Foothills Magnolia 1997 - 2017
M1770 XXXVI, ACPS Passport No. USA 0453
14.0h gray purebred Connemara mare
Balmullo's Beacon X Foothills River Queen
Bred by FFC; owned by Deann Haggard, Celina, TX.

(full brother to Foothills Houston)

 

ACPS Gold Medallion in Driving

ACPS Silver Medallion in In-hand

ACPS Bronze Medallion in Hunter

 

 

 

 

 

I have just done another of the Competitive Drives with her. Those are a blast. Do they have them around you? You can’t earn USEF or ADS points or anything, but they are so much fun. A combination of obstacles (not like CDE obstacles, but rather real obstacles like opening and closing a mailbox and carrying mail, backing into a circle and pivoting, running one wheel down a long board, etc.) that are spread out among a long (usually 4 miles plus) cross country course. You are judged at all times and the judges are hiding in trees and all over the place. There is always a water crossing, always some kind of “cones” course in the trees and always some kind of equitation pattern that you have to memorize and perform, but other than that it is free form on the part of the creators of the course. I love cross country driving and since it is timed, Maggie does really well because she has such a fast ground covering working trot between the obstacles and she is fearless at crossing mud and water. The killer for me is always the memorized pattern...got 2nd place out of 32 rigs! Oct 2010

I don't know where Maggie got her driving gene....but she is amazing. There is NOTHING I have ever asked her to do in the traces that she has ever refused. No matter what. And even fat and out of shape she did an amazing job at her last driving competition....heavy old antique Meadowbrook and all. Her feet per minute average in the last competition was faster than the top 3 horses, all of whom were pulling marathon carts that weighed half as much. We just lost too many points for me losing my way in the cones - as always. She was born to drive...she just started from the git-go as an unfappable and eager driving pony with a natural fast trot that she can maintain for miles at a time. 10-Aug

We competed again last weekend in a little field day thing (fastest time cross country, fastest time around cones and reinsmanship through the trees) and she won the pony division….10-June

Vanessa, you did me the greatest favor in the world when you sold me that pony. I looked for years for a sane, eager, tractable horse that I felt comfortable with, after 27 years of living and competing with just one horse. Maggie has turned out to be that perfect horse for me. She does everything that I ask of her, and she does it calmly, eagerly and sanely. She is just amazing. You did a wonderful job when you bred her and started her ground manners... Her work ethic is amazing, and her willingness to try new things for me is unmatched...10-May

I did take Maggie to a 10 mile Komen Breast Cancer Ride for the Cure and she slogged through the mud and did great, and then I competed with her in a cross country driving event in November and she took second out of 31 rigs, which I was really proud of considering how long it had been since she had been driven at all. In that case the water was what helped us. The streams were all way up from all of the rain, and there were tons of mud bogs on the trail and Maggie was one of only 5 equines that actually navigated the entire trail (14 miles) without refusing anything. The one stream made her swim the last couple of steps to cross it. I was terrified, but she just took it like a trooper. We finished only ½ point off of first, and would have won it, but the dummy here got lost in the pattern for the cones (as usual) and we lost time points for it. But the winner was driven by an international CDE competitor, so I was very proud of the old girl. Deanne 10-Jan

 2005 ACPS Region VII In Hand Grand Champion!

Maggy was inspected and approved by the American Connemara Pony Society in September 1999. Her sire and dam were also both inspected and approved by the ACPS in October 1995

SIRE & DAM:
Balmullo's Beacon X Foothills River Queen

 

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The 2007 ACPS Region VII Versatility award went to Foothills Magnolia -- Maggie also placed 3rd in an in hand class of 9 mares, 6 years old and above.  Then Maggie was Reserve Champion in the Low Hunter 2' division and Champion in the Driving .  Maggy is owned and shown by Deanne Haggard of Texas.

