The Aiken Driving Club held their annual pleasure driving show on April 30 at Wendy O’Brien’s beautiful Trout Walk Farm. A variety of turnouts, from minis to large horses, took advantage of the nice weather and lovely setting. In addition to the standard ring classes, a cross country class and cones class were offered. Janelle Marshall organized most of the festivities and Caroline McSwain was the judge.
These and other photos are available at http://proofs.meghanbenge.com
The Windsor Driving Derbies wrapped up with the finals, held April 3rd.
I liked the pony in the bandana.
The VSE’s are always a hit and kind of well suited for Derby driving. Kim Allen and Fudge were the ultimate winners of the Single VSE. Caroline McSwain and her four in hand are always fun to watch.
Pony pairs were Ray Mansur with his Haflingers and Janelle Marshall driving Sherri Dolan’s pair of ponies.
The Horse Show in the Woods celebrated its 100th edition this year. Located in Hitchcock Woods right in downtown Aiken, the show is a must-see. This year, the show had its largest leadline class ever. Most of my photos are from leadline, but also a few of the costume and family classes.
Little Everglades CDE is back after a few years’ hiatus. The Little Everglades Ranch is one of the nicest facilities and courses we get to go to. This year was decidedly “low-budget” in that there were no hazard decorations, no vendors really, and not even a port-a-potty out for the spectators on Saturday. Thursday dressage took place in the pouring rain, the worst of which, I am pretty sure was during my test. I only got a few pictures of other people for dressage. Friday through Sunday was nice weather, thankfully! Friday dressage and Sunday cones was moved to the warm up area, due to the extreme wet conditions in the main ring.
It was my friend, Randy Cadwell’s first show since Live Oak last year and doing that whole cancer thing. It was fun to see her back!
Random photos.
We were stabled on the same aisle as Joan Fernandez and her Friesians. Zoey says Friesians are way cool. Keady has been helping her reach her goal of a four-in-hand. Joan qualified for 2* status by driving two pairs in the 1*. Step one complete!
Live Oak is our next show!
Finally got around to going through some of my photos from the first driving derby of the season. It was sooo cold this day. As always, there was a variety of turnouts and drivers. The next derby is Feb 13.
Took photos at Stable View Farm’s schooling CT last weekend. Here is a small portion of them. I don’t take lots of jumping photos, getting the timing over smaller jumps can be a bit of a challenge. It was freezing cold and drizzling but Stable View is a pretty fantastic facility to get to photograph. You can see more here: Photo Gallery
I have had the opportunity to photograph Grover on a number of occasions, but he is just starting to come into his own as a riding pony. Here he is schooling dressage just after Christmas in Southern Pines, NC.
Grover is a German Riding Pony stallion owned by Miranda and Keady Cadwell. His first foals were born last year.
Overall, pretty disappointed in my photos from Katydid. Light was crappy. I messed up my camera settings. Blah. Here are a few…
Pine Tree CDE is one of my favorite shows to photograph. They have great fall colors and light (sorry Aiken). This year, Pine Tree was completely full for the weekend show and also held a combined test on Friday. For the first time, Pine Tree also offered a VSE division. Unfortunately, only three turned up, hopefully it will be better attended if they offer it again. I competed on Friday, so had plenty of time to take photos on Saturday and Sunday. I took tons of photos of Maggie Sullivan and super adorable Elmo. It was Maggie and Elmo’s first show in a year, and they did awesome!
I have a million super cute photos of Elmo…
Next, it was fun to see these guys…
The grey half of Ed Hopkins’ pony four-in-hand is sired by my stallion, Ziggy. Below left is Ziggy at the Laurels in 2006 (I think?). On the right, is Xena, who is sired by Ziggy out of a Section D mare. Zigs definitely stamped his kiddo!
They were super good kids!!
Pine Tree also saw Paul Maye with Harmony Sport Horses new four in hand make their American debut of sorts. They are fun to take photos of!
Josh Rector had a bunch of clients competing at the show, so brought his four-in-hand for some lessons with Keady. He has a bunch of interesting new horses as well.
Also, here are more pictures of cute ponies I photographed! And Dana and Manny Diemer (technically Randy took this picture but whatever.) And a cute kitty!
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Since we are halfway through October, I guess it is time to finally admit summer might be over. I like the cooler weather, but not the shorter days! Even though fall is when Aiken gets really busy, there were still plenty of events to photograph throughout the summer. I am a total slacker as far as blogging goes, so this post is a giant synopsis of the entire season.
Fall events are starting soon. I am going to Pine Tree CDE in a week, so check back for more photos!
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