cloned horses in the American Quarter Horse Association?

It’s only a matter of time until the courts strike down Connemara breed inspections for the same reason that a federal jury ruled against a cloning ban in the American Quarter Horse Association: It’s an illegal, monopolistic practice.

A jury in a federal court in Texas has ruled that the American Quarter Horse Association violated state and federal antitrust laws by banning cloned horses from its registry.

Of all the posts I’ve written about Connemara inspections, this is the most important, because it looks at the practices of the American Connemara Pony Society against the backdrop of its national federation, the United States Equestrian Federation.

The late President John F. Kennedy made his “Report to the American People on Civil Rights” on June 11, 1963.

The New York Times posted an article on June 3, 2013, under the headline “Why young people don’t vote Republican.”

The Washington Post published an article June 1, 2013, on why the Boy Scouts of America finally voted to end its discrimination against gay scouts.

A recent study on how much weight horses can carry comfortably has illustrated yet again why Connemaras should not be forced to remain 14-2 hands and under.

I listened to two college commencement speeches given on May 11, 2013 — one by former President Bill Clinton and another by former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.

Charles Darwin was a British scientist in the 19th century whose research led him to theorize that survival and reproduction were the prime motivations for all species.

I wish Connemara inspectors could have been in the room in February 2013 when the chief scientist with the RSPCA in Australia asked a conference of horsemen if humans are justified in asking a horse to do something it doesn’t want to do.

How did this inspections process go from a simple vote for voluntary inspections to a Hitler-like weeding out of conformation that is not a flaw?

In 2005, a Connemara inspector made some comments to me about my horse that would have been considered racially biased and bigoted if she were speaking about a human.

One of my many issues with breed inspections and breed standards has been the lack of people who have been willing to go public and say these practices are wrong.

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

To the inspectors of the American Connemara Pony Society: I am one of the many Connemaras you have failed at an inspection.

This discrimination is bizarre behavior in the 21st century, a time when bullying has become especially unacceptable and the diversity of the nation has changed along with its definition of beauty.

CBS generously ran the classic Christmas special “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” twice in 2012, allowing me to do some much-needed fact-checking.

In 2005, when I first raised huge concerns about how the Connemara inspections process was taking shape in America, ACPS board members pointed to Ireland as the reason for the creation of U.S. inspections.

You can’t be a bigot and evolved in the same breath.

I often wonder how long it will be before Connemara officials in America are willing to admit they were wrong to create inspections that intentionally discriminate against horses that are Connemaras by blood and have every right to equal treatment and inclusion in the society?

the American Connemara society pays for the expenses of people who have been deemed inspectors to travel to cities to bully horses.

Allowing so-called inspectors to fail horses that weren’t to their liking and exclude them has always felt to me like the breed society was turned over to a bunch of adolescents. As it turns out, that comparison is more accurate than I thought.

One cannot debate whether breed standards for horses and dogs are ethical without looking at the bigger picture of how animals fit into society.

The Connemara society reminds me of the Republican party: completely blind to the fact that its future base will be a diverse population that doesn’t take kindly to discrimination.

I find myself quoting people under the age of 20 more often than not when it comes to bullying.

I believe in my lifetime that breed standards and inspections will be banned, because courts will outlaw the practice of forcing breeders to create animals that match a set of criteria written on paper by people who basically are just being bullies.

Did Steve Jobs let Bill Gates tell him how to run his business?

By now, anyone who follows the news has heard Wisconsin anchor Jennifer Livingston turn the tables on the viewer who called her fat in an email.

A “Huffington Post” article captured the frustration of US gymnast Gabby Douglas hours after she won the individual gold medal in London in August 2012.

Allbreedpedigree.com shows that inspectors who repeatedly fail horses that “remind then of Thoroughbreds” are hypocrites.

“If you want to see a bunch of Connemara breeders almost come to blows, start a discussion about whether Little Heaven and Texas Hope were good or bad for the breed.”

A British study of Thoroughbred foundation mares suggests that they descend from native Irish mares, including Connemaras and Irish Draught mares, and mares native to the British Isles, more than horses from the Middle East and Asia, as originally thought.

