SNIPPET: Historians say that today's Connemara pony is descended from steeds originally brought to Ireland in the 4th century B.C by Celts, who used them to pull chariots. In fact, per article with many charming photos in the March-April 2006 issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine, a French chronicler wrote in 1399, after visiting Ireland with KING RICHARD of ENGLAND, that he witnessed native ponies, "scout the hills and valleys more swiftly than deer." Long ago, the Connemara pony was simply a hard-working farm animal that pulled a plough, carried produce to market and its owner to social gatherings and church in the remote and solitary regions in the West of Ireland. And while the Connemara pony may appear similar to other breeds, they tend to be very different because of their (good-natured) temperament, bone structure (particularly their short, sturdy legs) and ability to survive and thrive in the most rugged conditions imaginable. Bartley O'SULLIVAN, longtime Joint Honorary Secretary of the Connemara Breeders' Society, wrote in a 1939 report, "It is a certainty that no other breed, except wild ponies, would survive the conditions which the Connemara pony has had to contend with. In such surroundings, and under those conditions was evolved the Connemara pony breed as known to us today. It is not difficult to account for the wonderful stamina of the breed when we bear in mind the conditions under which it was evolved. Many ponies, even at this present day, (1939) have never been housed and it is certain that this state of affairs was true to a still greater extent in the past. Lying out in all classes of weather, feeling the force of storms blowing in from the Atlantic, with little shelter save that afforded by rock or cave, relying on the rough herbage about them for food, only animals of the hardiest constitution could have survived."