The Slower Road

Karen and Pat Garrett’s World Pony Driving Championships report for Wednesday:

The trot out and opening ceremonies at Lipica have been completed. The good news is that all of the United States ponies passed. There was a small bit of concern when Josephine, the pony being driven by Suzy Stafford, was sent to the “holding box” and reexamined by the full ground jury. In the end, Josephine was found “fit to compete.” From the stands it was unclear what caused the initial concern. Having said that, in excess of fifteen percent of the more than seventy ponies were reassessed and only one from Denmark was not passed. Fortunately, this pony was one of three ponies for a pairs driver so it did not prevent him from competing.

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competitors and ponies waiting their turn to enter the arena for the vet inspection (photo by Karen & Pat Garrett)

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the judges conferring (photo by Karen & Pat Garrett)

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Suzy Stafford and Josephine (photo by Karen & Pat Garrett)

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Lisa Stroud and one her Connemara ponies (photo by Karen & Pat Garrett)

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The opening ceremony was conducted on foot with drivers, chefs d’equipe, grooms, helpers, and supporters, including a few children and at least two dogs, from the seventeen nations parading in on foot with flags waving. These varied from nations represented by one driver, such as Australia (represented by “our own” Janelle Marshall, who was accompanied in the parade by Muffy Seaton!) and Finland, to the six nations, including the United States, who have a full complement of drivers.

The parade was followed by a few speeches and then by an interesting quadrille dressage demonstration by four Lipica Stud Lipizzaner stallions.

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the judges arriving for the opening ceremony (photo by Karen & Pat Garrett)

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a quadrille of Lippizan stallions (photo by Karen & Pat Garrett)

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the U.S. team (photo by Karen & Pat Garrett)

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The dressage starting times for the U.S. competitors are as follows: Jennifer Matheson – Thursday at 11:35 a.m.; Wendy O’Brien – Thursday at 2:25 p.m.; Shelley Temple – Thursday at 5:05 p.m.; Suzy Stafford – Friday at 10:30 a.m.; Randy Cadwell – Friday at 11:05 a.m.; Lisa Stroud – Friday at 2:20 p.m.; and Laurie Astegiano – Friday at 3:42 p.m.

The weather is perfect—sunny and in the high 70s—and expected to stay so. It may be a bit warm for marathon on Saturday, but it’s better than the alternative.

As Wendy previously reported, the Lipica Stud is a unique place. Everything seems to be well organized, and it is particularly refreshing to have the championship venue at a location that has an existing equine infrastructure. The comments from drivers and grooms are positive. In addition to the competitors, grooms, and helpers, there is a strong contingent of U.S. spectators.

This report from Wendy Ying arrived in the middle of our (Eastern Time) night:

The U.S. Team members are as follows: Lisa Stroud with a team of Connemaras, Lori Astagiano with a team of Welsh Section C ponies, Wendy O’Brien witha a pair of German Riding Ponies, Jennifer Matheson with a pair of German Riding Ponies, Randy Cadwell with a German Riding Pony, and Shelley Temple with a Morgan. The alternate [competing as a single] is Suzy Stafford with an Arabian/Morgan pony. Chester Weber is the chef d’equipe, Michael Freund is the coach, and the team veterinarian is Lisa Castenella.

The pony team made it to Slovenia!! We left Germany on the twelve-hour trip across the Austrian Alps during a snowstorm!! Yes, snow! Pictures of the snow to follow. “Burger” Bob was with Koos de Ronde, shipping Lisa Stroud’s ponies, about four hours behind us. We saw light accumulation, but they have pictures of the snowplows !

The pony team settled in well after the long journey. The USEF’s director of driving, Lizzie Staller, met us at the check-in with our credentials and helped us get our paperwork organized. There is plenty of space for warmup, and the barns are huge: 12 by 12 stalls in tent stabling. All the Americans are in one barn next to the main arena. Team coach Michael Freund and team vet Lisa Castenella jogged all the ponies last night, and everyone looks ready to roll. Chef d’equipe Chester Weber is getting us all the info needed from the show office and keeping everyone in the right place at the right time. One of the differences of showing at a championship is that the competitors are not allowed to go to the show office. The chefs d’equipe are the representatives for the team and any individuals, and they attend daily meetings, so they are the liaisons between the officials and the competitors.  All the U.S. drivers will work with Michael this afternoon and then do the official vet check tomorrow.

