The Georgia Carriage Driving Club will host a Horse Driving Trial (HDT) on Saturday and Sunday, 26-27 April 2008. It will be held at the lovely Great Oaks Farm, owned by Tom and Charlene Hilgenberg, in Newnan, GA. This is a “new” event for us – for the past 10 years, the event had been called the Georgia International CDE and was held at the Olympic Horse Park in Conyers, GA. Interestingly, the event was started by Tom and Charlene at their very own Great Oaks Farm – so we’re coming full-circle!
An HDT is a shortened version of the more traditional Combined Driving Event (CDE). Both types of events feature a dressage competition, an obstacle competition (more commonly referred to as “cones”) and a marathon competition. In the CDE, the marathon consists of at least three phases – a roads and tracks section, a timed walk section, and the exciting obstacles (formerly called hazards) section. A CDE typically crosses three days – with dressage on day one, marathon on day two, and the obstacle (cones) competition on day three. It is a very similar format to the ridden competition of eventing. An HDT, in the two-day format as we are doing, has the competitor do their dressage test, and then proceed to the cones competition all on day one. On the second day, they will do a marathon competition, consisting of only the obstacle/hazards phase. This format allows for a competition to be held on a much smaller acreage than a full CDE (which helps the organizing committee!) and only requires competitors to be away from their homes and work for three days (which helps the competitors’ pocketbooks!).
This year, we will have classes for ponies, horses, and – for the first time! – Very Small Equines (VSE) (a.k.a. miniature horses). We’ll have single horses pulling carriages of every type, pairs and hopefully, even four-in-hands! We’re hoping for an exciting two days!
If you are a driving competitor, and are interested in entering, call Mary Deatherage and she’ll give you the scoop. Entries opened 4 Jan and will close again 1 April. If you’re a member of the American Driving Society, you can get more info at their website. Finally, if you are interested in volunteering to work at this event (no experience is necessary!), or if you would just like to come and watch, you can get more information from Mary at 678-360-1359. It’s a lot of fun and you’ll learn a lot.
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