By Wanda Chancellor & Brooke Ballenger; Photos by Nancy Brannon
The 14th annual Nashoba Carriage Classic and Arena Driving Trial (ADT) once again graced the Germantown Charity Horse Show grounds October 25-27, 2013. It was a step back in time to see horses pulling carriages in a three day competition, which includes all breeds and sizes of equines from minis to drafts.
On Friday the show began with dressage and cones competition for the Arena Driving Trial, which is a shortened form of three day eventing in the carriage world, called Combined Driving Event (CDE). On a very chilly Friday night spectators watched the speed portion of the ADT or obstacle driving, warming themselves with coats, blankets, and hot homemade pumpkin soup. Two obstacle courses were set up at each end of the arena for horses and ponies to speed through in a prescribed order. They were judged on time and accuracy. Awards were given for the participants in the ADT with the best combined score in all three phases. Sara Foster won Training level. Kate Bushman won Preliminary, and Wanda Chancellor won Intermediate.
Other Friday night favorites were the Carriage Dog class and Children’s class. The Carriage Dog class is carriage judged on turn-out with a dog on board. The dog can’t be tied or forced into the carriage, but must be on his best behavior and look as cute as possible in order to win a basket of dog cookies as well as a ribbon. The Carriage Dog winner was Mr. Wizard, a Wheaten Scottish Terrier owned by Jocelyn Atkinson, driving Rapunzel.
The children’s class entry was the crowd and judge’s favorite for cuteness: Jocelyn Atkinson driving Rapunzel, accompanied by Walker and Vivian Atkinson.
The Nashoba Carriage Classic Pleasure Show began on Saturday morning with ring classes: turn-out, reinsmanship, and working classes. In the “bowl,” Cones classes, a favorite of the competitors, allowed them to show off their speed and accuracy in avoiding knocking the tennis balls off the cones.
Another fun highlight of the show was the Double Jeopardy class: an event in which one driver drives a set of cones through the 'correct' way, and then the second driver has to drive through all of the cones backwards. There were a lot of smiles and great fun with this class.
The costume class was much fun, as usual. Wanda Chancellor dressed as a motorcycle driver with painted horse Uppity. Rose Marie Lawson and Susan Walker drove a tandem team with horses painted as zebras, signifying the whole crew was on safari. Ardeth Obenauf,'s pony was dressed as a lion, and her dog was a lion cub. Sandy McCormick and her daughter Maggie, driving Honey, were dressed as “Night Mare.” Reita Parham drove her Gypsy Vanner Downey, accompanied by Zach Rackers, costumed as cowboys and Indians.
Gambler's Choice on Sunday morning was a challenging course including a variety of obstacles. The driver who drove through the most obstacles with the highest point values in the allotted time was the winner.
Sunday afternoon was Country Pleasure Drive time, with a 3-4 km drive through McFadden Woods, allowing a stop for refreshments and judging. Sunday afternoon was quite a bit warmer, and with a high of 65 degrees, was perfect weather for finishing the driving weekend with a leisurely drive through the beautiful woods.
Some winners from the weekend’s drives were: Ardeth Obenauf, driving MHF Lena won the Single Pony Driving Pleasure class. Nora Land was second with Twister, Wanda Chancellor’s pony, who also won the Welsh High Point Trophy. Wanda Chancellor was third with her other horse Uppity.
Kate Bushman driving Bliss won the Single Horse Driving Pleasure class. Second was Susan Walker driving Miss Meg, and third was Ann Ince driving River.
High Point Senior Trophy went to Kate Bushman. She and Bliss also won the Concours d'elegance for the best turnout of the show.
Sara Foster won the Junior Pleasure driving class with Haflinger Major. High Point Junior driver went to Sara Foster.