Lippica Stud is incredible. The barns are from the 1800s. The mare-and-baby barn is a stucco complex with a center courtyard. The stallion barn is also incredible. This is a tourist center, so there are two hotels on the property, one relatively modern with a casino.  The main arena has fantastic footing, sand with felt. You enter the arena though a stone tunnel and arrive into the stadium … very exciting for horses and spectators. The marathon obstacles are all close by each other and the barns, so it will be very easy to catch all the obstacles and follow your favorites. Megs and I will try to get video and photos of all the Americans.

one of the marathon obstacles (photo by Wendy Ying)

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the tunnel from the warm-up arena into the main arena (photo by Wendy Ying)

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the main arena (photo by Wendy Ying)

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one of the old barns at Lipica Stud, from the outside ... (photo by Wendy Ying)

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... and from the inside (photo by Wendy Ying)

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one of the beautiful local residents at Lipica Stud (photo by Wendy Ying)

Here is our first World Pony Driving Championships report from Karen & Pat Garrett:

Jennifer posted on the CAA blog on  Saturday, providing details on the Lipica competition and some of the competitors. We thought there might be some interest in additional details.

The six nations that will be competing for team championships are Austria, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and the United States. Germany and the Netherlands have been the first- and second-place winners in each biannual competition since 2003, with third-place winners being Belgium (2009), the U.S. (2007), Great Britain (2005), and Austria (2003). The host country of Slovenia does not have any competitors in the championships. It did have competitors at the recent Pairs Championship.

Details on the competition are available on the website to which Jennifer has previously provided a link. In summary, the competition is being held at the Lipica Stud, which is a renowned Lipizzaner breeding facility, having been founded in 1580. It is about fifteen kilometers east of Trieste, Italy, just beyond the Slovenian / Italian border and a short distance from the Adriatic Sea. In addition to being a major equestrian facility, the Lipica Stud has successfully branched out into recreational use of its property and has two hotels on the facility adjacent to the competition venue.

Slovenia was part of the Yugoslavian Federation before its dissolution in the early 1990s, and it is the only one of the former Yugoslavian republics to become a member of the EU. As mentioned, it is bordered on the west by Italy, on the north by Austria (in the Alps), on the east by Hungary and Croatia, and on the South by Croatia.

The weather for the competition looks promising. As this is written on Sunday evening, a predicted front has just arrived with heavy rain. It is supposed to rain tonight and Monday but to be sunny with highs in the upper 70s through the week and for the competition over the weekend. Shelly Temple’s blog stated the team was traveling to Lipica today. Hopefully, they arrived before the rain and were not unduly delayed by the road construction in the Slovenian alpine motorway tunnels.

The dressage competition starts on Thursday with the pony pairs. The singles are scheduled to begin Thursday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. and to be completed Friday morning. The team dressage will be completed Friday afternoon.

The trot out begins at 11:00 Wednesday morning, followed by the opening ceremony at 2:00 p.m., and the draw for starting order at 3:00 p.m. Slovenia is six hours ahead of Eastern Time. We hope to have a post about and pictures of the Wednesday activities available by early afternoon Wednesday Eastern Time, as well as any gossip we pick up in the meantime.

For Wendy Ying’s first report, sent while she was in transit to Lipica, see the comment on this blog post from last week.

Also, as an additional update, we’ve heard (indirectly) from the German team that it’s snowing (!!!) there …

With regard to this year’s FEI World Pony Driving Championships, which you may have seen mentioned in yesterday’s post, and which you’ll be hearing a lot about in the coming week …

You’re wondering, aren’t you, just where to find Lipica, Slovenia.

While you may not have heard of Lipica, as such, you’ve heard of the Lipizzaner horses, right? Who hasn’t? Well …

from a press release sent by the organizing committee at Lipica:

Seventeen nations will be represented at next weekend’s FEI World Pony Driving Championships in Lipica, Slovenia. In all, seventy-seven drivers will compete in singles, pairs, and four-in-hand divisions: for individual medals in each division and — for those nations with enough drivers to field a full combined team — overall, combined team medals, with each nation using team members’ scores from each division to determine the winners.

In the Single Pony division, the reigning world champion, Melanie Becker (NED) and her 2009 world championship pony, Ostara’s Sandor, will defend their individual gold medal.

The 2009 individual gold medalist in the Pony Pair division, Daniel Schneiders (GER), has successfully moved on to the Pony Four-in-Hand division, in which he will compete in Lipica. One of Schneider’s biggest opponents will be the reigning Pony Four-in-Hand World Champion, Tobias Bücker (GER).

The eldest competitor is sixty-five-year-old Hannu Kalalahti (FIN), who makes his world championship debut at Lipica.

David Palkovics (HUN) is the youngest competitor in Lipica. The thirteen-year-old schoolboy will celebrate his fourteenth birthday on the marathon day of his first world championship!

Six teams, each consisting of at least one, but no more than two drivers per division per nation, will be fighting for the team medals. Title defender Germany and the silver-medal Dutch drivers are considered the favorites for the nations’ competition.

The driven dressage and cones competitions will be held in the main stadium, with the cones course designed by Swiss FEI O-level course designer Christian Iseli. He has also designed eight beautiful marathon obstacles, which are situated close to each other in the fields of the Lipica Stud Farm. For the first time, the marathon will include a cool-down section after the finish to allow the ponies to cool down before the compulsory veterinary inspection.

Stay tuned here and to Hoefnet and to the event website for updates!