PUSLINCH – Vicki Dickson and Jeff Born, along with their ponies Leo and Melodie, placed first in the North American Preliminary Paris Championship at the American Driving Society’s Southern Pines Combined Driving event in North Carolina in early April.
When snow starts to fall at their Puslinch home, Dickson and Born load up the truck and trailer with the ponies, a carriage and their two dogs, “and head south to do a winter of hard work,” Dickson said.
All winter long, and for the two winters before that too, Dickson, Born, Leo and Melodie stayed in a small town in South Carolina and trained on trails through 900 acres of forest.
“We devoted our winter down there to getting the ponies fit and strong and competitive,” Dickson said.
Combined driving is very different than other driving events, such as breed or pleasure driving, which people may be familiar with from the Royal Winter Fair, Dickson noted.
Carriage driving was invented by Prince Philip in the 1970s, she said.
The sport is similar to three-day eventing but involves carriages instead of riders on horseback.
Dickson said the Prince “started getting hurt all the time” doing the dressage, cross country and show jumping involved with three-day eventing on horseback.
“So he decided to invent a sport that involved a carriage instead of riding,” she said.
It’s still a three-day event, beginning with dressage on the first day.
The second day is the “marathon,” a long-distance route with obstacles to navigate, similar to cross country.
And on the third day is the cones competition, which takes place in a show jumping ring and involves 20 sets of cones that the horses and drivers manoeuvre through.
“The whole sport is based on keeping your penalty level as low as possible,” Dickson said.
Dickson and Born are relatively new to the sport – the seniors took it up about five years ago when they got their first pony.
Leo was two years old and didn’t know how to drive, yet. Dickson didn’t either, “so we figured it out together,” she said.
And Born is “not a horse person,” Dickson said, but he willingly hopped on the back of the carriage and learned to navigate.
“I give him full props for joining me in this hobby,” Dickson said.
“Being a non-horse person, he’s very brave to step on the back,” she added, noting the platform he stands on is very small and she has “almost lost him” off the back before.
They wouldn’t want that, as it would result in penalties, she said with a chuckle.
The couple soon decided to add a second pony to the mix, as they didn’t think it would be fair for Leo to pull a 345-pound carriage, along with Dickson and Born, for the 12km marathon run.
“That’s too great a load,” Dickson said. “He’d be pulling more than his weight – 700 pounds.”
They found a Kijiji add for a pony in northern Quebec, Melodie, who turned out to be Leo’s aunt, and Dickson trained Leo and Melodie to compete as a pair.
“There are much fewer pairs in North America than singles,” Dickson noted.
And Leo and Melodie make a great pair, in part thanks to their shared genetics.
“They match very well and move in unison,” Dickson said, which gives them a “real edge for the dressage portion.
“They do paint a pretty picture when they’re working together,” she added.
And the winter of hard work means the ponies are in great shape.
The marathon run involves a vet check to ensure fitness, Dickson said, and ponies are eliminated if they struggle with their breath or heart rate.
But when Leo and Melodie finished their run, Dickson said the vet told her they’re breathing was so soft that they wouldn’t be able to blow out a candle.
“That’s the ultimate compliment, that they’re fit, strong and healthy,” Dickson said.
There are various levels in combined driving, going right up to world level, Dickson said, and she, Born Leo and Melodie compete the preliminary level.
They participated in a range of preliminary championships over the winter and went undefeated, including the Final North American Championship at the Southern Pines Combined Driving Event in North Carolina from April 3 to 6.
They’ve been back home in Aberfoyle for a couple weeks now, and Dickson said on the days they aren’t driving, they play pickleball.
As soon as they got to the pickleball club people started asking them how the ponies were doing, Dickson said.
And when their friends heard of their success down south, they encouraged her to contact the Advertiser to tell their story.
