Most Connemara ponies throughout the world today can be traced back to a handful of stallions registered in the first Irish Stud Book of the early 20th century. By 1931 the Connemara Pony Breeders’ Society in Ireland had established two distinct breeding lines.

The first was to become the most prolific male bloodline descending from CANNON BALL (1) through REBEL (7) and is the BLUE LINE.

The second is the RED LINE and started with CONNEMARA BOY (9). It descended through his son HEATHER BELL (15) to two stallions MACDARA (91) and DUN AENGUS (120). MACDARA is represented in the pedigree of several of the Capall mares through their sire Keltic O Se.

The stallion DUN AENGUS brought some of the thoroughbred blood into the line from WINTER on his dam’s side and went on to produce such famous ponies as ABBEYLEIX OWEN (496). CASTLE BARON, the sire of several more of the Capall broodmares, was the only descendant of ABBEYLEIX OWEN in Australia.

The GREEN LINE was established in 1938 with the addition of MOUNTAIN LAD (32) to the Stud Book. He sired TULLY LAD (48) and this line is reputed to be tough ponies with good bone.

The PURPLE LINE commenced when the thoroughbred stallion LITTLE HEAVEN was entered into the Stud Book. His progeny include CARNA DUN (189) and this line has produced many ponies with outstanding jumping ability.

Then in 1954 the ORANGE LINE was founded when the dun stallion CLONKEEHAN AUTAURM  was bred from the Arab stallion NASEEL and out of a purebred Connemara mare WESTERN LILY (1522),    INNISHGOILL LADDIE (21) x WESTERN ECHO (1168).

Two more notable stallions were initially registered in the Stud Book; BLACK PADDY (8) who founded the YELLOW LINE. His son NOBLE STAR (17) left eleven registered sons. However the male line did not continue but can be seen in some of the older pedigrees.

Similarly, the stallion John QUIRKE (13) sired SILVER PEARL (18) but this line did not continue past the next generation and was called the PINK LINE.