I haven’t been very shy about arguing that people should not put themselves above animals.

I keep seeing the word stigma in news reports, and I think it’s time to look at this word in relation to breed standards.

Famed horse writer Walter Farley’s “Little Black, a Pony” delivers the not-so-subtle message that we shouldn’t prejudge something based on appearance.

Frustration over breed standards appears to be building, based on feedback I’m getting from around the world, and I was sent an interesting article on the topic that was published in the June 2012 issue of Ireland’s Horse Review, a monthly sport horse newspaper.

In December 2010, The New York Times did a sobering story on the plight of horses in Ireland today.

A post on Psychology Today from December 2009 looks at human motivation. Author Robert Evans Wilson Jr. says humans are motivated by their status as a pack animal.

Peer pressure is a formidable force. It makes people agree to do things that they would not do on their own.

There is a pattern between the language on websites that decry the use of bullying and those that herald the use of breed standards.

The debate over whether breed societies can set breed standards for animals really is a larger debate about where humans and animals fall in the universal pecking order and whether humans should “own” animals.

America’s perception of the ideal beauty has changed from a white woman such as Christie Brinkley in 1991 to a mixed race or darker woman such as Angelina Jolie today.

Alison Skipper, one of the two vets who failed six of 15 Best of Breed winners at the Crufts dog show in Britain in March 2012, has aired her thoughts on the experience after coming under fire.

The well-known veterinarian pulled no punches in attacking breed standards in a reply to a poor woman who just wanted to know why her sister’s Persian cats had constant tearing in their eyes.

As victories go, this one is hollow. But, let’s not ignore any movement when it comes to breed standards.

CNN is running a series on beauty, and one of the reports centers on a documentary called “Miss Representation.”

I continue to search for scientific evidence that a thicker, shorter cannon bone makes for a better horse, because, otherwise, it would seem odd or irresponsible that Connemara societies the world over would be requiring cannon bones of a certain width and length for a Connemara to pass an inspection.

Intentionally making horses carry around heavy cannon bones is the opposite of what nature intended, and research seems to refute the American Connemara Pony Society’s message that big cannon bones are better.

An article titled “A New Direction for Kennel Club Regulations and Breed Standards” published in 2007 in the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association addresses veterinarians’ role in the increasing “welfare predicament” of purebred dogs.

Once again, another highly respected group has come out against breed standards based on appearance.

A Stanford law professor is finally laying the groundwork in the human world for what may lead to the end of appearance bias.

I was researching whether there actually was more than one way to peel a banana to fact-check an article I was copy editing, and I came across this article by J. Howard Baker, an assistant professor of computer information systems and a guy who makes a lot of sense.

Bullying means “to affect by means of force or coercion,” according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.

If you haven’t seen the 2008 British documentary “Pedigree Dogs Exposed,” whether you’re a horse breeder, a dog breeder or just an animal lover in general, you should watch it.

If you want to pass an inspection by the American Connemara Pony Society, you will need to add at least an inch to the cannon bone circumference standard of 7 to 8 inches. The ACPS chooses to ignore that breed standard and is giving premium and approved status to Connemaras of pony height with 9- to 10-inch cannon bones.

First posted on Facebook in February 2009: To all Connemara lovers in America: The last time I spoke out against Connemara inspections in 2005, I received two reactions: Those in favor of inspections criticized me outright or ostracized me.

In one room at USEF’s 2024 annual meeting, USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor discussed weighty topics such as whether there should be horse sport at all and if horses enjoyed taking part in such activity. In another room, Connemara officials expanded their bigoted inspections to a bigger pool of Connemaras (halfbreds). The differences couldn’t be more stark.

I have asked for two decades, “Where is the research that shows the effects of the American Connemara Pony Society forcing Connemaras to have thick legs?” The silence has been deafening. In early 2024, I decided to do my own research.

Dear US Equestrian, I am deeply disappointed that you have not followed your own directive to affiliates to do the right thing. You have allowed inspectors in the American Connemara Pony Society to alter the Connemara breed standard when they use it in inspections, employing a word trick, so they can approve or give premium status to stallions, including their own, that otherwise would fail an inspection based on the real breed standard.