Winner of her first ADS sanctioned show (9/05)

We went to our annual club Driving Pleasure Show this weekend. It was our first ADS fully approved show and we had over 40 rigs entered. Maggie (Foothills Magnolia) went in her first class, Working Pony, and walked out with a first over 18 entries at the *CEDAR CREEK PLEASURE DRIVING EVENT, Cedar Creek Ranch, Greenville, TX.
Turnout Single Ponies Formal or Country Vehicle - 1st place
Working Single Ponies - 5th
Timed Cones Single Ponies - 4th

 

 

 

FFC congratulates our extended Connemara family on their ACPS Regional Show successes! (7/05)

 

ACPS Region VII Grand Champion In Hand - Foothills Magnolia, owned and shown by Deanne Haggard

 

Thought you might enjoy a couple of pictures of Maggy. She was AWESOME!

 

The judges were Katherine Wilkins and Jane Walters (England). There were (I think) ~ 40 ponies entered, which for our scattered region was a tremendous turn out. They came from Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Indiana, that I remember.

I cannot thank you enough for producing Maggie. She has been the light of my life. Good job, Mom!!!! In addition to winning the In Hand Championship for Region VII, she also was 2nd in cones (driving), 3rd in driven dressage (our second dressage test ever), 3rd in pleasure driving (since we were tied up so long in In-Hand, we were late getting to the driving and had to go from dressage to cones to pleasure non-stop and she was still pretty hyper after charging around the cones when we got into pleasure driving.....duh!) 2nd in ridden trail, 4th in Pre-green pony under saddle and 3rd in green pony under saddle. I was afraid to jump her because she is (cross your fingers) newly in foal and I didn't want to mess anything up. We should find out Monday if she is in foal for sure. Can you imagine how exciting a Maggie - Erin Go Bragh foal could be? ... if the baby just gets half of Maggie and Go Bragh's attitude and athleticism it will be a world class baby.  Deann (7/05)

The one photo is Sam and Maggie in the Produce of Dam class. They didn't do as well as we hoped as the judge didn't feel that they were enough alike to suggest that the mom did it all. (Honestly, it does seem that Maggie favors Queen more and Sam looks more like his dad.) Sam was as sweet and quiet as he could be and the Faith filly was precious! They were both as good as gold.

Maggie is back in action (5/05)

I took Maggie to the Wit's End Driving Trial.... we were only able to do the cross country phase of the event before we had to leave due to impending thunderstorms... It was Maggie's first competition in 2 years and she was stupendous! Once again I never pushed her, never used the whip, never even clucked at her, and she won the whole thing. She beat all horses, ponies, singles and mutiples. They started a carriage every 3 minutes over the 2 1/2 mile course and she trotted so fast that she only finished a few seconds in front of the Fresian pair that had started before us! I spent two months working her in the fields around our neighborhood, which are soft, to get her muscles and bones all built up and also her wind and endurance. She finished without even breaking a sweat.

Anyway, I will send you pictures of the new, svelt Maggie at her cross country event and I will keep you up to date on the breeding thing. Thanks for the photo of Houston. I really wanted him but the timing just wasn't right. If he even comes close to being the wonderful pony that Maggie has turned out to be he will be wonderful. I could never, ever find another one like her. Thanks so much, Vanessa. Deann

Hi Vanessa! We took Maggie to a driving event yesterday, had a ball, and Maggie was, as always, the star of the show! I could have sold 10 of them. What they really, really like about her is her size. Both her pony height and her brawny build. There were both men and women who came up to admire her who thought that she was the perfect size and build for both driving and riding.
     There were 30 rigs there, and Maggie, Sam (my patient husband and navigator ) and I turned in the second fastest time in all divisions in the cross country course. I didn't push her at all, I just let her do her nice consistent, ground covering Maggie trot. I thought we would be some where in the middle of the pack, but I don't want her to be a speed freak who gets all nuts when you hitch her up, so I just let her cruise. Three cheers for that ground covering Connemara trot!
     Then in the obstacle course she was the 10th horse to go and the first to complete the entire course. They had to drive right through bed sheets waving in the wind, over two bridges made of black rubber (easy) and then blue astro-turf taped to boards resting on a bed of gravel (very tippy and VERY noisy), as well as the usual pivots and backing and 45 degree turns and all. Luckily, the really scary astro-turf bridge was the last obstacle and I just said "Let's go home, Maggie" and we were over it. We had to leave right after that and didn't get to see our placing or participate in the race through the trees. It was a gorgeous 150 acre farm where it was held and you would loved to have been there to ride cross country. Hills and creeks and gullies to jump, as well as tons of trees and open fields. Paradise. (6/02)


