New Pony for Christmas
(Mad Girl Story #2)
Part 1: Karin's side of the story
What happens when your best friend says “Hey, drive MY pony at the 2011 Haven Hill Driving Trial?” just three days before the event?
Five days after the event YOU end up buying a Dartmoor Gig and Show Harness with out of state transportation worries and you’re looking at a gorgeous Dartmoor mare as your first pony. This is proof that there really are people “putting the cart before the horse”. ...
Buying your first pony at my age is exactly like buying your first pony at 7. You do the same happy dance. Well, the biggest difference is probably that you’re pulling out your own checkbook rather than begging money from your dad with weak promises to take out the garbage for the next 15 years and to never date until you’re 21.
I already have a gorgeous 17 hh Cleveland Bay/Irish Thoroughbred Cross boy from England named Dark Willow (Will, William, Wilbur or Willosaurus depending on the moment). Even though I consider William my perfect horse, he is 18 years old. So with my “partner in driving crime” (you guessed it…Linda Yutzy) I have begun casually checking out some driving horses.
Until a year and a half ago Will had been quite the fancy dressage horse. His long back, though, makes for a kidney killer. His trot, magnificent as it is, has prevented me from moving up the dressage ranks. But I love his grand size and having the ability to walk under his neck to harness him seems to me a real plus.
The reason I was NOT driving William at Haven Hill was that I had promised my husband, Mark Witte, that if he gatored for me at the 2011 Cowboy Country Oklahoma event that I’d reciprocate at the next two Texas driving events, Haven Hill and the Caldwell ADT with his Cleveland Bay cross pair. Undaunted and uncaring about my promise to Mark, sneaky Linda offered up her super navigator husband, Keith, to help with Mark’s pair. She said “Keith owes me” which frankly should just be a daily mantra for the Linda and Keith household.
So I drove Bella at the Tom O’Carroll and Marlene Collins’ Navasota show with thirty minutes of Bella driving time under my belt. Unless you have a pony trained by Linda or her equivalent then a mere thirty minutes of drive time just isn’t smart before you head into that dressage arena, cones and a four hazard marathon. Now don’t get me wrong, I will admit that I’m crazy enough to probably drive anyone’s single horse, pony or pair with only 30 minutes of drive time in any show at Training Level. Since I’ve only been driving seriously since this past January I’m the perfect example of “ignorance is bliss”. My bottom driving line is “sure I’ll drive”. Just in case you think that I have no standards what so ever I’m not jumping at driving a mini, a four-in-hand, tandems or some other nuttiness like a unicorn. (My apologies to all of you that love those combinations. They are just not for me at this time. See how the madness creeps in?)
Bella and I headed into the arena over-bent but with big horse gusto. Linda casually mentioned ten minutes before my dressage start that Bella only does “behind the bit” in dressage so don’t stress about it. Neither of us were surprised that my score was a 61. I was kind of dumbfounded, though, when Linda mentioned after the test that Bella trotted at the first walk. What I thought was a cute Bella walk was actually Bella’s pacing trot. I really couldn’t see or feel her trot. My big boy, Will, has a huge walk and three distinct trots so I just didn’t think that anything walking that slowly could be considered a trot.
But we sure did look fancy. I had to downsize my hat to match Bella’s size because my lovely brown hat would have looked like I was wearing a brightly decorated manhole cover.
But in cones Bella and I have perfectly matched brains. We sailed through a lovely cones course and I couldn’t stop laughing when Bella would canter up to the next set of cones and then automatically trot perfectly through them. I had one ball down and it was not Bella’s fault. The width for the cones at the show was incorrect for training but as Linda said, “this just gets you in shape for prelim so just get over it”.
Bella should have “marathon and hazard queen” freeze branded into her coat. Linda does not typically drive Bella in her dressage pair but is the “go to pony” for marathons. Linda sat on the seat to my left yelling “yippee” in high buckaroo style when hitting major bumps on the trail with her 2-wheeled Pacific Cart. Our drive would have made a funny “girls gone bad” video. Our marathon time was perfect with some serious walking in place for the final 500 yards.
We were quite the laughing pair at Tom’s. But I’ve navigated for Linda and her Dartmoor pair in Oklahoma a few years back and the difference is glaring. What spectators SAW in Oklahoma was both of us laughing hysterically. What they didn’t HEAR was me tearfully crying out “we’re still alive” as we exited the in/out gate. She drives fast; her concentration is scary; and her competitive nature is not for the weak. And Keith is right…..you CAN lift the carriage out of danger when driving the obstacles. He failed to mention that this is only possible when the carriage is airborne.
So at the end of the day, I happily received my white, fourth place ribbon. But I will be the first to admit that my competitive color is blue. When I told Linda I was disappointed with my dressage score, Linda’s eyes started to twinkle and she stepped right up to that now opened door with her “pony candy”.
She said that we should look for a pony that can really give me a competitive dressage score. Linda started calling around the States to a relatively small group of Dartmoor devotees and within an hour it was pretty evident that those same Dartmoor groupies felt that my stellar, big moving dressage pony (yeh……those words still seem wrong when compared to William) was already stabled at the the Yutzy’s Lonestar-Dartmoor ranch.
My new hunter green carriage will get here before Christmas; I’ll buy a carton of brass polish for the Show harness; and Linda’s pony, Windwood Esther (“Poly-Esther” to my dressage trainer and “Wendy” to Linda) will arrive at our farm in 7 days for a few months of try-outs.
The moral of this driving story is:
Your driving journey is full of surprises so don’t worry about it. Make sure you have friends that are smarter about the sport than you. Breathe and embrace your craziness. It’s all good.