July 2, 2013
The Carriage Dogs class at this year’s Carriage Festival featured five adorable pooches.
Here are a few “before,” “during,” and “after” photos of the winning beagle, Lucy Fur. She’s amazingly adept at sitting up on the carriage seat and showing off for the audience. And when Martha Stover drove her pony at a strong, showy trot during the class and on their victory lap, Lucy’s big beagle ears flapped in the breeze. So cute.
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that’s Michelle Blackler, Lucy’s mom, on the right
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July 1, 2013
As one of the non-pleasure-driving-show attractions at this year’s CAA Carriage Festival, we had our annual Carriage Showcase. In the showcase, carriage owners place their vehicles on display for spectators and fellow carriage enthusiasts to enjoy and for the Showcase judges to inspect each one carefully, in terms of how well the vehicle’s restoration was done (if restored) or how well the vehicle is built (if new). The vast majority of entries in the Showcase are restored antique vehicles or newer reproductions based on antique originals.
A few of the vehicles on display this year …
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Colonel Davis, the CAA’s most recent past president, chaired the Showcase committee for many years. But now that he’s no longer an officer or the committee chair, he was finally able to enter his own vehicle in the Showcase. And it won! Colonel & Kathi’s Brewster-made Stanhope Gig won a gold certificate, the Sidney Latham Memorial Trophy (awarded to the highest-scoring vehicle in use), and the Ken Sowles Memorial Trophy (awarded to the People’s Choice winner).
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The winner of the Carl Casper Trophy (awarded to the highest-scoring restored vehicle) was Katrina Becker’s Park Drag, built in 1903 by Brewster and recently restored by Tom Shelton …
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Nancy Jackson’s early (mid-nineteenth century?) crane-neck Brett, built by J.M. Quinby, won the Davis Documentation Award. Here, a few details …
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June 29, 2013
For most of yesterday, I was either working (at my desk in my office) or running back and forth between here and the Carriage Festival in the arena. So yesterday’s evening session was the first chance I had to sit in the stands and watch the pleasure-driving show … and to get photos!
To usher in the evening’s session, Raymond Tuckwiller played several “calls of the road” on the coaching horn:
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The first class for the evening was the Park Division:
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The Tandem class included several beautiful turnouts:
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Next, eight single-horse competitors competed for top honors in their Turnout class:
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The evening’s coaching competitors had both an Appointments class and a Timed Obstacles class:
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The final class of the evening was the hotly contested Costume class:
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The show continues all day today, and I’m about to head over there to take more photos!
June 28, 2013
Here are a few “getting ready,” “warming up,” and “on the road” photos from yesterday evening’s coach run, which kicked off this year’s CAA Carriage Festival at the Kentucky Horse Park…
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And, coincidentally, there were HUNDREDS of Model A Fords — in town for their national meet — in the parking lot of the same arena where our horse show is taking place. So here’s a look at a slightly different form of horsepower …
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To see more (mostly “behind the scenes”) photos from our Carriage Festival, follow the link above to the CAA’s Facebook page.
June 27, 2013
Carriage Festival competitors have been arriving since yesterday afternoon, and throughout the day today. Fortunately, the stabling for our show is in big, permanent barns behind the Kentucky Horse Park’s indoor arena. I say “fortunately” because a severe thunderstorm rolled through yesterday afternoon, knocking down a few trees, blowing things around, and dropping A LOT of rain.
These photos show what the KHP’s normally dry creekbed looked like this morning …
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I’m heading over to the Alltech Arena in a little while to see what’s going on there and to get some photos, so I’ll have more to report tomorrow morning.
The Slower Road 