8602 NW 156 Ave., Alachua, Florida 32615 Phone:386-462-3725 Email :connemaras@windstream.net
BALMULLO FARM
8602 NW 156 Ave., Alachua, Florida 32615 Phone:386-462-3725 Email :connemaras@windstream.net
photo courtesy of Megan Harris
We specialize in quality horses and ponies with good conformation, movement, and type. |
WEB SITE CONTENTS
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(born 3/6/07) Balmullo's Dixie Chick at 5 months old Sire: *Gun Smoke (Smokey Duncan x Brown Lady)
Dam: Elphin
Chickadee
[
M3261 XLIII
] 13.3h bay (by Maplehurst
Michael MacDaire) |
Also in March, Thurman's Irish Peach came to stay for awhile and was bred to Concord River Roaringwater Bay.
In May *Belle Dawn, Balmullo’s Liffey Lad, and Balmullo’s Swamp Fox went to the Pony Palooza sponsored by the Southern Welsh Pony Breeders Association. *Belle Dawn was Champion Mountain and Moorland Pony. Minnie, as *Belle is commonly known, competed against six other Connemaras, New Forest Ponies, and Shetlands in the three and over class and then beat the winner of the 2 and under class (Liffey Lad) for the Championship. Balmullo’s Swamp Fox aka Buddy was 2nd in the 3 and over class and Reserve Champion . Buddy is owned by Barbara Beckford.
In June the Region 4 ACPS show was held in Florida and many of our ponies attended. Minnie was first in the older mares class and was the Reserve Champion Connemara. Minnie was also third in a large Mountain and Moorland Class. Isabelle was second in her class. Emma was third in the older mares class and also won the Bulging Buttons class. Bitsy (Ballencrief Sea Breeze), Morrie (Erin Terra’s Morning Star) and Laddie all showed off their wonderful temperaments in the In-hand Trail Class.
In July, Miss Emma and Isabelle made the long trip to the Region 3 show in Virginia. There Isabelle took a third out of 8 in the Filly division of the Yearling Futurity. Miss Emma’s granddaughter, Guthrie Bonnies China Blue, was the first place winner and Champion yearling . Emma was second in her class and much admired by all participants. She was also awarded the prize for the oldest pony competing in the Half-Century, Ltd. class where the combined age of pony and rider must be over fifty.
left to right: China Blue (Landgate Bluebeard x Balmullo's Miss Lucy) with granddam, Balmullo's Miss Emma.
Fernvale Matchmaker was first in the colt division of the futurity.
left to right: Balmullo's Isabelle and future husband, Fernvale Matchmaker.
In the leadline class, Emma’s rider, Summer Fraughnaugh, was awarded the prize for the youngest rider.
Emma is now living in Virginia with Summer and her family and friend Jimmy aka Chesapeake Bay.
In August 7, Wildwych Clio, on loan from Rai Pullen of Georgia, gave birth to a beautiful bay filly, Balmullo’s Uproar. Uproar, aka Daisy, is by Roaringwater Bay.
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left: Isabelle meets Uproar, 6 hours old below: Uproar at one week old |
Also in August, Michelle Haas, Balmullo’s Gallagher and Tre Awain Dare to Dream all came for an extended visit. Michelle is doing art work with John Tilton, potter, and also training Liffy Lad and Mr. Peeps. (read what Mr. Peeps thinks of his training in his Diary). Laddie is progressing at a rapid rate, already walking and trotting very quietly under saddle (photo below).
At the Region 4 show, held in conjunction with the Southern
Welsh Pony Association, the half-Welsh daughter of Balmullo’s Matilda was the
Champion Half-bred. (
Click
here to see complete show results)
Balmullo’s Galileo and Balmullo’s Wind River, both owned by Pat Cunningham, went to the Region 7 Show outside of St. Louis. Leo was first in the geldings class while “Wally” was third . However, in the In-hand trail class, Wally showed his true stuff and came home with the blue ribbon. He also was in the costume class.
above: Leo / below: Wally
Balmullo’s Gallagher, a stallion owned by Michelle Haas, was the purebred Hunter Champion at the same show.
At the Region 3 show, perennial contenders Susan Hearn and daughter Mattison Hearn-Desautelles, competed Susan’s Balmullo’s Billy Elliott and Mattison's Balmullo’s Katydid. Both went home with many ribbons and Katy was awarded the prestigious Another Notch Award for being the pony that exhibited the most Connemara-like characteristics including jumping ability and saintly disposition.
And in mid-August, Balmullo’s Azalea, aka Ooh La La, went to the Pony Finals in Lexington, Ky. Azalea qualified for the Green Pony Hunter Finals, The Pony Finals, as well as the Medal Finals with very young rider, Katherine Woodruff. At the competition she was tenth out of 73 in the Green Ponies!
