The Slower Road

In an effort to celebrate today’s holiday, and to continue my reporting on the Carriage Festival, here’s one of the festive centerpieces from the Festival’s awards lunch on Sunday:

.

.

These championship awards were presented at the luncheon. As soon as we can, we’ll post the full results on the CAA’s website.

Junior Division —
Champion: Avery Wilson, driving Dollhouse Shananigans (Welsh) to a Gig
Reserve Champion: Olivia Smock, driving My Shakespeare (Welsh) to a Meadowbrook

the Driving Essentials Single Pony Division A — 
Champion: Jeffrey Kohler, driving Synod Lord Percival (Welsh pony of Cob type)
Reserve Champion: Jean McLean, driving Bet-Lar Royal Thomas (Welsh Cob) to a wicker Phaeton

the Driving Essentials Single Pony Division B —
Champion: Katie Whaley, driving Mooney (Welsh) to a 1905 Park Gate Gig
Reserve Champion: Nicole Cable, driving Laurel Highland’s Duke (Fell) to a Queen Anne Phaeton

Single Horse Division —
Champion: Sterling Graburn, driving Ulano (Dutch Harness Horse) to an Alexandra Dog Cart
Reserve Champion: Jim Leo, driving Willem (Friesian) to a Phaeton

Pair Pony Division —
Champion: Katie Whaley, driving Mooney and Tucker (Welsh)
Reserve Champion: Vicki Nelson Bodoh, driving Ghost and Magic (Welsh / Arabian) to an antique Slat Side Phaeton

Pair Horse Division —
Champion: Marilyn Macfarlane, driving a pair of Friesians
Reserve Champion: Dr. Thomas Burgess, driving Ekke and Doeke (Friesians) to a Stanhope Phaeton

Very Small Equine (VSE) Division —
Champion: Mary Baillie, driving Arrow Warrior (Shetland / Miniature Horse) to a 1905 Walborn & Riker Village Cart
tied for Reserve Champion: Eve Dexter (driving Miniature Horses Rocky and Dezi) and Jenna Gibson (driving a Shetland / Miniature Horse named Blues Clues)

Tandem Division —
Champion: Katie Whaley, driving Mooney and Tucker (Welsh)

the HorseShow.com Coaching Division —
Champion: Misdee Wrigley Miller, driving Dutch Harness Horses to a Park Drag
Reserve Champion: Gerben Steenbeek, driving Friesians to a Park Drag

Park Division —
Champion: Karen Waldron, driving Isde and Lieuwe (Friesians) to a Brewster George IV Phaeton
Reserve Champion: Dr. Thomas Burgess, driving Ekke and Doeke (Friesians) to a Stanhope Phaeton

Utility-vehicle Division —
Champion: Jennifer Harber, driving GVF Maja (Fjord)
tied for Reserve Champion: Deborah Lawrence (driving Lodestar) and Cynthia Bellis-Jones (driving Nistar Blazing Kansas, a Welsh pony)

Here are some of the lovely pair-pony turnouts that competed on Saturday evening at the Carriage Festival:

.

Vicki Nelson Bodoh drove her Welsh / Arabian ponies, Ghost and Magic, to an antique Slat Side Phaeton, with her husband, Jim, serving as groom

.

… and another view of Vicki and her ponies (they competed last year as well and were featured on the cover of the Festival program; two of the show’s volunteers, who came all the way from Texas to help out, said how much they enjoyed watching the “pages of The Carriage Journal” and the cover of the program “come to life” at the Festival)

.

Nicole Cable, with her father seated beside her and her sister serving as groom, drove another pair of Welsh ponies

.

Katie Whaley, with Mooney and Tucker (more Welsh ponies), was the division champion

.

Heather Hossfeld drove yet another pair of Welsh ponies, put to a nineteenth-century Phaeton, and I think she and her passenger were wearing lovely hats

.

At a pleasure-driving show, the “Park” Division is a particularly fancy — and particularly beautiful — class based on the old notion of going for a drive in the park. In the late nineteenth century, most major cities had large parks where the city’s fashionable citizens would spend part of their afternoons strolling on foot or riding flashy horses or driving (or being driven in) elegant carriages. Their goal was to get some exercise and some fresh air, and “to see and be seen.”

Saturday afternoon’s session at our Carriage Festival featured two Park Division classes: Afternoon Turnout and Reinsmanship.

Before the classes, I went over to the barns to see if I could find anyone getting ready.

.

getting the horses ready: this pair of Friesians is owned by Tom & Gloria Burgess

.

