Horses and carts a sight to see

GEELONG and District Carriage Drivers annual combined driving event will be held at Teesdale’s  Leighdale Equestrian Centre this weekend.

GDCD vice-president Kirsty Blake said the action will differ over the event’s two days, with the dressage and cones phase on Saturday, 27 February and the “marathon day” on Sunday, 28 February.

“The cones phase is similar to what a normal equestrian sport would call show jumping, where drivers move between cones at a set distance, with balls on top. Penalties apply if a ball is dropped, or if a cone is moved or damaged,” she said.

“The marathon day is the most exciting day, with single horses being driven in pairs or tandem, where one is in front of the other, or beside one another, and we’ve even got teams of four horses that get driven by a single driver.

“They firstly compete around a roads section, along tracks in the Teesdale area. They are classed as a vehicle, like any other on a road. Coming back into the grounds, they compete around a course where there’s marathon obstacles.”

This section is particularly competitive, with carriages timed from a start gate, before moving between gated A to F obstacles.

Ms Blake said although pony clubs have a higher profile compared to the “handful of carriage driving clubs in Victoria,” watching a team of four horses galloping through tightly spun obstacles will always be an impressive sight to behold.

“When people think of horses and carts, they might think of brewery horses, or those they see on display at the Melbourne or Sydney Show.

“But when they see a single horse in a cart galloping with the cart, going sideways around a tight bend, or an even more fascinating team of four horses galloping around an obstacle in unison, it’s something they don’t expect to see,” she said.

“Australia’s got a World Champion carriage driver, Boyd Exell, so we’re very well represented in carriage driving.”

Leighdale has been one of GDCD’s homes for the last 18 months. They’re also based at Victoria Park, Inverleigh.

“We’ve been building marathon obstacles at Leighdale because they’re unique to our sport, and we’ve also secured the 2022 Victorian Combined Driving Championships there.

“We share the facility with other user groups, and are excited to see some improvements to the site, as we’re also included in the new Leighdale Equestrian Centre Master Plan,” Ms Blake said.

Events begin from 9am over the CDE weekend. Spectators can attend for free, COVID-19 restrictions permitting.

For up-to-date information and any pandemic guidelines regarding spectating, keep an eye on the GDCD Facebook group at bit.ly/2ONmMOO.

Leighdale and GDCD will also host a junior and young driver camp in April.