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  Balmullo’s Swamp Fox (Seven Hills Grey ghost X Ballywhim Candace) aka Buddy has also been sold but he won’t be moving! Barbara Beckford will keep him at Balmullo Farm. The two recently took part in The Great Florida Cattle Drive of 2006. They drove a huge herd of cattle through the backwoods of Central Florida, going through such historic places as Nine Cabbages, the Whaley Ranch, the native Florida wilderness of Three Lakes Wildlife Preserve, the North boundary of Lake Kissimmee, the Joe Overstreet Ranch, and many other long time working cattle ranches in the Heart of Florida's "Cow Country". Barbara had this to say about Buddy…..“Having spent most of his five years lolling in the pastoral fields of Balmullo Farm, the cattle drive was a very big adventure for Buddy. He took it all in stride, rapidly overcoming fear of many new things such as red portable water troughs being filled by firetrucks, drafthorse drawn wagons, cracker whips, mules, less-than-sane horses and even cow piles! The first morning out he was wary of the large palmetto stands (could there be cougars hiding in there?) but by the end of the day, true to his breed, he was munching on them. Our "wagon wheel" which was comprised of all the folks from our region of the state got to "drive" the cows after lunch the first day. After an initial adjustment phase where Buddy kept a very close eye on the moving herd, he got right into the spirit of driving cattle, dropped his head and walked quickly along with the herd as if he was born doing it. He is a very bright, if somewhat bratty, pony and we had a bit of excitement the 3rd night of camping when Bud and his companion discovered that our portable electric fence was no longer electrified! When we checked on them around 5am we found that our OK Corral was not so OK--it was empty! We found them a few campsites away visiting some other cowponies. True to his name, Swamp Fox loves to play in the shallow lakes in our area and on one windy, cold evening as we were riding into camp after our longest ride of the week, I rode Buddy down to a small pond for a drink. He was pretty thirsty and being a brave and forward pony, didn't stop at the edge but plowed on into the middle only to find himself swimming; it was DEEP! The water came up over his back and almost over the saddle. It really surprised both of us but after a couple scary seconds he found solid ground underneath again and pulled us out to the other side, both of us pretty covered in mud and drenched! I borrowed a blanket for Buddy and found a campfire for myself and we both survived without catching pneumonia! It was impressive to me how quickly Buddy adjusted to the clamor of this event. Several horses colicked and had other problems. Buddy never even acted tired. He was a pistol to the end of the drive. He was a champ.” |
below: Laddie ( 2006)
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The first purebred Connemara to come to Balmullo Farm was Rosehill's Glenconi, aka Speckles, daughter of the famous imported stallion Marconi. She joined two Thoroughbred mares living at the farm. The second Connemara was Oakhill's Sweet Ashley. They were both ridden and competed by young children for years, doing double duty as brood mares in their spare time. |
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The stallion, Aladdin, well-known Connemara stallion from Virginia, also resided for one winter at Balmullo Farm (winter vacation in Florida!) and produced the beautiful Balmullo's Miss Emma (out of OakHills Miss Independence) as well as the well known stallion, Balmullo's Beacon (out of Tullymor's April Fool).
Roary
and Emma have proved to be a great 'nick' producing two fillies
and two colts so far.
Balmullo's Gallagher is standing at Erin Terra Farm in Missouri
and Balmullo's Miss Lucy just produced her first foal by Bluebeard
in Virginia. In November 2004 Miss Lucy was crowned Champion of
the first-ever Mountain and Moorland Class at the Devon Horse
Show in Pa., winning out over 35 Welsh, Dartmoor, Shetland and
other Connemaras, and in 2005 became the ACPS's Connemara of the
Year!
Seven Hills Grey Ghost (Fieldstream Nicholas X Tullymor's Heather Lass) has also produced a number of foals for Balmullo Farm. He is now owned by Mike Edwards of Ft. White, Fl, although he comes to visit alot.
Besides, Speckles, Ashley and Emma, Balmullo Farm has had a rotating band of broodmares. Some memorable ones include Tullymor's April Fool, Grand Champion at the Region 4 Show in 199X, Balmullo's Veronica (Roary X Tullymor's April Fool), Courtney's April Frolic (Custusha's Cashel Rock X Aillte Mhuire), Ballywhim Candace (by Dallen McMor), Twinkle Too, and her daughters by Roary and Fieldstream Riley, Balmullo's Little Star and Tullymor's Shandora, respectively. Both Twinkle and Shandora have rather unusual bloodlines very closely related to bothTully Lad and Toureen Laddie. Shandora is expecting a Grey Ghost foal, from an oops-a-daisy breeding, this August.
2002 started a slightly new trend at Balmullo Farm, the international trend. Our first imported pony came to Florida from Clifden, Ireland in 2002. This is *Belle Dawn (Cascade Dawn X Lisabelle). "Minnie" (pictured above) has proven to be a real joy, winning classes and championships at the Reg III and Region IV shows in 2003 and 2004. Minnie is in foal to Seven Hills Grey Ghost for an August 2006 foal. Because we have only produced colts for the last three years, in 2006 two fillies with international ties were purchased, a filly by Hohnhorst Branni, Ballencrief Sea Breeze, out of Aladdin's Winter Promise (whose lineage traces to Strongbow!) and Erin Terra Morning Star, out of the imported Hohnhorst Madeline by Balmullo's Gallagher. Also two brood mares, one bred in Canada and one bred in Australia will be coming to stay for awhile and hopefully reverse the trend on only colts. And as Roary is now 24, we will be scouring the world for a stallion to take his place.
