Galway Bay fm newsroom - A plaque unveiled in the Clifden Showgrounds during this week's Connemara Pony Breeders Show honours those who are known as the Custodians of the Pony Society.
The people who were honoured took possession of quality stallions from the Connemara Pony Breeders Society and helped to build up the native breed over a large part of the last century.
In far away Wagga Wagga in New South Wales the cream of Connemara ponies are showcased each year.
Fifteen hundred Connemara ponies are registered in Australia and representatives travel across the world to Clifden to the annual Show.
Its all a long way from the roads of Connemara once travelled by the Connemara Pony Custodians.
They were the men who took possession of high quality stallions that were brought in by the Society in order to foster and bolster the Connemara breed.
Their travel by bicycle with stallion in hand to service mares and energise the breed is the stuff of legend.
At this year's Clifden Show, which wound down last night, a plaque to remember the custodians of yesteryear was unveiled in the Showgrounds by young Róisín Ní Neachain from Ros Muc whose grandfather, Máirtín Walsh from the townland of Sná Bó - a long way from Waga Waga - was one of the first custodians.
