Pretty Connemara lives matter
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.
The ACPS has been quite proud of its bigotry, adopting Connemara inspections in the early 2000s to get rid of horses that are not “Connemara enough” (as in, the horses are too pretty). The society has blatantly promoted these inspections at every turn.
There is nothing wrong with the horses being failed other than they are too sleek and fancy.
In fact, they are often exceptional horses that would beat the horses of the inspectors’ own herds. Thus, the inspectors make sure the pretty horses disappear from the breed.
Contrast this playground bullying with that of a more civilized world.
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individual states cannot constitutionally ban same-sex marriage. The decision was a foregone conclusion, given that most of the country had come around to supporting same sex marriage.
An expert in constitutional studies credited millennials for the sea change in American attitudes, noting that millennials go by the “harm principle,” asking, “Why restrict or ban something that doesn’t tangibly hurt people?”
And I would ask: Why would the Connemara society restrict or ban horses whose crime is winning the beauty lottery?
Back to the civilized world: On June 1, 2015, Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner, a Republican, became Caitlyn Jenner to global applause.
On May 23, 2015, Ireland became the first country worldwide to approve gay marriage by a national popular vote, a change again largely credited to young people.
On May 15, 2015, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns spoke at the graduation of Washington University in St. Louis, with race as his theme, and called America’s continued struggles with racism its greatest shame.
On the April 26, 2015, edition of “Meet the Press,” historian Doris Kearns Goodwin described the rising tide of acceptance of same sex marriage as “astonishing” in a good way.
She asked: “Where does prejudice and discrimination come from, when one group, one class, one race, one people with sexual orientation, has little to do with the others?”
She said wonderful things can happen in a society “when we stop being behind tribal barriers.”
On the same program, political columnist Matt Bai warned 2016 GOP presidential contenders that making an issue of same sex marriage would “set them back for years to come.”
I would argue the ACPS has set itself back for decades by embracing its agenda of bigotry.
Not only have inspections poisoned the ACPS and ruined its ability to attract new members, particularly young members that might run the society some day, but this emphasis on coarseness is making the Connemara irrelevant as a breed.
No one wants a clod for a show horse, and the desire to have clods as lawn ornaments went away with the recession.
There was a time when Connemaras were in the national limelight. Now, they are forgotten.
Burns, in his graduation speech, reiterated the Ferguson, Mo., anthem that “black lives matter.”
Pretty Connemara lives matter, too.