Katydid Combined Driving Event

The Katydid Combined Driving Event November 5-8, 2009 is located in Windsor, South Carolina, just east of Aiken, in the popular equestrian community of the eastern United States. The host, Katydid Farm is Katrina Becker's 280 acre private horse farm located just east of Aiken, in Windsor, South Carolina. Katydid Farm is managed by Jennifer Matheson and is the home base of Team Matheson driving team.

Watch the Video! USDF “S” Judge Charlotte Trentleman Wins Big at the 2009 Katydid Combined Driving Event

On the Scene 2009 - Katydid Combined Driving Event
Written by Mary Phelps Hathaway
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 07:04
Charlotte Trentleman and Final Deal Win Intermediate Pony Division Charlotte Trentleman from Anthony Florida competed with her Haflinger mare, Final Deal a.k.a. "Mary", along with her husband, navigator and groom Chris, a real estate attorney in his other life. Trentleman who owns and operates Rebel Ridge Farm trains on a regular basis with Bill Lower is a large “S” Dressage judge has been driving since 1998.
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Watch the Video - Combined Driving Veteran Bill Long Wins Advanced Teams at the Katydid CDE

On the Scene 2009 - Katydid Combined Driving Event
Written by Tracey Higgins
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 04:59
Bill Long wins Advanced Teams at the Katydid CDE Bill Long of Southern Pines, NC is one of the true veterans in the sport of Combined Driving and as one, who evolved with the sport, is still in the game. At the Katydid CDE, experience showed as he won the four-in-hand advanced division, a qualifier for the Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games with Jack Wetzel’s team of Gelderlanders, clocking the best times in cross country by guiding the team which have been used for the diminutive sport of coaching. Long began driving in the 70s with his father’s Hackney horses and ponies and later moved on to racing Standardbred harness horses at the track.
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Katydid Combine Driving Event - Results & Winner’s Profiles

On the Scene 2009 - Katydid Combined Driving Event
Written by Tracey Higgins
Monday, 16 November 2009 12:53
Advanced Single Pony Sheri Dolan and Smoke smoked Cross Country at the Katydid CDE Sherri Dolan of Windsor, SC put down a nice lead in dressage on Thursday with a 49.79 from a mixed panel of International and US judges including Sarah Mullin (IRE) and Dr. Franz Vetter GER). She led the pack again with her mighty yet diminutive Shetland pony- Smoke- with a blazing marathon and despite coming third after cones, held onto first place. It looks as though Smoke won’t be going it alone for long as Sherri recently acquired a match for Smoke. At a recent Welsh show, fellow competitors Randi and Keady Cadwell, ran across the mirror image of Smoke- so, aptly named, we should be seeing Smoke and Mirrors out together in the pairs division in the future! Watch the Video of her Dressage Test Advanced Single Horse Kate Shields of Middleburg, VA is notorious for her skillfully executed dressage tests. With her homebred cob, Hastening Winslow, she had the best dressage score across all divisions and classes at Katydid with a 40.32. Winslow has just begun his Advanced career but he is doing it on the successful bloodlines of Kate’s prior champions. Kate is an avid foxhunter who also competes in eventing and her horses share her versatility. This time out, she and Winslow led all three sections to win her division by nearly 70 points! Advanced Horse Team Bill Long and Jack Wetzel on their victory round A disappointing score in dressage left long-time CDE veteran Bill Long near the bottom of the competition after dressage but Bill pulled out all the stops on the marathon with Jack Wetzell’s lovely team of black Gelderlanders. Jack’s horses are transitioning from a coaching career to make a bid for the World Equestrian Games to be held in Kentucky next year. Bill also won the cones section of his class keeping ahead of 2nd place Gavin Robson of Australia and neighbor Keady Cadwell of Southern Pines, NC with a 23 point lead. Bill commented “Anytime you can get under 100 points on marathon with a team- you had a good run!” See feature article and video! Intermediate Single Pony Charlotte Trentleman from Anthony Florida competed with her Haflinger mare, Final Deal a.k.a. "Mary", along with her husband, navigator and groom Chris, a real estate attorney in his other life. Trentleman who trains on a regular basis with Bill Lower is a Large S Dressage judge has been driving since 1998. Trentleman has had consistent success with her mare, finishig fourth at The Lexington CDE in October, and fifth at Live Oak in March. But at the Katydid CDE, , the pair had one of the few clean cones rounds of the day, holding the lead throughout the entire event. Intermediate Pair Pony The always cheerful and witty (no pun intended) Caroline Whittle, a UK transplant now residing in NC drove High Country Haflingers’ Lillie and Britton to win the dressage on Friday. Her marathon score bested many of the singles in her Division despite driving a pair of substantial ponies. A close second on cones didn’t hurt and she held on to the lead for the division win over second place Ray Mansur. Intermediate Pony Team Was swept from beginning to end by Eleanor Gallagher, a long time student of Bill Longs’ with her snappy four in hand of Welsh ponies. Her more than 50 point lead on marathon over 2nd place Heather Schneider gave her a breather as she negotiated the difficult cones phase. Eleanor also resides in Southern Pines, NC and she and her husband Tom are proud grandparents to Junior Driver Brianna Ek who placed second in the Single Pony class in the Intermediate division. Intermediate Single Horse Marcie Quist of Vass, NC with her hackney horse led the class in dressage with a 46.67 and held onto her blue despite a fifth on marathon and a one ball penalty in cones. Marcie is a licensed American Driving Society Technical Delegate and was accompanied her trustworthy navigator by Craig Kellog, also an ADS official and clinician. Intermediate Pair Horse The single competitor in the class was Rachel Nicely of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee. Rachel, drove a pair of Freisian/saddlebred cross horses, Ritza and Bella. Nicely who operates her family's Riverplains Farm near Knoxville, got what she came for, valuable experience at the Intermediate level with her head turning horses. Since having a baby last year, Nicely has been moving up the ranks with this talented pair and is looking forward to a competitive 2010. Preliminary Single Pony The largest class in the entire show watched as the International pony pairs driver Tracey Morgan of DE left the rest of the 13 competitors in the sandy dust. Tracey left her small pair of Dartmoors behind this time and turned up with a lovely single Morgan stallion belonging to a Jennifer Sims of Upperville, VA. After garnering the Best Preliminary Dressage award on Friday, she and navigator Kenny Cox took on some big guns on the marathon course in class competitors Sara Schmidt and Muffy Seaton- both with new ponies. The big class was highly competitive right through Sunday with four double clear cones rounds but Tracey remained victorious and finished on the only score in the double digits with a 92.69! Preliminary Pair Pony Boots Wright of Ocala, FL continued her winning ways in the Pairs division after competing for many years at the FEI level with a Four-in-hand of ponies. Taking the lead after dressage Boots with a score of 50 to Claire Reid’s 55, Boots took her time with a fourth place finish in marathon then posted a double clear in cones to win her class. Her ponies included Blunder a Welsh Section C cob imported from the UK, Miarcik a New Forest pony and Marico a German Riding Pony. A photograph of the Wright’s We Both Farms pair served as the cover of the Katydid program and in ads promoting the event this year. Preliminary Pony Tandem Driving a tandem is perhaps one of the most difficult of all of the driving configurations. Described as “pushing a rope” a tandem is a bit like half of a Four-in-hand. A wheeler is harnessed single style to the carriage while the leader is only connected to the wheeler and driver by a set of traces and reins. The leader has got to be trustworthy and solid in his training as the driver has very little control over him as compared to the wheeler. Tandems are very popular in the UK but rarely seen in a US CDE. Only three tandems took on the Katydid Tandem Challenge with Jennifer Matheson emerging with the low score lead over even the only horse tandem in the show. With the 2005 World Single Pony Champion stallion Danny Lou (imported from Germany) in the lead and Lisa Stroud’s Connemara, Spiderman, in the wheel, Jennifer had only two balls down as she nimbly snaked through the twisting course. Preliminary Single Horse The eyes of Texas were upon Bill Peacock’s Lone Star marathon turnout as he narrowly missed 1st in each phase of the competition yet finished with a win on the board. Bill hails from Bellville, TX and drives Batman a Friesian cross horse. Preliminary Pair Horse Preliminary Tandem Horse Each was won by their sole entries- Fred Deerborn of Danville, kentucky for the former and Joanie Schisler in the latter. Fred drives a pair of Morgan horses that he owns known as Yoder and Noah. Joanie is from neighboring Aiken, SC and drove Winston, an Arab cross and Churchill, a Morgan horse.

