The Slower Road

Dressage is finished here at the 2009 World Pony Driving Championships. The rest of the pairs and all of the four-in-hand teams went yesterday (Friday).

Tracey Morgan finished the dressage phase in sixth place (53.50). Katie Whaley, who’s competing as an individual, finished tied with two other drivers for eleventh place (57.34). Unfortunately, Randy Cadwell didn’t have a very good dressage test, and she finished next to last, in thirty-third place, with a score of 71.68.

Katie Whaley

Randy Cadwell

The leaders in the pairs division after dressage: Stephan Koch of Germany currently stands in first place, with a score of 40.83; Steffen Abicht of Germany (44.42) is in second; and Anna Grayston of Great Britain is in third.

The four-in-hand division is the smallest, with only twenty entries. The leader here after dressage, Tobias Bücker of Germany, scored 42.75 for a dressage test that everyone was talking about long after he’d finished, it was that nicely done. Currently standing in second place is Tinne Bax of Belgium (44.67), and currently in third is Steffen Brauchle of, guess where, Germany (50.30).

Our two U.S. drivers are in the middle of the pack. Laurie Astegiano (an American driver who lives in France) is in ninth place with a score of 58.37. As the sad note in an otherwise nice test, Lisa Stroud went off course and accrued five extra penalty points, putting her at 65.54 (sixteenth place) for the day.

Laurie Astegiano

Lisa Stroud

In the team competition, eight teams are competing for top honors. There are eighteen nations represented here, but only eight of those have sent enough drivers to field a full team, which consists of two drivers in each division. The U.S. team members are Sara Schmitt and Suzy Stafford (singles), Rand Cadwell and Tracey Morgan (pairs), and Laurie Astegiano and Lisa Stroud (four-in-hand). The other U.S. drivers are all competing as individuals and are, of course, eligible for individual prizes but not the team medals. At any rate, the U.S. currently stands in fourth place in the team standings after dressage. We’re a mere 1.01 behind the Dutch. Ahead of them by about ten points are the Belgians and, unfortunately for everybody else, the Germans are in first place by about thirteen points.

Suzy Stafford (in fourth place, our best U.S. finisher in dressage) and Chef d’Equipe Chester Weber share a laugh during the dressage awards ceremony

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous but it’s getting quite warm in the sun. Fingers crossed that it’s not too hot today on the marathon course!