Carriage driving dressage 'like ballet on wheels'
CARRIAGE driving is one of the most beautiful equestrian disciplines and viewing it live for the first time is a special experience.
Photographer Sharlene Phillips, known best by her quirky moniker One-Eyed Frog, has covered a lot of different horse events but found herself in new territory recently at the Victorian Carriage Driving Championship at Greenvale.
"My first time photographing a carriage driving championships was a mesmerizing experience,” she said.
“Dressage felt like witnessing ballet on wheels.
“On the water obstacle course, the power of teamwork was on full display, as speed and strength were harnessed to tackle and navigate through obstacles, I just loved it.”
Championships organiser Lorraine Cairns said the event was a success, with good numbers entered.
“It was a very successful weekend of competition with just on 30 competitors from Victoria and NSW,” she said.
The dressage judges, Lyn Callaghan from NSW and Victorians Tracey Gorick and Deb Fuller found the best scores of the day were done by Matthew Marriott driving Murroka Crackerjack in the intermediate horse class and Vicki Stevenson driving Naringalook Squirt in the novice small pony class.
In the cones section, judged by Heather Dunn, the best rounds were driven by Rachel Haslau, with Haddon Park Locket in the open large pony, and Dawn Walter, driving Naringalook Monty in the open small pony.
Rachel was awarded the Alan Farmer trophy for the best cones round by a pony.
The marathon was held in lovely conditions on the second day of the event.
The competitors were divided into two groups so that one group could compete in the morning and the other group in the afternoon, with each supporting the other as stewards when not competing.
This allowed the organisers to have enough stewards for all judging positions while also allowing competitors to gain valuable knowledge and experience in this area of expertise.
The fastest marathon scores of the day were recorded by Ruby Lawrence driving Carlyle Mozart in the novice horse class and Andrew Pollock driving Merricks Stedinger Crusade in the open horse class.
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