Robin Groves, Brownsville, Vermont, presents clinics at Three G Farms four times a year.

Robin and her husband, Wilson, are enthusiastic and serious competitors in all aspects of carriage driving.  Driving her Morgan stallion, Clay Gates Fort Knox, and her Morgan gelding, Clay Gates Riptide, Robin has been awarded National High-Point Carriage Horse in the American Morgan Horse Association several different years. She is currently competing with Thor's Toy Truck (T.J.) a 10 year-old  Connemara-Thoroughbred gelding, in advanced single horse events up and down the East Coast, winning first place in the fall of 2006 at both Gladstone and Fair Hill. Although not always first overall, Robin and TJ regularly win the marathon.  Her first place finish in the Single Horse division at the 2007 Fair Hill CDE earned her her first U. S. Equestrian Federation National Championship.  She was one of a four-member team representing the US at the World Singles Championships in Jarantow, Poland August 29-31, 2008, she placed highest of all US drivers in the individual competition, with a stunning cones run that garnered only 1.67 penalty points. 

Although her list of driving accomplishments is impressive, Robin also is known for her ability to help all drivers and riders, beginners through veterans, improve their skills.  Like all great teachers, she starts where the horse and rider or driver are, and helps them move to a higher level.  Robin is equally at home with riders and drivers, working with carriage drivers, dressage riders, Western riders, and eventers with ease.

2010 clinic dates for Robin Groves at Three G Farms are April 14-18, June 9-11, August 11-15 , and October 20-24. 

The clinics are a standard format:  eight 50-minute private lessons each day.   The fee for lessons with Robin is $80 for a 50-minute lesson.  Schedule early;  lessons with Robin fill quickly!  For questions or to reserve a place or a stall, please contact Mary Winter, mary@threegfarms.com,  515-450-1041.  Auditors are welcome, for a fee of $10 per day.

Combined Driving Events (CDEs) and their smaller cousins, Horse Driving Trials (HDTs) and Arena Driving Trials (ADTs) are considered the ultimate challenge for drivers and their horses. Like Three-Day Eventing, participants test their skills in three very different competitions: driven dressage, obstacles, and the marathon. As the number of CDE-type events in the area increases, drivers have many opportunities within driving distance to compete.

One way for newcomers to CDE competitions to learn about such events is to attend the CDE camp April 30-May 2, 2010, at Three G Farms in Ames. Friday each participant will have a 45-minute dressage lesson. The lesson, held in a 40 x 80 meter outdoor arena, will begin with the driver performing the appropriate dressage test (Training Test 4, 1994 or Preliminary Test 4, 1994). (American Driving Society members can download tests from the ADS website, www.americandrivingsociety.org. Non-ADS members contact Mary Winter for a copy of the test). Then the clinician will work with the turnout on individual elements of the test. The lesson will end with the driver and horse performing their test again.

Saturday camp participants will work in groups of 3 or 4 on cones in the morning. The clinician will explain principles in driving a cones course, and each participant will have an opportunity to drive a cones course several times to perfect their skills. Saturday afternoon participants will practice driving three different hazards under the watchful eye of the clinician. Different routes through each hazard will be tested and timed, so each participant can figure out which works best for his or her horse.

Sunday we put it all together with a Driving Trial that begins with each competitor performing their dressage test for a third time, for their final score of the weekend. Immediately after their dressage test, participants will drive the 10-pair cones course. After a short break for lunch, horse, driver, and navigator will drive the 2-kilometer marathon that includes two hazards. The event will be scored just like a CDE, so participants can gain experience with CDE scoring (which only a mathematician can really love!)

Our clinicians for the weekend will be Jada Neubauer of Midwest Driving Company (www.midwest-driving.com) for dressage and hazards, and Earl W. Morris of Three G Farms for cones.   Earl’s attention to both detail, angles, apexes, and sight lines in walking cones courses has led to two cones championships in 2007 (Sunrise Ridge and Cowboy Country), along with at least three other double clear cones runs. After walking the cones course as a group Saturday morning, he will help others learn his tricks.

Jada is developing a national reputation as a dynamite competitor, driving GS Thunderboy Henry (aka Hank) at the advanced level in Combined Driving Events. She is holding her own in the advanced dressage tests in competition, and she is helping other dressage competitors in central Iowa improve their performance, as well. Her smooth driving, coupled with a great navigator (her husband, Matt) and a fast pony have resulted in two prelim marathon championships in 2007, at Kansas City and Cowboy Country, the intermediate marathon championship at the 2008 Cowboy Country CDE, and 2009 preliminary marathon championships at the Hickory Knoll CDE and Cowboy Country, the latter driving Eleanor Eagly’s Azure Wind Sonata. In her first competition at the advanced level, at the Lexington CDE in October, 2009, she was fourth in the marathon, behind the three competitors who represented the United States at the World Pony Championships in 2009. 

Additional information is available in ADS Omnibus, January-June 2010, and on the ADS website, http://www.americandrivingsociety.org.

The annual schooling show at Three G Farms is scheduled for August 28-29, 2010. The arena classes (working pleasure and reinsmanship) will be held Saturday morning, August 28, beginning at 9:00 A.M. In the afternoon, there will be two different cones courses, pick your route and numbered cones, that can be driven by all participants more than once, so different routes can be tried and timed. Despooking items (large black silhouettes, a tarp, a bridge, hanging, swinging things, and a CD with loud noises in the indoor arena) will be available during the weekend. If you are planning to participate in one of the ADS-sanctioned pleasure shows that will take place in the month following our schooling show, this weekend would be an excellent tune-up for you and your horse(s). Especially if your pony has never been in an arena with other horses before. Ask me about taking my 4-year-old pony into her very first arena class at a Real Show (instead of a schooling show). We’re talking disaster here . . .

This year our schooling show judge will be Kathy Palmer. Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Kathy also will be offering individual lessons on Sunday for those interested. The fee for the schooling show is $25 per class or $75 for all classes. Despooking activities are $25 for the day, and a lesson with Kathy is $50. A weekend package, including a stall for your pony, is $150.

To participate in the schooling show, despooking clinic, and/or have a lesson with Kathy, please contact Mary Winter, mary@threegfarms.com, 515-450-1041, Earl W. Morris, 515-450-1046, earl@threegfarms.com, or Jada Neubauer, jadaneub@hotmail.com, 515-450-4820.  There is no preregistration, but we need to plan the schedule for classes and lessons.

Games Galore

Games Galore, to be held Saturday, October 16, 2010, is for people who love  the obstacle courses at pleasure shows and CDEs but hate polishing brass. It is also a great introduction to competitions for new horses and drivers. There will be six games:

Please contact Mary Winter, 515-450-1041, mary@threegfarms.com, Earl W. Morris, 515-450-1046,  earl@threegfarms.com, or Jada Neubauer, 515-450-4820, jadaneub@hotmail.com, with questions, or if you want to participate. Preregistration is not required, but we need to have some idea of how many will be attending