FE Carriage Driving
We are pleased to host the West Norfolk Indoor Horse Driving Trials here October – January and with Katy Garrett at Forest Edge very committed to Carriage Driving Trials, we thought you might like to know a little more about Driving Trials and Katy’s experiences. This is a really friendly, family sport for everyone, great fun to compete in or watch. The first event here this winter season is being held on Sunday 2nd October and we look forward to another season of exciting and skilful driving. Prospective new competitors and spectators always welcome. Katy Garrett Over the last 3 years Katy has competed at pre-novice and novice level in Indoor and Outdoor Carriage Driving Trials showing very pleasing results. She is now at a stage where she is wishing to ‘up her game’ and she hopes to compete at national level with the possibility of the junior national team next year which competes abroad. Katy is very ambitious with her driving and has recently acquired sponsorship from various companies to help fund her love for driving. Dad, Steve Garrett, is Katy’s groom/backstepper at competitions. * Katy with Redaways Lord Thomas won the Novice Pony Class at the end of season Championships on 17/18th Sept 2011, a brilliant end to the 2011 outdoor season* Katy is also currently top of the West Norfolk Novice Pony league table with 2 shows left before the end of the 2011-12 Indoor season in March, she was 4th in the Junior National Finals last year. Katy has recently been working as a working pupil at The Dressage Company alongside Mark and Liz Mills. Based in south Norfolk, The Dressage Company specialises in producing safe and talented young horses particularly for dressage. Liz, a former national dressage champion is currently Chef d’ Equipe for the British pony dressage team and has just recently been in Poland with them at the European Championships. Mark is a former international FEI carriage driver who during his time achieved success in the national circuit and was short listed for the World Championships team in 2005. He is still active in driving circles regularly judging dressage, breaking harness horses, teaching and driving commercially for weddings and funerals. Katy has recently started doing demonstrations with her driving, the first of which were for the BHS camps held at Forest Edge in summer 2011 and is happy to talk to prospective drivers and venues. Katy is now fully insured and taking bookings for carriage driving lessons at Forest Edge using her experienced turnout or with your own pony and carriage, please give Katy a call for further details on 07500569643. Katy is hoping that her work with Mark and Liz will help her to become a more experienced driver and enable her to bring on her own pony Indie so that she can progress him to national level. In the future Katy hopes to become part of the British Young Driving Scheme, and eventually be able to compete nationally in the Young Drivers squad. Katy’s Ponies Redaways Lord Thomas, known as Ziggy, is a Welsh Section C 13.2hh palomino gelding. He was originally bought for Katy 6 years ago as a versatile pony club pony, but when Katy grew out of him she decided to teach him to drive. Katy has now been driving with Ziggy for 4 years and competing for 3 years. They have been a very successful team competing in dressage, cones and cross country achieving some great results. They recently competed at Sandringham in June this year and came 2ndplace in their class. In addition to this they were placed 4that the Indoor National Finals with 1stplace in the dressage with an impressive score of 78.5%. Katy and Ziggy have recently started doing demonstrations, the first of which took place at the BHS camps at Forest Edge . The pair have had some fantastic results and in addition to Katy’s up and coming demos, prove to be a very exciting prospect for next year. Llynhelyg Arllwyd, known as Indie, is a welsh section C 13.1hh black gelding. Indie came to Forest Edge in October 2009 from Cheshire having done nothing and still entire as a stallion, he was gelded in March 2010. Indie was broken to drive last year, and has just completed his first competition where he came 3rdand 5thin his second event which is an extremely pleasing result for his first competitions. He is showing huge potential and we are looking forward to the coming year with him. Katy’s Sponsors Rands and Wilson Feeds Ltd have been sponsoring Katy since the beginning of the 2011 outdoor driving season. They were founded in September 2005 by John Rands and Mark Wilson, using their 50 years joint experience in the animal feed industry. Based in Suffolk, Rands and Wilson provide their own specially formulated diets which cover most of the requirements of the leisure horse. They have the ability to manufacture any leisure, competition or racing horse mix, requested by either yourselves, your vet, your nutritionist or a diet that is formulated using their own qualified nutritionist. They offer sensibly priced, quality feed with same day manufacture and next day delivery. Caroline De Wildeis a graduate of the European School of Osteopathy in Kent where she obtained a Bsc, Caroline then went on to achieve a diploma in veterinary osteopathy. Caroline can treat both you and your horse. Animals with back problems, neck injuries, ligament and teninous damage can all be treated by