It’s been a huge weekend for driving here at the Kentucky Horse Park, with The National Drive taking place all week, and the Kentucky Classic CDE over the last three days.
Even to a rank amateur like myself, it’s obvious who the good drivers are; much like dressage or jumping they go through smoothly and efficiently, while a few others definitely banged into the fences a few times, and seemed on the verge of losing control. The crowd was admittedly small today, perhaps because Lexington has an embarrassment of riches on offer this weekend – Keeneland, The Bourbon Chase, Second Sunday, Oktoberfest…and gorgeous weather to boot.
Wet bum!
Missdee Wrigley Miller has been training in Europe all summer, and had a rather special guest navigator today on her pairs carriage – none other than 2008 Dutch National Champion and a member of last year’s Dutch gold medal winning WEG team, Koos de Ronde.
At the end of the competition Koos treated everyone to a demonstration of the final marathon phase (the obstacles, not the endurance) on a team of four horses.
 Missdee Miller
   Not in the driver’s seat for a change: Koos as navigator
   Helmet-cam alert!
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All the various judges, volunteers and officials converging on the last two obstacles to watch Koos de Ronde go through them. As my friend Maureen described it, it was like something out of Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome seeing them all come over the hill!
Koos de Ronde
Here’s what I gathered about the marathon competition: after an endurance phase very similar to roads and tracks on the long format three day event, the final phase is the obstacles. Each obstacle is defined in an area, and you are timed once you enter and until you leave, and that is how long it takes you to negotiate that obstacle. Each one may have four or five flagged gates to go through in alphabetical order, but you can decide on your own options – some drivers like to pick a shorter, handier course with tight turns, others a wider, longer swooping one if they think they can go faster.
In between the obstacles you are NOT allowed to canter, and there are officials on course to check. The time it takes to complete the entire marathon course is calculated along with the time at each obstacle, and of course the endurance, and somehow the winner comes out the winner! I do remember taking one look at the score sheets at last year’s WEG and handing them straight over to Glennyglenn the Geek,my co-host, as it all looked like double dutch to me!
Leo letting off steam AFTER the competition had finished
The crowd may have been small, but it was enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Drivers like lots of whooping and hollering as they go through the obstacles, and all the dogs were getting into it at the sidelines too, lots of whining, yelping and barking! Koos’s navigator cupped his hand to his ear during one obstacle to encourage the crowd to cheer more loudly. We saw single ponies, pairs and of course the four-in-hand, and it was a really nice change of pace.
Could this be in my future?!
Two weeks to go until the Hagyard MidSouth Three Day Event and Team Challenge. Thanks for reading, and go driving eventing!