2009 Katydid Combined Driving Event Hosts Qualifier for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games

On the Scene 2009 - Katydid Combined Driving Event
Written by Tracey Higgins
Monday, 16 November 2009 12:21
Combined Driving ruled November 5-8 in Windsor, SC (population 100) just outside of Aiken at the Katydid Combined Driving Event, a qualifier for the Advanced four in hand teams for the 2010 Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games. In an area better known for its foxhunting with the Flat Branch Hounds, Windsor was alive with the clip clop of trotting horses and the squeak and rattle of carriages as the property of Katrina Becker and her generous neighbors hosted the Katydid CDE this past weekend.
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Watch The Slide Show - Katydid Combined Driving Event

On the Scene 2009 - Katydid Combined Driving Event
Written by Mary Phelps Hathaway
Monday, 09 November 2009 06:50

Watch the Video! Australian Four in Hand Driver Gavin Robson Aiming for 2010 Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games

On the Scene 2009 - Katydid Combined Driving Event
Written by Mary Phelps Hathaway
Saturday, 07 November 2009 08:41
In the lead after the dressage phase at the Katydid CDE in Windsor, South Carolina, Australian Gavin Robson driving Spring Lake Farm’s Dutch harness horses is one step closer to representing his country at the 2010 Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games. The Ohio based driver will not have to travel far, and has had the advantage of competing at the Kentucky Horse Park the past two years finishing 5th this year in a large field of four in hand WEG hopefuls. Fellow Aussie Boyd Exell based Leicester, Great Britain is the leading four in hand driver internationally in 2009 having won Aachen and FEI Driving World Cup Final, Gothenburg, Sweden. Robson’s dressage score topped a field of five entries with a score of 55.17 penalty points in front of international judges headed by Dr. Franz Vetter from Germany and head of the ground Jury. Second was Keady Cadwell who has been one of USA’s top pairs drivers, now driving a team.
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Watch the Video! Sheri Dolan and Her Shetland Pony Smoke in the Lead in the FEI Division at Katydid Combined Driving Event

On the Scene 2009 - Katydid Combined Driving Event
Written by Mary Phelps Hathaway
Friday, 06 November 2009 09:27
Sheri Dolan and Smoke Winners of the 2009 FEI Advanced Pony Driven Dressage at the Katydid CDE, Windsor, SC The premier fall driving event for the eastern United States in Windsor, South Carolina, began with the FEI Advanced Single Pony Division, on Thursday afternoon. Sheri Dolan and her Shetland pony Smoke, smoked the judges with a 49.79 penalty score putting the individual USA participant at the 2009 US World Pony Driving Championships well into the lead. Dolan and Smoke, who had to withdraw after the best USA cross country round at the Pony Driving Championships due to a minor injury, are in top form as they finish out a great year of competition. Follow the FEI Advanced Single Pony Dressage Test , as you watch the video of the winning ride.
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