Glorious weather at Oasby

Glorious weather greeted competitors and stewards alike at Midlands Carriagedriving’s final event of the season, at Oasby in Lincolnshire, over the weekend of 2 and 3 September. This was the club’s third visit to the venue and the new organising team of Chris and Jenny Doughty and Bob and Ruth Auton had gained permission from the landowner to open up new tracks for Section A of the marathon as well as creating three new obstacles on Section B.

While one or two drivers opted for shortened marathons with the imminent National Championships in mind, the Open Horse class provided a close finish between Sue Mart, with her promising new horse, and Wendy Wyatt. Sue took the lead in the dressage phase with 43.53, ahead of Wendy on 50.75 and Paul Hart on 55.12. Wendy closed the gap on Sue after a better cones score but Sue kept her nose in front with marginally faster obstacles times to finish just over four penalties ahead of Wendy with Paul third and Graham Clements in fourth.
Photo: Sue Mart


Photo: Wendy Wyatt

The Novice Pony class was almost as tight with Sophie Parker performing the best dressage of the day (42.2), just 1.2 penalties ahead of Margaret Collins. However, Sophie scored the only double clear of the day in cones to increase her lead and, despite Margaret putting up fractionally faster obstacle times, she took the class ahead of Margaret by 4.24 penalties.
Photo: Sophie Parker
Photo: Margaret Collins

Mary Fuller led the way throughout in the Novice Horse class ahead of Chris Patrick who added 20 penalties to his score for a corrected error of course in an obstacle. Another to suffer a ‘senior moment’ was Lyn Chorlton, who opted for the Short Formant Pony class ahead of the Championships. Despite the additional 20 penalties, she ran out the winner after Sandra White, whose pony was competing at his first two-day event, missed a compulsory flag out on the course, incurring elimination.
Photo: Mary Fuller
Photo: Lyn Chorlton

Fiona Powell’s veteran pony (26 years old and full of running!) achieved the second-best overall dressage of the day. Competing in Open Pony she scored 42.96 and took the class after Megan Wheeldon opted to withdraw after the fifth obstacle as she, too, had the Championships in mind. Jon White had the Short Format Horse class to himself, achieving a second-best score in the cones.
Photo: Fiona Powell


Photo: Jon White

The club wishes those members and regular competitors taking part at the National
Championships the best of luck.

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