Q: I am one of several people working on a book about the history of the Connemara Pony in America. According to our records, Walt Disney was given a Connemara at the Dublin premiere of the movie Darby O’Gill and the Little People. I am trying to follow up on what happened to this pony. Was it imported to the U.S.? Did it become a member of the Disney family, etc.? No one in the American Connemara Pony Society seems to know and I stumbled upon your name while trying to find some other information about the pony via the Internet. Hope you can help. Thanks for your time.
Stephanie, Middletown, Ohio
A: Several years ago, Roy E. Disney gave me an article by Stanislaus Lynch, the man who obtained the pony for Walt in Ireland. He was a two-year-old silver gray colt, whose sire was Cill Ciarain and dam Knockranny Beauty. The colt was presented in the Round Room of the Lord Mayor of Dublin’s Mansion House in Dublin. According to Lynch’s November 1959 article, the colt was, by that time, at Disneyland. I found no further information.
Dave Smith