Powys Carriage Driving Group

Powys Carriage Driving Group are thrilled that eight of their members have qualified for the National Indoor Finals at Keysoe , Bedfordshire in April. Emily Ham in Open Pony and Jonathan Rees in Open Horse are strong contenders as they are both unbeaten this season. Emily Curnock is also top junior in her events in both Mid and South Wales affiliated events and Ray Hopkins has performed consistently well in both areas so has a good chance of the top ten nationally in the Veteran Class. Peter and Janice Sidebottom have done extremely well in Open Horse and Novice Horse in Mid Wales and Wales and Gloucester regions. Nikki Shutt driving like a pro in her first season of trials is the qualifier in Novice pony and Alison Dascombe is the Intermediate pony qualifier with her young home produced pony Tommy.

The final qualifying event on Sunday 9th March at Llwynon Saddlery saw local champion Emily Ham drive Crossfield Glory to win Open Pony on the best score of the day. She was 0.5 marks off the Best dressage, had a clear round in the cones six seconds faster than the optimum time, and extremely fast obstacles. Jonathan Rees won Open Horse on the same dressage score as Emily and also drove skilfully round the cones and obstacles to achieve the second highest score of the day.

Three pony pairs competed and made a great spectacle flying round the course. Rowena Moyse, up again from Swansea, led the Multiples achieving the best dressage score and multiples cones round with her black pair but the more experienced grey pair she drove reeled them in over the four obstacles which included bridge to be driven twice and took the class. Wendy Morris’s Shetlands are improving every time out- an unfortunate blip at the bridge spoiling her day’s chances of pushing Rowena hard.

John and Nikki Shutt, in their first season of driving trials with their Exmoor pony Irvine are definitely driving trials contenders . John achieved the third highest score of the day and went clear in the challenging cones course. John has become the backstepper the speed merchants clamour for and did a great job for Nikki, Wendy and Emily Ham. On this occasion Emily Phillips was the only junior driver and in her first event since the autumn completed all three phases including driving her pony Ranger over the bridge in the cones and obstacles. Alison likewise found her young pony accepted the challenges of the course and is improving markedly at each event.

The day after the event members benefitted from training with brilliant National coach James Broome at Llwynon , with the chance to gain dressage tips for upcoming events and technical insights into cones driving in preparation for the Indoor Championships and summer Nationals.

For information on the many aspects of driving don’t hesitate to contact Ann Ham on [email protected] The club does activities and training throughout the year in Powys and Monmouthshire. Ann is also the Area Commissioner for the British Driving Society for both areas. There is a training day on 30th March - spectators welcome and any juniors wanting to take part only £6 for two hours of activities.