osteopathy. Tel/fax 01362 858530 Event to Event Equestrian Photographers 07860 336429 www.eventtoevent.co.uk Indoor Horse Driving Trials This is held over the Winter Season, October-March, with the National finals held at the end of March. Paces and precision During the competition the judges indicate their marks for each movement, immediately it has been completed, by holding up a board indicating the number scored. One judge marks the precision of the movement the other judges the pace of its execution. The scorer notes the marks given. The judge has no written work to do. This allows tests to start at 5 minute intervals, so an entry of 25-30 complete this section in 2 1/2 hours. The Precision & Paces arena is 50 metres by 20 metres with its markers being evenly spaced along its long sides. The judges are positioned at C and B/E. One judge marks paces while the other marks precision (just the accuracy of the course taken). For each judge, the marks are added up, taken from the perfect score and multiplied by 0.5 to give the penalty score. Cones. The next (second) part is the cones section. A course of driving cones is laid out, using not more than ten gates made from cones or other approved components. The cones course is usually built where the paces and precision arena was, but may sometimes be built in another arena indoors or out. This may include one multiple obstacle. Each cone has a ball balanced on top. Competitors walk the course and then drive it, in the same order and classes as before, trying not to dislodge any balls - each ball on the floor means 5 extra penalties. The cones competition is scored as follows: five marks for a knockdown and one mark for each second over or below the target time which is set on a speed of 220 metres per minute. Obstacles. The third and most exciting phase is the "Obstacles". These are posts and rails which make "gates" which have to be negotiated in order - A, B, C, D, E. Two obstacles are built in the ring with a common start/finish gate between them in the centre of the ring. The competitors walk the obstacles (on foot) to choose their routes and then they compete against the clock, in reverse order, the class leader going last. When all the classes have driven obstacles one and two, they are changed into obstacles three and four. The obstacles and gates may be changed around to make obstacles three and four or you may drive the same obstacles again. Again, the competitors choose their routes and drive the obstacles in their classes and ranking. This section is scored one mark per second that the competitor is in the obstacle zone. There is usually one knockdown for each movable element and they are scored at five marks each. All other penalties are as per the IHDT/BHDTA rules. Any penalty marks are added to the times taken for the obstacle to produce the final score for this section. In this phase a good groom/backstepper is important - they can remind the driver of the route and balance the carriage by leaning in around the corners.
Outdoor Horse Driving Trials Competitions last over 2-3 days during the Summer season April to October, in club events dressage and cones are driven on the first day then the cross country on the final day however in national events the dressage is on the first day, cross country on the second and the cones is on the third. Dressage, or paces and precision, consists of a sequence of movements driven from memory to display the schooling and obedience of the animal. The arena is 80 metres by 40 metres and like dressage each movement is judged and scored. There are two judges present; onejudge marks the precision of the movement the other judges the pace of its execution. The scorer notes the marksgiven. For each judge, the marks are added up, taken from the perfect score and multiplied by 0.5 to give the penalty score. The second part of the test is the ‘cones’ test. Cones-driving tests the skill and competence of the driver and the suppleness and obedience of the horse. The objective is to drive in a set time through narrowly spaced pairs of cones with lightweight balls balanced on top with only centimetres to spare either side of the wheels, if the ball is dislodged penalties occur - each ball on the floor means 5 extra penalties. The cones competition is scored as follows: five marks for a knockdown and one mark for each second over or below the target time which is set on a speed of 220 metres per minute. The final phase is cross country. Competitors drive the five timed sections of the cross-country marathon which is normally about 15km long. The last challenging 10km stage includes up to eight obstacles, to be driven at speed, which leads to adrenalin pumping, mud-flying action. The obstacles are often built around natural features (water, steep banks etc.) and are made up of a series of lettered gates which must be driven in order, With different routes within the obstacles this leads to tight turns which require a great deal of judgement and skill from the driver in order to complete them with the minimum of time penalties. In this phase a good groom/backstepper is important as they can remind the driver of the route and balance the carriage by leaning in around the corners.
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Forest Edge Arena, Drymere, Swaffham, Norfolk PE37 8AS Tel: 01760 722616 Mob: 07765858392