The highlight of the show was Susan Walker driving a tandem with her horse Miss Meg as the leader and Rose Marie Lawson’s horse, Scooter, as the wheeler. Tandem driving is the most difficult hitch to drive and Susan did a masterful job! (Photo ©Susan Wilson)
The 14th annual Nashoba Carriage Classic and Arena Driving Trial (ADT) once again graced the Germantown Charity Horse Show grounds October 25-27, 2013. It was a step back in time to see horses pulling carriages in a three day competition, which includes all breeds and sizes of equines from minis to drafts.
On Friday the show began with dressage and cones competition for the Arena Driving Trial, which is a shortened form of three day eventing in the carriage world, called Combined Driving Event (CDE). On a very chilly Friday night spectators watched the speed portion of the ADT or obstacle driving, warming themselves with coats, blankets, and hot homemade pumpkin soup. Two obstacle courses were set up at each end of the arena for horses and ponies to speed through in a prescribed order. They were judged on time and accuracy. Awards were given for the participants in the ADT with the best combined score in all three phases. Sara Foster won Training level. Kate Bushman won Preliminary, and Wanda Chancellor won Intermediate.
Other Friday night favorites were the Carriage Dog class and Children’s class. The Carriage Dog class is carriage judged on turn-out with a dog on board. The dog can’t be tied or forced into the carriage, but must be on his best behavior and look as cute as possible in order to win a basket of dog cookies as well as a ribbon. The Carriage Dog winner was Mr. Wizard, a Wheaten Scottish Terrier owned by Jocelyn Atkinson, driving Rapunzel.
The children’s class entry was the crowd and judge’s favorite for cuteness: Jocelyn Atkinson driving Rapunzel, accompanied by Walker and Vivian Atkinson.
The Nashoba Carriage Classic Pleasure Show began on Saturday morning with ring classes: turn-out, reinsmanship, and working classes. In the “bowl,” Cones classes, a favorite of the competitors, allowed them to show off their speed and accuracy in avoiding knocking the tennis balls off the cones.
Another fun highlight of the show was the Double Jeopardy class: an event in which one driver drives a set of cones through the 'correct' way, and then the second driver has to drive through all of the cones backwards. There were a lot of smiles and great fun with this class.
The costume class was much fun, as usual. Wanda Chancellor dressed as a motorcycle driver with painted horse Uppity. Rose Marie Lawson and Susan Walker drove a tandem team with horses painted as zebras, signifying the whole crew was on safari. Ardeth Obenauf,'s pony was dressed as a lion, and her dog was a lion cub. Sandy McCormick and her daughter Maggie, driving Honey, were dressed as “Night Mare.” Reita Parham drove her Gypsy Vanner Downey, accompanied by Zach Rackers, costumed as cowboys and Indians.
Gambler's Choice on Sunday morning was a challenging course including a variety of obstacles. The driver who drove through the most obstacles with the highest point values in the allotted time was the winner.
Sunday afternoon was Country Pleasure Drive time, with a 3-4 km drive through McFadden Woods, allowing a stop for refreshments and judging. Sunday afternoon was quite a bit warmer, and with a high of 65 degrees, was perfect weather for finishing the driving weekend with a leisurely drive through the beautiful woods.
Some winners from the weekend’s drives were: Ardeth Obenauf, driving MHF Lena won the Single Pony Driving Pleasure class. Nora Land was second with Twister, Wanda Chancellor’s pony, who also won the Welsh High Point Trophy. Wanda Chancellor was third with her other horse Uppity.
Kate Bushman driving Bliss won the Single Horse Driving Pleasure class. Second was Susan Walker driving Miss Meg, and third was Ann Ince driving River.
High Point Senior Trophy went to Kate Bushman. She and Bliss also won the Concours d'elegance for the best turnout of the show.
Sara Foster won the Junior Pleasure driving class with Haflinger Major. High Point Junior driver went to Sara Foster.
The highlight of the show was Susan Walker driving a tandem with her horse Miss Meg as the leader and Rose Marie Lawson’s horse, Scooter, as the wheeler. Tandem driving is the most difficult hitch to drive and Susan did a masterful job! (Photo ©Susan Wilson)
