I recently had the ‘pleasure’ of competing in a ‘pleasure driving show’ held at Spruce Meadows.
The show was put on by the High Country Carriage Driving Club and was well attended by a wide variety of breeds. Entries included an assortment from miniature horses up to draft crosses and everything in between.
A pleasure show is a carriage driving show designed to showcase driving skills, a variety of horse drawn vehicles and a variety of horses in various configurations. You can see two wheeled vehicles, four wheeled vehicles and even very traditional antiques. There are special classes just for the traditional antique vehicles where you can see runabouts, phaetons, breaks, dogcarts, surreys and more. Where else could you see such an assortment (unless you journey south to the fabulous Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston)? As far as the horses go – you can see single horse, pair horse, tandem (one horse in front of the other), unicorn (one horse in front of a pair) and team (one pair in front of another pair).
The classes in a pleasure show are extremely varied – the judging in each of the ring classes emphasizes something different. One class will be judged on reinsmanship (skill of the driver), one on the turnout (overall look of the vehicle/horse/harness/driver) with emphasis on the correct combination of elements, one on the suitability of the horse for driving (proper and correct gaits, movement of the horse).
There are also a whole lot of fun skills classes there, you navigate pairs of cones set at varying widths – you have to drive the course, navigating the cone pairs without knocking anything over. In one of these classes, the pairs of cones get narrower and narrower as you progress through the course with the last set being only 5 cm wider than your vehicle – very tricky driving!
One of my favorite classes is the gambler’s choice where there is a series of driving challenges each assigned a point value reflecting the level of difficulty. You have three minutes to complete as many of the challenges as you can but you are only allowed to do each challenge twice and you cannot do the same challenge consecutively. If the bell goes at three minutes and you had your horse’s nose into the challenge then you are allowed to complete the challenge thus strategy in planning your route is a big factor in this class.
The accompanying photo is yours truly in the gambler’s choice navigating the water obstacle in the pouring rain – my little horse was a trouper and just kept going even though the rain turned to hail! My strategy paid off as we had just entered the most time consuming obstacle as the bell went, so I was able to complete the obstacle and win the whole class – this is an ‘open’ class meaning all sized horses compete in the same class.
We will be putting on this show again next year at Spruce Meadows in July, so hopefully you will come out and enjoy the show.