Are your other Bubba babies typically as brawny as Maggie, or is that just the combination of him and her mom? I don't know if the American Connemara people like it, but I seriously could sell her many times over at every event I take her to. There is a big market around here for the stout ones. We are in a Morgan Open Show June 15th again. It is the 3rd in a 4 show series and Maggie is running high point for the series so far. She is sixth in halter, 1st in driving and 1st in English under saddle. There are 39 horses in the English under saddle division competing with her! 16 in the halter and 7 in the driving. It is a nice open show as they always have multibreed judges.

Maggy takes yet another Driving Championship! (4/02)

We entered an Open show put on the Morgan Horse Club in this area and she cleaned up! Three firsts, 4 seconds and never out of the ribbons. She started off by placing 2nd in a large English mares halter class (12 entries, I think), won 1st in Pleasure Driving, 1st in Reinsmanship Driving and 3rd in Driving Cones (Mom forgot the course.....twice!) She placed in the hunter under saddle classes as large as, check this, 40 horses (although they split the really big classes to like 22 or less)! She ended up Reserve Champion in Hunter Under Saddle. She even won the Suitability to be a Dressage Horse under saddle class, and got both of her leads right off the bat. This is notable as we have not worked on leads at all under saddle, we have just been trail riding for pleasure or trotting in the driving.

The driving wins were exciting as the competition was all Morgan, which as you know, are big time driving horses. I was proud as punch. (She had not been hitched to her cart since the ACPS meeting in October, until we gave her a 10 minute zip around the field the day before the show.) All in all she was in 11 classes throughout the day and although she was pooped by the end, she just kept doing her job like she was programmed to do it, and even gave the extra extension in the very last class, Suitability for Dressage, that won her the large class against, Morgans, Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. (4/02)

Prairie du Chien Driving Event, Greenville, TX, October 13, 2001
Champion Pony and Reserve Grand Champion Overall
This was Maggy's first cross-country driving event!

Charlie and I spent the weekend in Texas at the annual meeting....On Sunday, Foothills Magnolia and another Connemara mare were used in a clinic to learn about what to look for in Connemara broodmare. Jimmy Canavan, the Irish Inspector, had nothing but praises for Maggy and convinced us all that he would like to have her in his stable. I also got to drive Maggy and she is rock-solid:-) It was my first time in a horse-drawn carriage! (11/01)
Click here for 'AMERICAN CONNEMARA' article.

Res. Champion Connemara at the TX Sport Pony Show in Prosper, TX (8/01)
Foothills Magnolia showed in 4 large in-hand classes, and she ended up 2nd in all of them and Reserve Champion Connemara for the show: 2nd Place, Open Mares, 2nd Place, Model Pony Large Hunter, 2nd Place, Purebred Connemara division, 2nd Place, Purebred Connemara Championship class
      

 

 

North Texas Whip Spring Show (5/01)
1st Place - Champion Pony (driving) Division
and Grand Champion for the Show!

 

 

 

 

 

Foothills Magnolia placed very well at the Texas Sport Pony Show, Rockwood, TX 3/24/01
IN-HAND: 1st place Open Purebred Connemaras
2nd place, Open Mares
2nd place, Model Hunter
UNDER SADDLE: 1st place, Walk/Trot Connemaras
1st place, Walk/Trot Open

 

Carriage Association of America Driving Show at Texas A&M in College Station, TX. At the first driving event for Maggie, and also the first for my husband Sam and I, she ended up with two 2nds, a 3rd and a 4th. The first 2nd was in her very first class, OPEN Pleasure Driving, against draft horses, mules, donkeys, ponies, horses, minis and mini donkeys and mules (!) and the second was in Open Obstacles with the same range of entries. No one, including the judge, could believe that she isn't even four years old yet and had never shown before. Be proud of your baby.....she is awesome! (Feb. 01)

 

At the 1998 ACPS Region 4 Show, she won the In-Hand Obedience Class and,
along with Sheamus, another "Bubba Baby", took the blue ribbon in the Get of Sire class.

 

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