The Slower Road

For carriage-driving fans, the final day of the Royal Windsor Horse Show (last Sunday) featured two beautiful, yet very different, events.

Throughout the morning, the four-in-hand competitors in the FEI driving event battled through the final phase of their three-day event, the cones competition.

I went over to the driving arena after watching show jumping and happened to catch the final (top in the standings) five drives of the day. Shown below are U.S. driver Chester Weber, Koos de Ronde (The Netherlands), and the winner of the event, Australia’s Boyd Exell.

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Immediately after the cones competition, members of the British Driving Society (and a few invited guests, including the CAA’s immediate past president, Tom Burgess, shown below, with his wife, Gloria, seated next to him) began to gather for their drive through the Windsor Home Park and their “Concours d’Elegance” competition.

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After the participants had gathered in a warm-up arena (below, one of the pretty turnouts, and a line-up of four-in-hand vehicles with Windsor Castle in the background), HRH Prince Philip arrived to lead them on their drive.

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Good morning from Winsdor!

I’ve realized, as I prepare and post these (somewhat daily) reports from the CAA’s trip to the Royal Windsor Horse Show, you may not know who I am. If you are a regular follower of my blog for the CAA, The Slower Road (or were, back when I was posting more regularly), we may’ve already met.

But the CAA got a brand-spanking new website within the last year, and now, during CAA trips, each blog posted is magically whisked over to land on the front page of the website. If you’re reading this there, however, you may be left wondering who’s actually doing the talking and photographing.

I’m Jennifer, and I work in the CAA office. If you have any questions or comments on these posts about the CAA trip to Windsor, or if you’d like to see more of the CAA blog, come on over to The Slower Road.

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I’m a bit behind on posting photos from the show. I apologize for that, but I’ve been working through technical difficulties.

So, even though it’s Saturday night here in Windsor, here are photos from Thursday at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

First, we saw the impressive musical ride of The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.

At the very end of the performance, four individual riders gallop out of the arena carrying the flags of England, Scotland, and Wales, followed by the Union Jack.

The next class in the main arena was the Light Trade Turnouts, sponsored by our own Carriage Association of America.

The winner of the two-wheeled class was the milk float. The winner of the four-wheeled class, and the overall champion, was a beautiful delivery vehicle.

Dr. Thomas & Gloria Burgess presented the ribbons and trophies on behalf of the CAA.

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We’ve had some rather lengthy radio silence here on the CAA blog lately, but stay tuned!

I’m heading to England this weekend and, starting on Tuesday, I’ll be sharing stories and photos from this year’s CAA trip to the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

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