Powys Carriage Driving Group

Powys Carriage Driving Group held their December affiliated indoor driving trials with a Christmas theme. Christmas fare , music and fancy dress added to the enjoyment of the day luring drivers from across the region and a pair of Hafflinger ponies from West Wales.

Fancy dress was won by Alison Dascombe, dressed as a Christmas pudding , who fitted the twelve days of Christmas on her carriage as well as festooning her pony in decoration. Runners up were Janice and Peter Sidebottom as Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus strapped in his manger to the carriage, and third were two Penguins in a snowscene !

Classes were well supported with 12 driving turnouts . Best dressage of the day was Emily Ham. Jonathan Rees and Pat Dutson were both double clear in the cones and the event finished with driving the four obstacles which were designed to be fast and flowing to add to the excitement. Emily, in Open Pony, achieved the fastest obstacles and the overall best score of the day with her Crossfield Glory who was also driven to victory in the Newcomers Class by her backstepper Chris Bambridge. Chris was in great demand for the obstacle phase and kept busy using his skills from backstepping at National events to keep the carriages of all the fastest drivers firmly on the ground !

The biggest class was the Juniors with local Brecon teenager Emily Phillips taking first place and her sister Rhianna third. The Phillips family started driving this year with a lovely loan pony, Ranger and are very enthusiastic. In second place was Khyra Payne – only eight years old and driving consistently well at these events with little Section A pony Charlie.

Class results were : Open Horse : 1st Jonathan Rees 115.5, 2nd Peter Sidebottom 139.8

                                      Novice Horse : 1st Janice Sidebottom 155.2

                                      Open Pony :   1st Emily Ham 105.4  2nd Ray Hopkins 172.5

                                      Novice Pony : 1st Alison Dascombe 138

                                      Multiples :  1st ray Hopkins ( pony pair ) 153.2

                                      Club Class : 1st Pat Dutson 139.3

                                      Newcomers Class 1st Chris Bambridge  152.9

                                      Juniors : 1st Emily Phillips 193, 2nd Khyra Payne 218.7  3rd Rhianna Phillips 260.1