Those of you of a certain age will remember ‘Madge’ Edwards who passed away in December 2023. I met Madge when I started carriage driving with the Wolverley Driving Club and enjoyed her guidance and enthusiasm for weekend driving rallies, traditional driving and, most of all, driving trials. Madge was later elected Honorary President of Wolverley Driving Club. In the 1990’s we drove our lorries, sometimes in tandem for reassurance, throughout the summer months to compete at the excellent two-day trials, run by the then Midlands Driving Trials Group, to venues like Chatsworth, Frog Hall and the Silverstone area. This was Madge’s heyday, a keen single pony driver and regular winner with the excellent Georgie. Madge delighted in getting her ponies fit in the forest behind her home and, when she hung up her harness, her enthusiasm transferred to my ponies, grooming for me in the forest and country lanes of Worcestershire. Madge was the manufacturer of ‘Forest Harness’, arguably the best
With longer daylight hours and, hopefully, warmer, drier, weather to come, the 2024 outdoor carriage driving season will soon be here – and at Midlands Carriagedriving, it’s a case of ‘Bring It On!’ To begin, for the first time since 2019 (pre-Covid), the club will be presenting over 20 trophies and shields across all classes at its Championships to be held at Oasby in August; the Points League is to be revamped with some classy new-style rosettes awarded at the AGM in November. Kicking off the season will be the first of four One-Day Events at Anslow in Derbyshire. These are popular competitions open to all, even the smallest equine, and ideal for getting going, bringing on a novice animal – or driver – and refreshing the brain. Dates in 2024 will be Sundays 28 April, 19 May and 16 June plus Saturday 24 August which will end the season. The club’s Two-Day Events begin at Thoresby in Nottinghamshire (11 – 12 May), a great venue with the dressage, cones and obstacles set in parkland. T
Almost 60 competitors across Regional, Para-Equestrian and Club classes enjoyed perfect going at Onley Grounds, Rugby, from 29 to 30 July. The event was hosted by Midlands Carriagedriving, which also held the British Young Drivers’ National Championships, managing almost 80 entries. In the Regional classes, Chris Ainscough headed Open Horse with Joanna Broadbent second and Lynda Christian third. Chris led the dressage on 45.05 while Sue Mart and her new horse were second on 54.17, a fraction ahead of Joanna on 54.36. Joanna had the better cones score, adding 2.58 time penalties, which put her ahead of Chris, separated by less than a penalty, while Lynda was in sixth overnight. With all to play for, Lynda attacked the obstacles to win the marathon phase and claim third place. Chris wasted no time either, leap-frogging Joanna to win by 2.14 penalties. Photo: Chris Ainscough The result was almost as close in the Open Pony class (2.26 penalties), won by Louise Kaiholm ahead of Lesley Tilb
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