Future of sport lies with British Young Drivers

 An excellent field of 20 youngsters competed at the British Young Drivers’ (BYD) National Championships, hosted by Midlands Carriagedriving at Onley Grounds, Rugby, from 29 to 30 July. Spread across six classes for age groups and horse or pony, the championships is a showcase for the future of driving trials.

The largest section, Class B (Pony) for drivers 15-18 years, produced the two best dressage scores; Amy Matthews on 37.40 and Ruby Gray on 42.40. After the first phase Sophie Hunt lay third (53.60), Keira Chivers was fourth on 54.60 and Sophia Routledge was fifth on 57.80. After cones, Amy and Ruby retained their positions despite adding penalties while Sophia added minimal time penalties (1.05) to pull herself up to third place overnight. The three girls put up the fastest obstacle times in the class; Ruby was fastest on 66.95 while Sophia just pipped Amy (72.98 and 73 76 respectively). However, Amy had enough in hand to win with Ruby second and Sophia third.

There was a similar scenario in Class A (Pony) for drivers 8-14 years. Henry Hyde-Chambers led the dressage with 50.60 while Vivien Geier lay second on 57.97. Vivien drove clear in the cones, adding 2.75 time penalties, to consolidate her position with Henry, despite dropping two balls for another six penalties, keeping his lead. Jamie Horden, fifth after dressage also produced a good cones result to lie
third overnight. In the final phase Henry blazed his way through the obstacles to produce the fastest times, adding 58.38 to his score and win the class with Vivien second in the obstacles and overall and Jamie third and third overall.

Photos: Henry Hyde-Chambers, Jamie Hordern, Amy Matthews, Alex Loveman, Charlie Parker-King, Harriet McEntee
   


Class C (Pony) for drivers 19-25 years was the most competitive. Alex Loveman led after dressage on 47.67 with Megan Wheeldon second on 51.20 and Charlie Parker-King third on 53.31. Megan took the lead after driving clear in the cones to add 1.63 time penalties with Alex and Charlie knocking two balls off apiece plus time penalties leaving Alex second and Charlie retaining third. The three produced fast, tight, obstacle times with Charlie being the fastest (63.57 penalties) to leapfrog Alex into second overall. Megan was slightly slower than Alex (69.02 and 67.73 respectively) but kept her overnight lead to win with Alex dropping to third overall.

Harriet McEntee had a commanding lead in all three phases over Daniel Stafford in Class C (Horse) for drivers 14-25 years to win with Daniel second. Rudi Krikorian was the sole competitor in Class E (Pony) for drivers 6-16 years and was the only BYD to record a double clear in the cones after producing the third best championship dressage result (43.0). Pairs driver Phoebe Matthews was also a sole competitor (Class D (Multiple Pony) for drivers 14-25 years), adding just 2.27 time penalties in the cones to her 56.0 dressage score and going faster through the obstacles than her sister Amy (70.62) who won Class B (Pony).

Photos: Megan Wheeldon, Phoebe Mattews, Ruby Gray, Rudi Krikorian, Sophia Routledge, Vivian Geier







Full results can be found on the British Carriagedriving and Midlands Carriagedriving
websites: www.britishcarriagedriving.co.uk and www.midlandscarriagedriving.co.uk .

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Memory of ‘Madge’ Edwards

Image
 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
Read more

2024 – Bring it on!

Image
 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
Read more

Perfect going at Onley Grounds

Image
 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
Read more