Tom Burgess accompanied by his 89-year-old mother-in-law

.

Karen Waldron’s Friesians look more bay than black here, but it’s a trick of the light

.

Karen Waldron, with her Friesians put to a Brewster George IV Phaeton, won the Park Division: Afternoon Turnout class

.

Tom Burgess during the Park Division: Reinsmanship class, which is judged mainly on the driver’s handling of the reins and whip

.

… and Karen Waldron again, here in the reinsmanship class, which she also won

.

In between the two Park Division classes was the Single Horse: Working class.

.

remember what I said in an earlier post about the feeling of movement in these photos, with one bit in sharp focus? how about that boater?

.

… and a more traditional view of Sterling Graburn and Ulano

.

Jim Leo won the Single Horse: Working class

.

Still to come: the Saturday evening session and the Sunday-morning drive (outdoors, in actual sunlight!).

First, a note: I’ve gone back through the previous two posts and added captions to the photos. And I even added a new photo. Can you find it?

A highlight of yesterday morning’s session were the Single Pony Turnout classes.

.

Jean McLean drove her Welsh Cob to a lovely wicker Phaeton

.

Carrie Ostrowski drove a Morgan called Plainsview Red Hot

.

Jeffrey Kohler and the adorable Synod Lord Percival …

.

… who won the class

.

In the previous photo, do you see the basket of walking sticks on the side of carriage?  Here’s a close-up of the contents:

.

.

And, finally, while snapping this photo of the pig face, I missed the very next class, which was the other Single Pony Turnout class. But I do know that Nicole Cable won, so here’s a picture of her from Friday morning’s Single Pony Reinsmanship class:

.

on Friday morning, Nicole Cable drove Laurel Highland’s Duke (a Fell pony), to a beautiful Queen Anne Phaeton

.

.

With three sessions each day, I’m starting in the morning, continuing until late afternoon, and not finishing until rather late … taking photos, coming back to the office between sessions to download, sort, edit, and post photos, and then going back to the show. I have to admit that I’m running a bit behind by now. This afternoon’s session finished a little while ago, and I’ve just finished downloading those photos. But now we’re going to glance back at yesterday evening’s session. And then I’m going to start sorting and editing this morning’s photos! Oh, and folks on the CAA’s Facebook page are clamoring for more and more photos, so I’m trying to post a few there as well … but not the same ones that I post here, if I can help it.

Without a doubt, the visual highlights of Friday evening’s session were the elegant “Park evening” turnouts, the single horse turnout class, and not one but two Coaching classes: turnout and timed obstacles.

If you’ve seen some of my other photos of driving events and competitions here on the blog (CAA Conferences, world driving championships, the 2010 World Equestrian Games, etc.), you may have noticed that I like the subjects of my photos to be crisp and clear and nicely in focus. Our pleasure-driving show this weekend is in the Kentucky Horse Park’s indoor arena. The air-conditioning is saving all of us from melting or fainting away in this weekend’s extreme heat, which is wonderful. But the available light in the indoor arena makes taking photos a bit of, um, a challenge.

When I first tried photographing carriage driving in the indoor arena last year, I was rather disappointed with the out-of-focus results. But for this once-a-year event, I’ve decided to look at the glass as half full, and I choose to see the good ones (rest assured, I’m deleting the bad ones) as “artistic.” And I’ve actually come to enjoy the sense of movement in some of these, with their blurry moving parts and that one important or interesting bit in focus.

Here are some of my favorites from yesterday evening, in the order that I took them:

.

Misdee Wrigley Miller in the Park Division: Evening Turnout class

.

.

Tom Burgess in the Park Division: Evening Turnout class

.

Although you can’t see her, Karen Waldron is driving this pair of Friesians

.

Michelle Werry and her lovely Hackneys won the Park Division: Evening Turnout class

.

Tom Burgess again

.

… and Michelle again, with her blue ribbon

.

Sterling Graburn and Ulano won the Single Horse Turnout class

.

the Werrys’ gorgeous Hackneys again, this time with Glenn A. Werry, Jr., driving them to a Park Drag; they won the HorseShow.com Coaching Division: Turnout class

.

Misdee Wrigley Miller driving her Park Drag in the turnout class

.

another view of the Werrys’ coach

.

Gerben Steenbeek’s Park Drag in the line-up for the turnout class …

.

… and a close-up of the spread laid out on the coach’s tailgate

.

Misdee Wrigley Miller did a masterful job of driving the cones course to win the HorseShow.com Coaching Division: Timed Obstacles class

.