Casual drive offers training opportunity
JACKSON -- The Aiken Driving Club's Casual Fall Drive on Sunday at the Silver Bluff Audubon Center & Sanctuary featured more than 20 carriages.
For many of the carriage drivers, the event offers an opportunity to drive through a facility whose natural beauty and idyllic scenery add to an enjoyable experience. In some instances, the trail route can lead to a propitious circumstance for a lucky person.
Rich and Diane Watson relocated to Aiken from St. Louis, Mo., have been members of the Aiken Driving Club for the past six years and have been involved in driving for the past 12 years. They drove their 10-year-old Hackney Pony Jim.
"We always enjoy coming to the Audubon Center," said Rich. "It's a great trail ride, and you're able to see some wildlife once in a while. Last year, a friend of ours found a $20 bill on the trail."
Bill Allen will be competing this upcoming weekend at the Katydid Combined Driving Event in the advanced level, single-horse division and took the opportunity to participate in Sunday's drive as a way of "cross-training."
The CDE will be composed of three phases - dressage, marathon and cones. Allen is directing his focus toward next year's Single Horse Driving Championships, and a great deal of work and preparation has gone into training for next week's Katydid CDE, which is a qualifier in selecting the U.S. team for the 2010 Single Horse Driving Championships at Pratoni del Vivaro, which will be held July 30 through Aug 1.
Allen has enjoyed success at Katydid, winning the single-horse driving intermediate level division two years ago.
"You have to work on each phase," said Allen. "We spend a lot of time practicing dressage because it's the foundation for everything. What you practice in dressage carries you through the hazards and the cones as well. A lot of trainers are fond of saying, 'When you're driving cones, you should drive it as you drive dressage.' It's the same thing. It's a hard lesson to learn, but it's an important lesson to learn."
The challenge of the marathon is the gait the horse uses when approaching the hazard, said Allen. The Federation Equestre Internationale Advanced level competitor likes the flat trails at the Audubon Center & Sanctuary and is impressed with the footing. Allen drove in the 2009 USEF National Driving Championships.
"It's a good opportunity to get out and for him to stretch his legs," said Allen. "At the FEI advanced level, every competitor, as they approach the hazard, will start cantering or flat out galloping into the hazard as far as they can before they turn and have to change direction. The horses that you're able to control the best do the best in the marathon."
Nancy Francis drove her Section B Welsh Pony, Stick to Your Guns, also known as Gunner, who has competed in CDEs but is returning to being a picnic pony.
"I loved showing my other pony in pleasure shows," said Francis. "So I think we'll start with that."
Contact Ben Baugh at bbaugh@aikenstandard.com.