CIAT Cuts


As you may recall from my reports from last year’s CIAT Celle (you can click on the “CIAT Celle” topic in the list at right to see them all) … the cross-country phase of a CIAT includes several pass/fail tests of the drivers’ skills.

In this particular test, the competitors were asked to drive between the two white lines painted on the ground; basically, to maintain a straight line. What makes this test more difficult and “spooky” is that tractor (to the right in the pictures). As you may deduce from the horses’ reactions, its engine was running the entire time! This turnout (Jacinto Planas Ros of Spain, and his pair of Spanish horses) won all three phases — and the overall competition — in the pair-horse division.

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Today and tomorrow, we’re going back to the CIAT Cuts (held in Cuts, France, back in May). The second morning of the competition featured the “country drive” phase …

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To read more about the entire Cuts competition, see our (A.J.’s and my) article in the August issue of The Carriage Journal. And to see Jacinto Planas Ros (above) and his pair of Spanish horses negotiating one of the exciting driver’s tests during the cross-country drive, check back here tomorrow!

Here are seven of my favorite close-up / detail shots from the CIAT Cuts back in May …

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A.J. and I wrote an article about the Cuts CIAT (which, as you may recall, we visited in May) for the August issue of The Carriage Journal. To illustrate it, I went through the several hundred photos that we’d taken over the two days of competition … and selected about twenty “finalists.”

These few, for one reason or another, didn’t make the final cut and so won’t be in the pages of the magazine, but I wanted to go ahead and share them with you here. I do still plan to post more photos from Cuts; needless to say, those won’t be the same ones featured in the magazine. I’m hoping to do this next week, now that the August issue is FINISHED. I hope you enjoy these, and stay tuned for more … both here and in the magazine!

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With the chateau in the background, Dominique Posselle (France), driving a mixed pair to an original-condition dog-cart built in 1899, is heading out on Sunday morning’s cross-country drive …

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Antonio Gutierrez (Spain) brought a traditional Andalusian turnout to the Cuts event. The carriage is a roof-seat break, built by Brewster in 1870. Here, he’s driving up to the third and final judge’s stop in the presentation phase …

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John Brown (Great Britain), shown here on the cross-country-drive phase, drove a pair of Gelderlanders to a demi-mail phaeton built in 1844 …

 

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This was the first year at Cuts for the Percheron stallions of the local state stud farm at Haras …

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Hugo Livens (Belgium) and his pair of New Forest Ponies, put to a 1905 derby cart, are shown here on the cones course. This turnout won the cross-country and cones phases, and the overall award, in the pair-pony division …

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The files for the August issue of The Carriage Journal are due to the printer this week, so I’m frantically diligently working on finishing that up and getting it shipped off.

This lovely photo, by my talented husband, will be featured on the cover of the August issue. It shows one of the competitors at the CIAT Cuts, during the cones phase. I hope to post more of our photos from Cuts in the next week or so.

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