What if it told the world that there’s no way one can anoint a Connemara as premium by watching it mostly stand still for 12 minutes with a brief walk and trot?

A steep drop in ACPS membership reflects the failed direction taken by top officials over a 20-year period. For perspective, compare the ACPS numbers to American Morgan Horse Association membership.

The longtime logo for the American Connemara Pony Society has appeared on ACPS official literature since at least 1966. But the Connemara in the logo looks exactly like the refined ponies – show hunter-quality ponies – that are now shunned by the breed organization.

Kerrymor Farm has put together a history of the early years of the American Connemara Pony Society that readers of this website should find interesting.

The current list of ACPS-approved Connemaras in America includes many bad ponies, some dangerous, in my opinion. The list also contains some nice ponies, but there’s no way for someone to trust the list, given the bad ones.

Enough with the lies about the Connemara pony being a distinct breed of coarse white ponies that roamed the mountains of Ireland for centuries and were jumping machines. Irish author and horseman Nicholas O’Hare laid bare the lies in his 2002 book, “The Modern Connemara: The Search for Performance.”

Irish horseman Michael J. O’Malley is credited with saving the Connemara pony as a distinct breed in the early 1900s. In a little more than a century, his story has been falsely rewritten from a Connemara lover fighting for what was on the inside of the pony (spirit) to someone fighting for what was on the outside (coarseness).

If the ACPS wants to foster healthy and so-called premium Connemaras, it should encourage and reward Connemaras that have no neck definition and show some rib.

Where will climate change leave the American Connemara in 2050, three decades from now? How will climate change affect horses in general?

For starters, this is your chance to decide how history will judge you.

Legendary U.S. equestrian Denny Emerson, 76, posted advice to struggling breed societies, particularly Connemara and Morgan groups, on his Facebook page Sept. 29, 2017, suggesting time is of the essence to preserve the breeds.

Irish Connemara officials have lifted the ban on registering blue-eyed cream stallions in Ireland, so the United States has followed suit, according to a post Jan. 22, 2016, by the American Connemara Pony Society.

The banner across the top of the American Connemara Pony Society website says: “Connemaras do it all!”

On July 19, 2015, I watched several Connemara inspections in St. Louis, Mo., by the American Connemara Pony Society.

Once again, I return to the topic of hatred and bias, as the world continues to evolve quickly in accepting diversity, but the American Connemara Pony Society not so much. More

I received a letter in May 2015 from an organization that helps troubled youth through its horse program.

Ireland’s overwhelming approval of gay marriage on May 23, 2015, seems a bit out of character for a country known for its rejection of diversity.

America still has a pigmentation issue, according to Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press on May 3, 2015.

Two video clips of Dundrum are a treat to watch.

So you want to buy a Connemara, and you’re asking yourself if you should pay attention to the inspections program?

Officials in the American Connemara Pony Society make many claims about their inspections program, but the only question that matters is: Is the program saving the Connemara?

Many people look at breeds as if they have always existed.

Someone recently suggested that I use the term “grinch” to refer to Connemara inspectors who hate the Connemaras that look like Little Heaven.

The American Connemara Pony Society’s web page on inspections tries to justify the program with 4,539 words.

All indications are that horse discrimination based on appearance will die with the elderly generation that has tried so hard to keep diversity at bay.

A new site dedicated to animals should serve notice to the American Connemara Pony Society that bullying behavior in the form of inspections to force horses to look a certain way will not stand the test of time.

Surveys appears to be gaining ground in the horse world, at least in many circles. Horse groups are ramping up their efforts to get feedback to improve and survive.

Breed standards encourage exaggerated conformation, according to Wayne Cavanaugh, president of the United Kennel Club, who was interviewed by veterinarian Karen Becker on Aug. 5, 2013, for the website Healthy Pets.

An Associated Press story published on Dec. 20, 2013, looked at the changing appearance of today’s Santa Claus.

In a CBS television show called “Lucky Dog,” dog trainer Brandon McMillan tries to find a new home for shelter dogs by taking in one dog per week, working with it at his Lucky Dog Ranch and placing it in a home where it will do well.

The most overlooked factor in the argument over what constitutes a Connemara is time.