The Driving Trial

The day dawned cool and clear.

At Moondance, Bob and Dave shuffled carts while Diana petted Mickey.

At the show grounds,

we weren't the only ones bundled up.

A very well-behaved Haflinger stallion

It quickly warmed up to a gorgeous day!

The trial was made up of three parts -

dressage, cones course and hazards.

First up, the dressage test.

Click here to see the American Driving Society's Training Level Test 1

David's first driving dressage test!

(he's ridden so many)

David's first time driving in an indoor arena!

Kate, look at those feathers!

Next phase, cones!

The cones are set 6" wider than your cart

and there's a tennis ball on top of each of them.

Knock a tennis ball off and you get a penalty.

You have to drive through them in numerical order

and in the right direction.

Oh, and it's timed.

Gulp.

Let's go!

It was a twisty-turny course

with some cones set pretty close to the fence.

Boomer did a great job listening to David,

and he wasn't even distracted by these spectators.

I was.

The final phase was the Hazards Phase.
Here's the pattern -

and here's a little clip -

At the end of the day
I felt like this -

 but Boomer was as fresh as a daisy.
He never even broke a sweat.

We had a great time, learned a lot,
and went home with a third place finish.
Yay Team Boomer!

 Diana, Bob, Boomer and Dave

Thank you, Elisa, for taking care of Paj, Reggie and Ben while we played.  And a huge thank you to Bob for sharing his horse, cart, harness, and truck and trailer with us!