Please note:  horses and ponies coming to Three G Farms for an event, clinic, or competition are required to present a negative Coggins test that is less than one year old.  Health papers are only required for the Skunk River Driving Trial June 27-28

Skunk River Driving Trial

A Driving Trial (DT) is a shortened version of a Combined Driving Event (CDE). Like a CDE, the same horse and driver completing three different competitions:

    driven dressage, always performed first
    obstacles or cones, 15-20 pairs of numbered cones that the horse and driver negotiate within a specified time period without dislodging the ball on top of the cone.
    the marathon, 7-15 kilometers with natural or constructed mazes with lettered openings that the horse and driver need to go through in a specified order.

The difference between a DT and a CDE is that, in an DT, the marathon has only one section, Section E, the section with the hazards.

The SRDT is the only American Driving Society (ADS)-approved event of this kind in the state of Iowa. The event, sponsored by Best of Iowa in Traces Society (BITS), has eight different classes, training-level horses, ponies, multiples, and VSEs (Very Small Equines) and preliminary-level horses, ponies, multiples, and VSEs.

The seventh-annual Skunk River Driving Trial will be held June 27-28, 2009 at Three G Farms. Dressage will begin at 8:30 Saturday morning, June 27. Dressage tests for the event are Training Level Test 2, 1994, and Preliminary Test 2, 1994. Copies of the dressage tests can be downloaded from the ADS website, www.americandrivingsociety.org.

The cones course will consist of 15 pairs of cones, with 40 cm. clearance for training level and 35 cm. clearance for prelim competitors. Each competitor will drive the cones course immediately after driving his or her dressage test. The course walk for the marathon will take place around 3:00 on Saturday, after all competitors have driven the cones course.

The marathon course is approximately 6 km, with 7 hazards, one just for VSEs and one just for preliminary competitors. Training level competitors will drive gates A, B, and C; prelim competitors will drive gates A, B, C, and D.

Officials for the 2009 event are Mary Ruth Marks, Verona, Wisconsin, who will serve as Presiding Judge, and Keith Yutzy, Brenham, Texas, the Technical Delegate. Earl W. Morris is the Course Designer, Dr. Jenny Schutte, Iowa State University, is the event veterinarian, and Dr. Fred Oakley, Clear Lake, will serve as the on-site emergency medical person.

Additional information is available in ADS Omnibus, January-June 2009, and on the ADS website, www.americandrivingsociety.org.

Schooling Show and Despooking Clinic

The annual schooling show at Three G Farms is scheduled for August 22-23. 2009. The arena classes (working pleasure, reinsmanship, and designer reinsmanship) will be held Saturday morning, August 2, 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 . . .
 

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 with the schooling show judge (To Be Announced) is $50.  A weekend package, including a stall for your pony, is $160. 

To participate in the schooling show, despooking clinic, and/or have a lesson with the clincian, please contact Mary Winter, mary@threegfarms.com, 515-450-1041.  There is no preregistration, but we need to plan the schedule for classes and lessons. 

Games Galore

Games Galore, to be held October 17, 2009, 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:

Pick Your Route: 10 sets of unnumbered cones, in which the driver chooses his or her own route through each pair once and only once.

Numbered Cones: 10 pairs of cones that must be driven in order, 1-10.

Gambler's Choice: several obstacles with varying degrees of difficulty, each assigned a number of points. Drivers have 2 minutes to accumulate the highest number of points.

Marathon Pace: a marked course approximately 2 kilometers in length, with a target time for completing the course based on size of your critter. Every second over or under the target time is one penalty point. Lowest score wins.

Cone Weaving: 6 cones, set 20 feet apart. Driver drives through the course twice, once in each direction.

Double Jeopardy: 10 pairs of cones numbered 1-10. One driver drives the pairs in numerical order, then hands the reins to his or her passenger, who drives back through the cones in reverse numerical order.

The entry fee for each class is $10, or $50 for the whole day. A stall to park your pony while you are walking courses or eating lunch is available free; an overnight stalls is $30.

Please contact Mary (mary@threegfarms.com) with questions, or if you want to participate.