Show Report: Middle Tennessee Carriage Club Horse Driving Trial 2017

Driving Thursday

MTCC HDT
Shelbyville TN, USA
June 17, 2017

Greg & Bliss
Preliminary Single Horse – 1st of 1
Preliminary Division – 2nd of 4

Thank you to the landowners, officials, and volunteers for a wonderful competition. Thank you to Kate Bushman for the brilliant Bliss.

Dressage
The test was steady and accurate but lacked the pizazz of warm up. At one point, I saw Greg and Bliss in the distance and did not recognize them. That’s how good they looked. Now, to get it on command in the ring.

Last but by less than 2 points.

Cones
Started strong. Midway through, Greg lost the plot, and it devolved into what Coach Kate called cones bowling. Usually, a penalty involves knocking a ball off the cone. Greg did this. He also knocked over cones. At one point, he ran over a cone. Shades of me and Alvin [Show Report].

Still, the course was sufficiently difficult that he had the second lowest score for that phase, moving him up to third.

Marathon
We were first at the first obstacle, by a bunch, and second at the other two for the fastest time in our division. If CDE is the driving version of eventing, then Greg had the results of a typical eventer. Go fast. Drive hard. Hate the sandbox.

View from the Back Seat
Navigators have two duties: to give directions and to move back and forth as ballast. I was able to do one or the other. Mostly, I would get so caught up with directions that I would forget to move. That will come with time.

What won’t come with time is the ability to distinguish my left from my right. In the second obstacle, I said right when I meant left. Unable to process the correct word, yelled, “No! No! No!” and smacked my driver on the appropriate shoulder. He and Bliss quickly reversed course and headed the other way. There’s no fixing this one. We will have to learn to use other words.

Update
[Show Photos]
[Show Video]

Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott