The Slower Road

Karen & Pat Garrett sent this report (and photos) from today’s first day of dressage at the World Pony Driving Championships:

The United States has done very well on the opening day of dressage. Jennifer Matheson had a score of 46.08 with her pony pair to win third place in the pairs competition. From a team basis, her score is a second since both the first- and second-place competitors were from Germany: Dieter Baackmann with 39.68 and Stephen Koch with 41.47. For the team competition, Koch’s score will be dropped. Jennifer’s score during the morning session took the pressure off the other U.S. pairs driver, Wendy O’Brien, who was last to go, with a score of 61.82.

The pairs dressage was followed by the start of the single pony competition .Twelve single turnouts went this afternoon. The remaining twenty will drive tomorrow morning. At this point, the only U.S. driver to go, Shelly Temple, is in first place with a score of 44.67.

From a team standpoint, the U.S. is currently in second place among the teams that have had at least one single pony team member drive, with a total score of 90.75, following Germany (84.48) and ahead of Great Britain (102.02). None of the Dutch, Austrian, or Hungarian single-pony drivers has yet done their dressage test. The most significant threat to the U.S. position is likely to be the Netherlands, with a pairs score of 48.13.

Tomorrow, Randy Cadwell, the other U.S. single pony driver, goes at 11:05 a.m., and individual driver Suzy Stafford at 10.30 a.m.

As with most championship competitions, scoring from the five judges has evolved over the day. There were some fairly erratic differences among the judges during the morning, which tended to smooth out as the day progressed. That said, those who are interested in that type of analysis will find some interesting difference throughout the day. [You can see all the scores at www.hoefnet.com.]

Following the dressage competition we went on a “course walk” in a trailer behind a tractor. Section A is a very scenic and open five kilometers without any challenging elevation changes. Section D is reasonably flat and should not present significant challenges for most ponies at the 6 KPH speed. Most of Section E is configured for competitors to make five loops around a field adjacent to the marathon obstacles and to generally complete two obstacles on a circuit. We have not yet had a chance to study the obstacles closely. It is clear that obstacle viewing will be very spectator-friendly. The marathon starts at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, and the last competitor goes at 3:30 p.m. It will be a full day.

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Shelly Temple (photo by Karen & Pat Garrett)

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Jennifer Matheson (photo by Karen & Pat Garrett)

after the first day of dressage, Jennifer Matheson (USA), driving Dannyloo and Topper, is in third place in the pairs division, out of 27 pairs competitors (photo by Meghan Benge)

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… and, in the single-pony division: Shelly Temple (USA) is currently in first place!!

from Wendy Ying:

Another fabulous day in Lipica at the World Pony Championships!

Meghan Benge and I watched the mares and foals being turned out from their yards to pasture. Then we headed down to the barns to help Randy get ready for the jog. Today was the first veterinary inspection, and I was lucky enough to hold one of Laurie’s adorable Welsh ponies leading up the the ring.

We gathered in the arena next to the stadium and went through the tunnel into the main arena, where they had two lanes open to jog. The announcer, Marc Weintein, did an excellent job keeping us all up to speed on who passed and who was put in the holding box, and there were a few tense moments, but at the end of the day only one pony was spun out of more than a hundred. And yes … everyone on Pony Team USA passed!

Then we put the ponies away and went back to walk in the parade of nations for opening ceremonies. There are seventeen nations competing. Team USA has a full team plus an individual. Team Australia has Janelle Marshal showing a single. Janelle currently lives in Aiken, South Carolina, and trains with Muffy Seaton, who owns her Connemara pony, Jack Sparrow.

After the nations parade, many competitors filled the stands to see the quadrille of Lipizzan stallions, followed by a pas de deux of Lipizzan gelding pairs put to dressage carriages, who ended their demo with a chuckwagon-style gallop around the arena.

The teams and pairs walked hazards with Michael Freund, while the singles went out driving after the opening ceremonies and are walking now at about 7 p.m. our time. At 5 p.m., they were all loaded up into giant orange hay wagons pulled by tractors to see the course.

We are just headed out to nations night. Head of the Pony Team USA supporters, Philip Needs and Judy Fryer, are making sliders and have Jack Daniels for everyone. I don’t know what our skit is, but I will have video of the Americans and the Germans, as they are known for a great show.

Let me know, please, in the comments whether the video I’ve linked to above will play for you. I don’t have QuickTime on my computer, so I can’t get it to play.  —  Jennifer