C.C.H.S. Gippsland Clydesdale Horse Driving Day 2009
Held
10-1-2009 at Trafalgar
Equestrian Park
The setting up for the driving day starts
on the Friday afternoon and evening with committee members banging in steel
droppers and running out safety fencing and electric tape. Next came the measuring up and marking all
the novelty and precision driving arenas. Obstacles were unloaded from the
trailer for the driven in long rein classes, the ridden handy mount and the
novelty events. There were drums, many
many 12' pine poles (donated by Weir Treated Timber in Drouin), cones, a large
loader tyre for the pair of horses to pull, two horse drawn scoops and a horse
drawn sled.
We usually have competitors turning up on
the Friday night to stay over, but not this year.
An early start again on Saturday with a
recheck of all the obstacles and safety fence and erection of all the
marques. Lindsay Crawford was there
early setting up his speaker system and microphones. Our Safety Officers, Max
Phillips from Neerim and Kevin Tyson from Warragul were busy making sure that
all was well safety wise.
Our judges for the day were Matthew
Marriott from Foster and Sheryl Grilles from Longwarry.
11 horses attended with 50+ spectators.
A very big thankyou must go to the Lions
Club of Trafalgar for attending with the catering for the day.
There were long rein driven classes for
youth and adults and novelty events on the day.
There was even two ridden classes for the big horses, Ridden Clydesdale
and Ridden Handy Mount where the riders had to dismounting walking through a
gate and then remounting, walking over and trotting over poles whilst carrying
a bag of cans together with trotting around cones. Little Michelle Phillips
(aged 11) rode Nuggett in the Handy Mount Class which showed just how versatile
the Clydesdale horse is and how responsive and gentle they can be with such a
small child on board.
The Ridden Clydesdale class was well
presented this year with 4 entrants.
There was a ridden display by a competitor from the Moorooduc area who
shows her Clydesdale and Clydesdale crosses at dressage shows and other hack
shows. It was a very impressive display.
The program did have a 2/4 wheeled vehicle
or farm implement class but there were no contenders for that event, hopefully next
year.
The novelty events again went over very
well with every competing in them. The
judge actually entered in the last event of the day, the Tag Team Race. This
consists of three people racing against the clock and other competitors to
harness up a horse and drive the horse back over the line. The event is not for
the faint hearted or the unfit and also not for a horse that isn't accustomed
to a human running towards them at break-neck speed (hopefully) with different
types of harness in hand. I think the
horses were all wondering what all the rush was about.
Noel Wiltshire from Wiltshire Horse Works
of Kotupna came all the way down here with their harness and leather goods and
put on a very informative harness display and showed the correct way to measure
a horse for a collar and how to tell if that collar will fit.
Louise Sedgeman had a stall there selling
her framed and unframed photos of the heavy horses. Her husband Stan harnessed up their newly
trained mare ("Flossy") to see how she
would cope and she did well.
The Hi Point Horse of the day went to
Moorland Sinatra (Frankie) owned, trained and driven by Peter Allen of
Yarragon.
The continuous raffle went well with lots
of happy winners. Naturally the first raffle prizes to be collected were the
bags of horse feed sponsored by Drouin Grain Store. Some of the other raffle
prizes were sponsored by Port Phillip Shop in Warragul who deal with RM
Williams stock and Murray Goulburn from Leongatha.
The day turned out not to be as hot as last
year and the breeze was very welcomed and was enjoyed by all who participated
and spectated and hopefully those and more will attend again next year. .
RESULTS
RING
1 - Judge: Sheryl Grilles
Gentleman Driver - 8
1.
Peter Allen - Frankie
2.
Geoff Peters - Will
3.
Laurie Smith - Stormy
Lady
Driver - 4
Luana Brown - Maestro
Debbie Allen - Frankie
Louise Sedgman - Flossy
Terri Butler - Will
Youth
Driver - 1
Michelle Phillips - Nuggett
Ridden
Clydesdale - 4
1.
Luana Brown - Gus
1. Michelle Phillips - Nuggett
1. Peter Cantwell - Connor
1. Leanne - Stormy
RING
2 - Judge: Matthew Marriott
Pair
horses pulling tyre - 3
1.
Will & Mate - Geoff Peters
2.
Connor & Stormy - Peter
Cantwell
3.
Frankie & Maestro - Peter
Allen
Ridden
Handy Mount - 2
1.
Gus - Luana Brown
2.
Nugget - Michelle Phillips
Pumpkin
Race - 6
1.
Maestro - Kevin Tyson and Peter
Allen
2.
Maestro - Peter Allen &
Peter Xuerub
3.
Connor - Peter Cantwell and
Christine
Log
Snig - 10
1.
Stormy - Laurie Smith
2.
Mate - Geoff Peters
3.
Frankie - Debbie Allen
4.
Frankie - Peter Allen
Scoop
Race - 6
1.
Bumper - Ted Bradley and Peter
Xuerub
2.
Rose - Ritchie James and Leanne
3.
Nuggett - Ken Phillips and
Michelle Phillips
Tag
Team Race - 6 teams
1.
Connor - Laurie Smith, Peter Cantwell
and Matthew Marriott
2.
Maestro - Peter Allen, Ken Phillips
and Debbie Allen
